CHILDREN OF GOD
We are called Children of God, and so we
are. As we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, this is the message we read
about in the first Letter of St. John. Children represent one of the Church's
greatest opportunities and one of Its greatest responsibilities. For one thing,
and perhaps more than ever, the Church needs to pray for parents. Sometimes it
can seem to be a pretty thankless job. The famous humorist Ogden Nash once
said, "Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them
something to ignore."
As a family of faith we all have
parental responsibilities. The church has a unique opportunity to assist people
at every stage in human life. The church is there to welcome the newborn into
his new world, and to share in the delight of the parents and family. The
church can be there at the end of life to bid farewell as someone steps into
God's eternity, and to share the grief and gratitude of loved ones. At times, we, as a faith community, can
stumble and fail to be church to everyone, which is the reality of our
humanness.
Where the church's children are
concerned, we all have parental responsibilities. We acknowledge this at the
baptism of a child, and try to at other times as well. When the Church is
church, It is family. When the family is family, we are responsible for each
other. Surely the healthiest way is to be open to all people in all walks of
life. With God's strength we can blend together.
In the New Testament the only two
references we have to the Child Jesus after His birth both involve the temple.
First, early in this chapter of Luke, the Infant Jesus is being taken to the
temple in Jerusalem to be offered to the Lord. The other is in the same
chapter, when Jesus is twelve years old. Does it bother you when you hear about
Jesus sounding a bit insensitive and even disrespectful towards His parents? He
had disappeared for three days and when His parents finally found Him in the
temple, Mary said, "'Son, why have You done this to us? Your father and I
have been looking for you with great anxiety.' And He said to them, 'Why were
you looking for Me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father's house'"
(Lk 2:48-49)?
This scene isn't about parent-child
relationships. It is about Jesus' growing in relationship to God. Its special
relevance for us today is to serve as a reminder that our children also belong
to God - even more than to us. When Mary and Joseph took their Baby to the
temple to be dedicated to God, it was not because this particular Child was to
be the Messiah. They were doing what devout Jewish parents had done for
generations, offering the Child's life back to the One from Whom He had truly
come, and to Whom He ultimately belonged. This is what every parent is supposed
to do. Give children their independence by helping them along their journey,
and turn to God for guidance. Can we, as parents and as a church family,
emulate Jesus' parents? We need to be aware that we have much of the same
responsibilities as Mary and Joseph.
First, we teach our children the right
things, don't we? In the same way that Jesus was taught about Scripture, and
how to live life in this world, we must follow on this same path. Still, as
important as teaching is, it is not the most important thing we as church do.
Some things must be taught, of course, but some things must be caught. I read
that by the age of four, a child has developed one-half of his or her total
mental capacity, and eighty percent by age eight. During these critical years,
more is caught by the child than what is taught to the child. This means that
children learn more from what we do and who we are than from what we say or
teach.
Once more, consider Jesus as a child.
Forget questions of divinity for the moment, and simply see Jesus as a child.
Two things we know from Luke's Gospel are that His birth was surrounded by warm
human blessings. Those who received Him into the world knew He was a gift from
God and handled Him lovingly and joyfully. Second, His childhood was shaped in
such a way that by age twelve He already had a sense of who He was in relation
to God. More than just being taught, surely He caught something across those
years that He came to actualize for Himself.
During this holy season, reflect on God
as a parent!