Brothers and sisters,
I could not talk to you as spiritual people,
but as fleshly people, as infants in Christ.
I fed you milk, not solid food,
because you were unable to take it.
Indeed, you are still not able, even now,
for you are still of the flesh. (1 Cor 3:1-3a)
Perhaps nothing bugs a person more than being treated like a baby. Is that not one of the first complaints out of children’s mouths? “Quit treating me like a baby!”
When we say that, we are expressing the fact that we want to be seen as people who are more mature than we were previously. We want to be treated like “grown ups” — given more responsibility as well as given the ability to make more choices on our own.
Even now, in our adulthood, we do not like to be treated as anything less than mature, responsible individuals. We loathe it when people talk down to us.
Can you imagine how the people in the Church of Corinth must have felt when Paul told them that they were “spiritual babes in arms”? They would have thought that they had arrived yet Paul was telling them that they haven’t even been given “solid food” yet because they were not ready for it.
There is a lot of truth to Paul’s statement.
We are all babes in arms, all the way from the newly baptized infant to the Holy Father, Pope Francis! We cannot be given all that God has to offer because God is, quite simply, too much for us. We, in our frail humanity, would not be able to handle the immensity of God.
That is something that the typical person does not want to hear. After all, who wants to hear, let alone admit to, the fact that we are frail, mortal, and limited?
A good, healthy dose of humility might be in order for us today so that we can take the baby steps that we need on our way to the Kingdom.
FAITH ACTION: Ask God to give you the opportunity to be more humble today.