This past year I have had the joy of being at Holy Cross Parish in South Bend. There’s something pretty special about being at a parish with a school, and I am filled with joy even in the simple act of greeting the kids everyday and seeing their smiles and eagerness. Their ability to be present to any moment (even for just a moment) is an amazing lesson in itself.
It’s also surprising what children will say, pick up on, or ask questions about. One of them recently asked if the pastor and I were best friends. I told the child that pretty much we were! There’s something genuine and pure about the way children see the world and relationships. This child could see that there was something special about the relationship between Fr. Jim Fenstermaker, C.S.C and I – we enjoyed being in each other’s company, we lived together, and often dressed the same. Children’s uncomplicated understanding of things often gets quickly to the truth of the matter.
Children also notice when you’re gone from a place. If I am ever away for a school Mass, that’s all that will be on their mind: “Where is Fr. Noah?” They have their routines and expectations and might not say anything when you’re there, but they’ll definitely remember if you’re away. Children remind those around them of the importance of being there for one another.
Finally, there’s something about the way a child trusts and believes in others that is pretty incredible. While I try to spend time with them, the reality is that I am not with them at every moment due to my other responsibilities. Still, whenever I see them, they treat me in a way that feels like I’m some kind of superstar. Honestly, I feel pretty undeserving of that, but it also inspires me to try to live up to who they see me to be.
A concrete example was a recent activity that one of the classes did with their teacher in the form of, “If Fr. Noah was not a priest he would be a….” The expectations they had for me were amazing. Some thought I would be a professional athlete, playing baseball, basketball, soccer or even being in the NFL. Some thought I might be a doctor helping people or animals feel better. Others thought I might be a teacher, a farmer, a firefighter, an actor, or an engineer. Still other kids thought I would be a superhero that could read or even change people’s minds, while one student thought that I would be a dinosaur if I was not a priest! The children had no limit to the things they thought I was capable of. Their belief encourages my own belief.
Likewise for themselves, because of the education and formation they have received in their homes and at school, they believe they can do anything. They haven’t yet placed the same sort of limits on themselves that teenagers or adults do.
While maturing to adulthood is a good thing, along with it oftentimes comes this loss of belief in others and one’s self and therein the loss of the ability to trust. All of these shifts, in one way or another, inevitably affect our relationship with God. While there are different childish things we ought to let go of as we learn more about the complexities of the world, there are still important lessons we can learn from children.
Children, without any inflated sense of themselves, can accept wholeheartedly that they are created good and in God’s image and that there is an all good and all loving God. It is easy to imagine that we know more than little children because we’ve lived and experienced so much in the world. But sometimes we are quick to forget the fundamental reality that children so easily grasp – that there is a God worth believing in who is deserving of all of our trust and love, because this same God has loved us into being. I pray we spend the rest of our lives striving to sincerely believe this truth and come to know the Triune God.
Fr. Noah Junge, C.S.C.
Published May 5, 2025
