Expert: Fr. Michael - 7/24/2006

Question
When jesus says "if you do not accept the kindom of heaven as or like a child you shall never enter it" is he talking about catholic christians as apposed to other interpretations come distortions of his words. is he saying a hindu child would not be of the same innocent and imaginitive and curious state as a christian raised child.
i would say that this statement refers to a sort of meditative state that stills the pathologies of the ego and that in turns gives revelation to the softness and comfort and the empathetic intuitions of the heart of the god the universe the all that is.
this is something you find more often than not in artistic people than officialy religious people and can not be contained by the adjectives before the word religion, such as christian, catholic, hindu ,muslim.
all those who label themselves with these faiths have proven time and time again to have the egotistical pathological disease of salvation anxiety and do all sorts of abberatted things to gain salvation and that can be as tame as not being their hearts,(so they get a steady job and don't cause any trouble normally speaking or it can be expressed in the behaviour of a terrorist bomber but the two are not dissimilar in ultimate reality). I don't think jesus was a good christian or a good catholic and i think these institutions would have a lot of trouble with him if the likes of him were born again. i don't think krshna was a hindu and i don't think mohamed was a muslim and all these institutions(the preisthoods) would kill them all over again. and i dont think jesus was talking about club christian children when he made this beautifull statement with walt whitlamesk poetic insight. dont you men who have the subtle ego trip of being gods messengers get just how aware you have to be before you can really do it and be it instead of acting it. the drunken vangough was closer to god realization than the pope(and he was a long way from home at that). i do stand to be corrected so please aspire to move me with your reply. love swami vedant adeha... robert brasher  

Answer
Apparently, you are referring to St. Matthew's Gospel (18:3):  "Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."  According to the Fathers, the metaphon is intended by Christ to stress the interior virtue of humility, which is characteristic of young children.  The context here does not have reference to exterior actions, such as those you describe.