25 May 2024 Mark 10:13-16
“Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” Mark 10:15
So, how exactly does a little child receive the kingdom of God?
To imagine that children are simply vessels of goodness, truth and charity, and so fly to Jesus and his message of salvation with innocent joy is the kind of claptrap typically dispensed by people who don’t spend very much time with children. St. Augustine was far nearer the mark when he wrote that if babies are innocent, it is not because they lack the will to do harm, but only the strength (Confessions, book 1, chapter 7). Children have no idea what is good for them, and are prone to tantrums to get what they want, no matter how bad it is for them. They will walk away from playgrounds with pedophiles who promise them puppies and donuts. Parents generally don’t let children decide what’s for dinner because parents know that a diet of ice cream and cupcakes is bad for them. Children also don’t generally decide whether they will go to school, because parents know that eight hours of YouTube Kids will turn young brains into tapioca. If children are loving, obedient, and teachable it is because they have been trained by parents who love them, and know what they are doing. Left to themselves, children eat mashed potatoes with strawberry ice cream, color each other’s faces with Sharpies, climb out open windows, and look for electrical outlets to stick forks into.
The children whom Jesus blessed in this story from Mark 10 did not come to Jesus by themselves. They were brought by their parents. When Jesus said, “Let the children come to me,” he was commending what the parents were doing, not what the children were doing.
Children receive the kingdom of God the same way everyone else does. Somebody brings them to Jesus.
It is often said that “children are the future of the Church.” This is false. Not that children are unimportant – they are very important. Not that training children in the way they should go is something that responsible people can neglect – we mustn’t. Not that today’s children aren’t the leaders of the future – of course they are. Who else could they be? But they are not the future of the Church, because the future of the Church is new believers. The future of the Church is people bringing other people to Jesus. That means, of course, parents evangelizing their children. It also means husbands evangelizing their wives, and sisters evangelizing their brothers. It means grandfathers taking granddaughters to Mass, and neighbors inviting other neighbors to parish picnics. It means all believers taking the oldest prayer in the Bible seriously: “These words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be an emblem between your eyes” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). There should never be a time when the Word of God is not on your mind, and not on your lips. The Word of God is the first thing that you know about yourself, and the first thing that others know about you when they meet you.
It was people like that who were bringing their children to Jesus, because children receive the kingdom of God the same way everyone else does. It is people like that who are the future of the Church.
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