Ordinary Time 26 - The Beauty of Innocence

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 26

September 29, 2024

Innocence Regained

 

            One of the great scientists and geneticists of the last century, Dr. Har Khorana, was a renowned atheist. Having earned multiple doctorates and receiving the National Medal of Science, he came up with a number of arguments for why God does not exist, and was able to convince many of his colleagues that God was impossible. He was so certain of his atheism that he made up a sign to hang over his office door that read, “God is Nowhere.”

            One day, he picked up his young son from school and brought him to work. As they were walking towards his office, he asked his son what he learned in school, and the boy said, “I learned how to read sentences.” Delighted, the father stopped them at the door and pointed to his “God is Nowhere” sign and said, “All right, son, can you read that sign above my door?”

            The boy slowly read, “God…is…now…here.”

            Dr. Khorana began to feel his atheism crumble at his young son’s innocence – and he eventually came back to God.

            Innocence is often scorned in our culture, but it is a prerequisite for Heaven, as Our Lord tells us that only the “pure of heart shall see God.” Innocence is not naivete – being naïve is not knowing what the world offers, while innocence means that we know what the world offers but have chosen to reject the evil and choose the good. Innocence is a beautiful virtue that Christ extols in today’s Gospel, as He speaks about the necessity to protect the innocence of children and even to protect our own innocence by choosing to die rather than to sin.

            Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden, to that tragic beginning of the human race. God created the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and instructed us not to eat from it. Why is knowledge of good and evil such a bad thing? Because the Hebrew word we translate “knowledge” really means “experience” – it was the first time that Adam and Eve had tasted evil, experienced it from the inside out.

            There are many things that we don’t know unless we experience. It’s hard to describe something like eating wasabi or riding a roller coaster to someone who has never experienced it. But evil is something that we should know about – but not experience. For example, I can know that drugs are bad even without having tried them myself. And this was originally the case of Adam and Eve – they knew what evil was, and they knew to avoid it, but they had never experienced it – and their curiosity led to the downfall of the human race.

            Our Lord, then, is urging us to guard our innocence, and guard the innocence of those around us, particularly the young. I just want to mention a couple ways we can do that.

            First, to guard our own innocence, I recommend a couple things. First, curb our curiosity. Do we find ourselves constantly clicking on scandal-mongering clickbait, hungry for the latest dirt? Do we try to listen in on the office gossip, Google unhealthy things, or take delight in finding out about evil? Curiosity is good but must be tempered by the question, “Should I know this? Is this knowledge going to make me a better disciple of Christ?” Remember that curiosity killed the cat, and it can kill our soul too if we’re not careful with it!

            Second, the world is full of innocent good things – pursue them! I remember when Tim Tebow, the famous football quarterback, was at the height of his fame, a reporter was invited over his parents’ house for a family gathering to do an article on the quarterback. After the reporter did the interview and had lunch with the family (Tim was the youngest of five boys, and all of them were there), Tim turns to the reporter and says, “So, do you want to play hide-and-seek?” And the whole family – all young men in their ‘20s, plus a secular news reporter, start playing this kids’ game at their house. How awesome! There are so many great things to do that are innocent and pure – pursue these!

            Jesus also makes clear to His disciples that we are our brothers’ keeper, and must seek to guard their innocence as well, particularly if we have kids. How do we do that?

            First, help your kids get to know Jesus. Jesus and His Word is the filter through which we can understand and evaluate the world around us to understand what is good and healthy, and what will corrupt our souls.

            Second, we must be vigilant about who or what influences our young people. St. John Bosco said: Fly from bad companions as from the bite of a poisonous snake. If you keep good companions, I can assure you that you will one day rejoice with the blessed in Heaven; whereas if you keep with those who are bad, you will become bad yourself, and you will be in danger of losing your soul. We become our friends – good friends will make us holier!

            We also become the media we consume. Dear parents, I beg you – please do not allow your child unfiltered access to the internet! Not only does it risk their soul, it harms their ability to reason and is correlative to a whole host of mental illnesses. Give them a phone without internet access, put a filter on their computer, and monitor what music they listen to. This goes not just for kids – we need to do this for ourselves, too.

            In the news these days we see battles going on in certain states regarding banning books and other media from libraries and from children’s access. But it is not censorship to recognize that not every piece of knowledge needs to be known to all people at all times. Just like we don’t teach second-graders algebra, because their minds aren’t ready to receive it without confusion, so we don’t allow young people to encounter evil in books or movies when their souls aren’t formed to identify the evil in it. St. John Bosco put it best: Never read books that aren’t moral, even if these bad books are very well written from a literary point of view. Would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup?

            Finally, teach your kids critical thinking and communicate with them. Conversations at home ought to help form a worldview for your kids – a Christian worldview, with Christ at the center and everything else evaluated in light of Him. A Christian worldview, where we recognize that we have souls with an eternal, supernatural destiny, where we know that we are born into an epic mission of expanding the Kingdom of God to rule over our lives and the lives of our family and friends…this worldview helps us to judge everything we see in the light of eternity to see their true value or lack thereof, which help us live in innocence by choosing the good despite the myriad of evil options around us.

            As we begin to live from a greater purity, sin will lose its attraction to us. I am reminded of the story of St. Joseph of Cupertino, a simple Franciscan priest in Italy in the 1700s. He was so pure and humble that he didn’t know he was living a saintly life. One day, all of the Franciscans are in church, when Fr. Joseph seemed restless and agitated. He couldn’t sit still and looked sick. The abbot came over to him and asked, “Are you all right?” He replied, “Don’t you smell it? There is a horrendous smell in this church.” The abbot didn’t notice anything at all, but, concerned that perhaps it was mold or something decaying, he said, “Can you show me where it’s coming from?”

            Fr. Joseph got up and began to walk out of the church, and the abbot followed. They went down the street and came to a certain house, where Fr. Joseph began to gag and choke, the odor was so bad. He told the abbot that they needed to go into the house. They entered without knocking, and went up to the second floor, where they found a group of people seated around a table, reading spells and practicing witchcraft. Joseph took his walking stick and began thrashing it around, destroying their spellbooks and other accoutrements they were using for evil purposes. He could literally smell their sin because of the purity of his soul!

            There is nothing so beautiful as a soul unsullied by sin; innocent, pure, undefiled. We admire Mary’s pure and immaculate Heart, set apart for loving Jesus entirely. We shouldn’t just admire Mary’s innocence, but imitate that innocence – by helping ourselves, our kids, and our families to reject evil and choose the good!