Today’s Gospel has 2 distinct parts. The 1st part deals with the sanctity of marriage; the 2nd part deals with the sanctity of children. I would like to share a reflection on the last part.
The last part of today’s Gospel deals with the fundamental question: How do we experience the Kingdom of God on this earth? Jesus uses his interaction with children to provide 2 answers to this question.
The 1st answer is provided when Jesus took the children “up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them. In the society and culture of Jesus’ time, children had no standing. The child was dismissed as a nuisance. The child was a nobody who belonged right at the bottom of the social ladder. That’s the reason for which the disciples reprimanded or sternly scolded the people who brought children to Jesus.
However, notice Jesus’ two-fold response. First, he was “indignant” towards his disciples. In other words, Jesus was angry because he deemed the behavior of the disciples to be unjust. Second, Jesus embraces and blesses the children.
What is the significance of these 2 actions? Jesus shows unconditional acceptance, welcome and love towards children. Jesus refuses to consider children as unimportant or inferior.
Fr. Albert Nolan is a Dominican priest from South Africa. He explains that Jesus is turning a carefully ordered society based on status and honor upside down. According to Jesus, the most insignificant persons or the least in society are the most important and the greatest. In touching and hugging children, Jesus is identifying completely with the powerless, the weak and the excluded.
How do we experience the Kingdom of God on this earth? The 1st answer is to follow Jesus’ example of love, compassion and tenderness. Jesus invites us to welcome and to respect every person since all human beings are created equal in dignity, worth and value. Particularly, like Jesus, we are to treat the sick, the vulnerable and the marginalized as people loved by God, not as people who are insignificant due to a lack of accomplishments, privilege or prestige.
Jesus makes it clear that focusing on human standards of success such as wealth, power, honor and pleasure can prevent us from experiencing the presence of the Kingdom of God. The key to entering the Kingdom of God here and now is our love, service and outreach to what Dr. Thomas Groome describes as the 3 “L’s”: the lost, the last and the least.
Let’s consider a specific example. On Thursday, September 30, our country had its first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. How are we to respond to this day as Catholics?
Let’s not forget that one of the purposes of this day is to honor children who never returned home. Therefore, as a bare minimum, we ought to be touched and personally concerned about the tragedies that occurred to a group of people who were considered to be at the bottom of the Canadian social ladder.
Jesus’ encounter with the children is telling us that, as a bare minimum, we ought to open our hearts and hands to reach out to our indigenous brothers and sisters who have suffered much and are continuing to suffer much due to societal injustice.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops held their plenary session last week. One of the outcomes of the Bishops’ meeting was a Statement of Apology for the abuses of the Residential School system in this country.
As the Statement of Apology makes clear, we will all be presented with a practical way of reaching out in the months to come. Our Canadian Bishops will be inviting us to participate in the process of solidarity, healing and reconciliation. I believe that our sense of Christian justice will demand that we participate in this process to the extent that we are able.
How do we experience the Kingdom of God on this earth? The 2nd answer is provided when Jesus says: “Truly, I tell you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it”. What Jesus is saying is that, unless we change our lives and become like little children, we will not enter the Kingdom of God.
What does it mean to be “child-like”? Jesus is not asking us to be childish or simple-minded. Rather, I would like to suggest that there are 3 qualities of a “child-like” mindset.
A child has an innocent trust in the big people, the parents / adults, in his / her life. A child believes that the adult will safeguard his / her health and well-being. The 1st quality is that to be child-like is to have an unwavering trust in someone greater.
Let’s consider a specific example. On Friday, October 1, the Church celebrated the feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. After a retreat that Therese made in 1896, just a year before her death, she described God’s love for us as a “Divine Furnace”. She wrote these words in her journal: “Jesus deigned to show me the road that leads to this Divine Furnace, and this road is the surrender of the little child who sleeps without fear in its Father’s arms”.
Each of us ought to ask these questions: On a scale of 1 to 10, how would I rate my belief and trust in God? To what extent do I surrender every detail of my life to God, like a little child asleep in its Father’s arms?
A child accepts his / her weaknesses and limitations. Consequently, a child relies on parents / adults for the necessities of life – food, shelter, transportation, safety, etc. The 2nd quality is that to be child-like is to accept vulnerability and, therefore, to rely totally upon someone greater.
St. Therese was diagnosed with terminal tuberculosis. Imagine being 24 years old and knowing that the end had come! What did she do? She placed her suffering, illness and disease into the hands of God. She turned all her pain over to God and to his care, confident that he was in charge and in control regardless of what the future would bring. Each of us ought to ask this question: On a scale of 1 to 10, how would I rate my dependence upon God?
A child realizes that the parent / adult knows more than the child does. It is for this reason that the child constantly peppers the parent / adult with questions or is always seeking explanations from the parent / adult. The 3rd quality is that to be child-like is to have an openness and eagerness to being taught by someone greater.
St. Therese had a great zeal for pleasing God in all things – no matter how small or menial. She wrote: “Holiness consists simply in doing God’s will, and being just what God wants us to be”. Each of us ought to ask this question: On a scale of 1 to 10, how would I rate my willingness to be taught by God and follow the direction for my life that he is showing me?
How do we experience the Kingdom of God on this earth? The 2nd answer to this question is to adopt a child-like mindset characterized by total self-surrender to God, total dependence upon God and total docility before God.
As our Eucharist continues, let us ask God for 2 gifts. First, may God give us the gift of responding in generous service to all those we meet, especially the lost, the least and the last. Second, may God give us the gift of child-like confidence in his providence and love. In this way, we will be able to experience the presence of the Kingdom of God in Sudbury in October 2021.
Amen.
Deacon Roland Muzzatti
October 2 – 3, 2021