Life is full of competition and wanting to be ‘the greatest’ is something that is part of our old self, our fallen self. EvenJesus disciples ‘had been arguing which of them was the
greatest’.
Now I am reading the story of St Therese of Lisieux’s life. She discovered that the way to greatness is the way ofspiritual childhood. This greatness is nothing like the
greatness the disciples were seeking. Her greatness was like the greatness revealed by Jesus through his suffering and death. Jesus places a little child before us – pure and
gentle to show us what He himself is like and in this way we can also see what our Father is like.
Wanting to be ‘the greatest’ is often promoted very early on in a child’s life but Jesus told the twelve ‘if anyone wants to be first he must make himself last of all and servant of all’. The way of spiritual childhood is in handing ourselves over to God just asJesus surrendered himself to his Father – and I need to do this over and over again each moment of every day.
A.S.
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