What does it mean for us to be children of God?

We can be a child even when we are adults. Today’s saint – John Berchmans – convinces us of this.

When the spiritual-spiritual leader of the youth in a Jesuit college asked his students to write John’s faults, not a single note was found from the hundred boys that contained any flaw or imperfection of John. John had a pure soul. With his life, John was able to fulfill the words of the Lord Jesus from today’s Gospel:

“Let the little children and do not prevent them from coming to me, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 19:14-15).

We know that Jesus loved children very much. He was God and saw the innocence and purity of the children’s hearts. The heart of Jesus was always the heart of a child. He was still God and the Son of God the Father. We know that Jesus was like us in all things; by the body, man’s duties, and growth, but never by sin. He set an example for us to follow. The words: “Be holy” belong to us too! (Exodus 19:6). These words echo in many forms both in the Old and New Testaments. We hear them as the prophets interpret them and by Jesus himself.
It is an open challenge, an appeal for each of us. How we deal with it, accept it, and bring it to life is up to us. It will be for our glory or our shame. To cheer ourselves up for the positive, let’s take note of today’s saints. We would be very mistaken if any of us thought that John or Maximilian fell from heaven as saints.

John Berchmans, on the day of his vows in the Society of Jesus, wrote the words to his father: – Father, today your son died. I no longer live for the world. I have united myself with Christ by three vows, and I never want to lose this sweet bond. Never! Serve three holy masses for me at my intention at the place of pilgrimage. – John’s father, after the death of his wife and after taking care of John, also joined the Society of Jesus and became a priest. Ján had to work on himself. After all, he was human even after taking the vows. In the same way, he had to fight for his purity, mortification of his senses, and always emphasized love for his neighbor. That it was not easy for him, that he was not a finished saint, is also proven by his confession on his deathbed: – My most extraordinary repentance was communal life. – And yet we know how he died as a 22-year-old, still a novice. He kneels to his brothers, newcomers, and priests by his bed and asks for a blessing. Even then, Ján did not succumb to pride; on the contrary.

Maximilán Kolbe also shows us a similar example of a child.

He was a child of God not only in the courtyard of the Oswiecim death camp, whereas prisoner 16,670; instead of a fellow prisoner-father whose children are waiting at home, he also goes to the hunger bunker, that is, to death by starvation. As a person, boy, priest, and expert, he often reminds himself that he wants to be faithful to God and the Mother of God. Years of work on yourself and your sanctification are hidden from the world. No one but God can see into a person’s heart. A person brings graces into the treasury of the soul. When the soul is complete, it can draw from it appropriately. And Maximilian, when he goes to the hunger bunker instead of František Gajowniczko, prisoner 5,659, draws everything to get a reward from Jesus – eternal life. After 14 days, a carbolic injection ended his life, dying of hunger on August 14, 1941, at 12:50 p.m. His body was cremated so that no memory would remain of him. They destroyed the body, but the soul lives on.

God is eternal. Pure souls oppose God. God loves each of us with the pure heart of a child.

What a wonderful feeling it is to have a pure soul. To be a friend of the Lord Jesus. His brother or sister. To wait that he will take us in his arms, not just for a moment like the children of today’s Gospel, but that a state without end will open for us at the hour of death, a condition when we will be with Jesus forever when we see our God face to face. This thought is not a dream. That is the teaching of Christ. This is an encouragement and reassurance to a select group and to each of us. Jesus turns to each of us today with the question of whether we want to be his children, brothers, and sisters. What an incredible feeling of happiness it is when we can say “yes” in the purity of our hearts. This brings us even more to Jesus. This becomes something for us that cannot be compared to anything or anyone.

What do our closest people say about us? Are we their role model and example? And what can God say about us? What if this is our last chance, moment, and opportunity to prove to God that I want to be his son or daughter?! Amen.