Innocence

Of late, I have been praying for and longing for innocence. What is innocence? We tend to think of it as a privation: our thinking is backward. In court, innocence is lack of guilt or inadequate proof of guilt; in absolution, removal of sin, we Catholics are restored to a state we imagine as clean or blank; and in common discourse the word can indicate a lack of experience, practical knowledge or engagement with reality. This logic is inverted: it is innocence that is a positivity, a fullness, and a joy; and it is loss of innocence that is the privation or negation. Innocence is a quiet plenitude; a lightness in movement; an interior tranquility; an appreciative openness to the other; a spiritual freedom; an effortless generosity; a rest and relaxation from struggle; and a joy that is uncaused. Innocence comes to us as a gift from heaven; a gift heaven is eager to give to those of us who yearn for it.