Let me share some history. I have served in eight parishes that had a Catholic school. Many times, the principal of the school would be asking me to celebrate a Children’s’ Mass on the First Friday of the month.
Each class would file into church with the kindergarten kids sitting in the front pew followed by all the other classes. I would get the kids attention by asking the students to say these words in a whisper: “Wake Up Spinach!”
What would happen next was magical. Out of a box would pop up a puppet that was given to me as a gift. A silly looking green creature, who you might think was related to Kermit the Frog. However, together Spinach and I would tell our stories about Jesus. Our kindergarten kids were memorized and even the seventh and eighth graders in the back pews were curious.
Children need our help to learn that there is a God who loves them. How in the world can we expect them to grow up as strong people of faith in this morally confused, spiritually warped culture without the help of caring adults?
Notice when God became flesh, he came as a baby. He came as a child. He could have stepped out of the heavens in some big, bold spark-flying way, coming down the ladder with the keys to heaven. But Jesus came as a baby. And grown-up Jesus had a deep passion for kids. I mean, think about it, when he needed to feed 5000 people, who helped him out? The little boy with the picnic lunch with some bread and fish. When Jesus was in the middle of something, what quickly altered his schedule? A sick child or a child that folks thought had even died. Jesus stopped and he took care of children first.
Jesus teaches how valuable each child is. People bring children to Jesus, hoping he'll touch them. The disciples rebuke them and say, "Jesus is busy with the adults. He's got more important things to do." And Jesus says, "Whoa, whoa. If you want to be great, welcome a child.
Jesus even gives the kingdom of God to children. He says, "Let the little children come to me. The Kingdom of God belongs to them."
Children
are special to Jesus. Maybe because we have so much to learn from them. Maybe
because children speak the truth. The first graders were
discussing a picture of a family. One little boy in
the picture had a
different hair color than the other members. One of her students suggested
that he was adopted. A little
girl said, 'I know all about adoption, I was adopted.' 'What does it mean to be adopted?', asked
another child. 'It means', said the girl, 'that you grew in your mommy's heart
instead of her tummy!'
It just may be that the kingdom belongs to kids because they understand God better than we adults do. And Jesus blesses children. He takes the children in his arms. He lays his hands on them, and He blesses them. In fact, the only time in scripture that Jesus blesses someone is children. He wants what's best for each child right from the start. He wants them to have a solid foundation, not to have to wait till they're adults to try to figure things out.
Kids aren't an inconvenience. They deserve more than leftovers from their parents, from the church, and from the world. Consider the basic facts of how you and I develop as human beings. We're made in the image of God. Your moral and spiritual development begins at age 2. You begin learning right from wrong at age 2, and then you progress rapidly from there. By age 9, your moral foundation is set. By age 12, your spiritual identity is largely set. What you believe about God, largely in place.
In other words, at 12, the greatest predictor for who you will be, morally and spiritually as an adult, is set. What you create early on in the life of a child is the greatest determiner for how that child will behave as an adult. If you want to help shape the church and the world, the best thing you can do, the most important thing you can do is provide deep, robust spiritual experiences for children ages two through 12.
Let me suggest something based on my experience in the classroom teaching our kids about Jesus with the help of my friend Spinach. Introduce your children, your grandchildren, your neighborhood kids to Jesus. Shape, their values when they're young and you will change the world. If you don't do that, the odds are that we will spend the rest of our days doing repair work and damage control.
Let’s say you are Uncle Steve or Aunt Marie, Grandpa Ted or Grandma Rosalie and the kids have parents who refer to themselves as secular Catholics. They don't go to church. They have no relationship with the church. And they're not doing anything intentional to shape the spiritual life of their son or daughter. So, you simply take the kids to mass and spend part of your day to build a relationship with them. The real benefit will be the relationship that grows over time between you and this child, who discovers over time that you care and love them enough to inconvenience yourself, spending time in the car laughing with them, talking to them, listening to them, perhaps talking about God at MacDonald’s so that slowly you help build that foundation closer to Jesus.
In a way, you are planting seeds of faith in your little one that could ultimately impact their mom and dad’s relationship with Jesus and his church. If you do that, your niece, your nephew, your grandchild is in good hands. Their moral and spiritual foundation are being set in place very well. So, let me just ask you a simple question. How will you shape the faith of a child in your life?
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who have children and grandchildren who need to hear Jesus words of compassion and joy for they are his special treasure. By the way, if you remember sitting in a pew and listening to Spinach telling you a story about Jesus, drop me an email and tell me what you remember. Fr. Matt email address: drmattkawiak@gmail.com
