The WORD in other words (2018) by Fr John O’Mahony SVD – Divine Word Seminary, Tagaytay City
How do we look upon children? Our own, we love them or even easily reach out to children of our extended families, or our children’s friends and acquaintances.
But beyond these, are we happy with the situation of children in our society in general? What about the abused and abandoned children, and street children? The millions of refugees who find the doors to asylum and a possible better future being closed to them almost everywhere? The list goes on until we conclude that our world is indeed a very unhappy place for countless children.
And so we come back to Jesus in whose time children and their mothers had little or no say in society’s important affairs. There must have been something very attractive in the personality of Jesus when these mothers could feel so free to bring their children to him to be blessed.
How unusual such a thing was can be seen in the bossy and overly protective attitude of the disciples. They must have been surprised at Jesus’ reply. He made it clear that no one was to be excluded from his company. Indeed the more lowly the person was, the more treasured he or she would be in the kingdom of heaven.
Coming back once more to ourselves, we can ask how much this short little Gospel passage speaks to us. Beginning with the children, especially those beyond our own circle, do we hear the call of Jesus to welcome them into our hearts? And to open our hearts wider still to try to find room for all who are excluded, discriminated against and unloved.
There is no possibility of growing in love for Jesus if we cannot love those who are so special to him.
