from certain things, most of us wouldn’t say that mere avoidance is the lifelong goal. Innocence has other dimensions, valid and beautiful as an untainted
nature is.
One place where the concept of innocence is expanded for us was when
some people asked the Lord who was greatest in the kingdom of heaven. The
Lord took a young child, set him in the midst of them and said, “Assuredly, I
say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by
no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)
It isn’t hard to see that the Lord’s urging is toward internal purity, the kind
of purity we see in little children. For adults, and even for children as they
grow, there can be great use in looking within at what’s going on with an eye
to work on what needs to be changed. It could also include the life-long goal
of living with less to hide, less that we are ashamed for others to see about us.
Our efforts to work in these directions, and to help children do so as well, will
result in more of this quality of innocence.
But there is another facet of innocence that is key. Children generally have
an openness to learning and being taught. Of course they can be stubborn and
self-centered at times, but more often than not they know they’re not the ones
in charge, and submit to the authority of the adults in their lives.
This willingness to follow those in charge, or openness to guidance, is
captured in a far-reaching definition of innocence given in the teachings of
the New Church. We learn that “innocence is a willingness to be led by the
Lord and not by ourselves.” (Heaven and Hell 280) The innocence of wisdom
– an adult version of innocence – is to freely submit ourselves to the Lord’s
leadership, just as children so often submit themselves to the leadership of
their parents. We learn further that this innocence or openness to the Lord is
“that essential human quality into which love and charity from the Lord can
enter.” (Arcana Coelestia 4797)
The goal in terms of education then, whether in the home or in a church
or school setting, is to support that openness and willingness to be led, to
guide young people to that “nothing to hide” state more and more often in
their lives, and to bring the Lord into the equation as often as possible. By
doing so, we are laying a vital foundation for them in terms of their willingness
to be led by the Lord – a willingness which allows the Lord to guide them by
means of conscience, to become loving, wise and useful human beings, to see
and honor the reality of the spiritual dimension of life, to live lives of success
and usefulness in this world and the next, and to experience greater joy within
their homes together with their families.
So we gather up all these teachings, and all these concepts about the use
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