Table of Contents

Let the children come to me

(Mk 10:14)

          Joel is now 19 years old. Like many other young adults, he should have been a student in college with lofty dreams about the future. But instead, like an infant, he spends most of his time just lying down on his bed except in the early morning and late afternoon when his nursemaid would bring him out into the garden for a walk. Joel has been mute, deaf and blind since birth, a victim of German measles or rubella. He has tetralogy of fallot, a congenital heart defect, and suffers from autism, a mental and emotional disorder resulting from the brain damage caused by the rubella virus when he was still in the womb.

          When he was still a baby, his muscles were so weak and underdeveloped that he could not even lift up his head. In order for him to develop the ability to walk, hold his head vertically and use his arms, he had to undergo daily physical therapy for many years. He attended a special school for the multi-handicapped but had to stop after several years because of his autism. When he gets bored, irritated or too happy and excited, he will start flinging his arms and legs and hitting his head on the walls and floor. Accordingly, he has to have a very regular schedule, with as little disruption or changes as possible.

          Heart specialists, eye and ear specialists, neurologists and child psychiatrists have examined Joel. He has had two major heart surgeries and one eye surgery. Yet he remains autistic, weak and thin due to a still defective heart, deaf, mute and blind. His cardiologist has advised against a third heart surgery that could traumatize him while providing only marginal improvement.

          Joel is the third of our five children. His heart condition and autism prevent us from bringing him to Jakarta. He will surely not be able to endure the plane trip. Besides, he has access to better medical care in Manila. So with a full-time nursemaid, he lives with our eldest son, Joubert, in our house in Quezon City.

          During our family prayer time, Jean and I, and our other children, would always lift up Joel to the Lord. Jean and I have spent countless hours and many nights talking about Joel and what to do with him. Many times Jean would end up crying when our discussion lead as usual to a blank wall, when we end up not really knowing what more or what else to do to help Joel.

          Our consolation is that while Joel is now 19 years old, he has really remained just a little child who, after baptism, has been kept spiritually pure in the eyes of God. We are therefore thankful to God for having given our family an angel; a son whom we are sure will be among the saints in heaven when he leaves this earth. Yet we feel sorry that Joel has not been able to see the beauty of God’s creation, hear the wonderful sounds of God’s creatures, and utter shouts of praise and thanksgiving to God.

          Indeed we feel sorry for Joel. And yet when we reflect on what is really important in life, when we contemplate on our real purpose for being, we become aware that Joel has received a very special grace from God, for his salvation has been assured. He is sure to receive the most important treasure of all: eternal life with God in His heavenly kingdom. In fact, it is the only thing that really matters.

          Whenever Jean and I ponder on this, we are led to pray for God’s special grace to help us become like children before Him, for as all the Synoptic gospels tell us, “the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Mk 10:14, Mt 19:14, Lk 18:16). Our reflection evokes the psalmist’s prayer: Lord, my heart is not proud; nor are my eyes haughty. I do not busy myself with great matters, with things too sublime for me. Rather, I have stilled my soul, hushed it like a weaned child. Like a weaned child on its mother’s lap, so is my soul within me (Ps 131:1-2). And we then picture Joel, with his soul, though presently imprisoned in a body devastated by the rubella virus, resting like a child on the lap of Jesus.

          The Gospel of Mark reports the only instance when Jesus became indignant. This was when his disciples were preventing the children from coming to him: People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them (Mk 10:13-16).

          In my reflection on this pericope, I see two messages. First, Jesus commands us: Let little children come to me; do not stop them. The mothers were bringing their children to Jesus but the disciples were preventing them. In our world today, it is paradoxical that the mothers themselves are the ones preventing their children from knowing Jesus. With full consent of their mothers, we stop children from being born, thus preventing them from ever receiving Jesus in the Holy Eucharist or ever experiencing Jesus’ presence as Emmanuel, God-with-us.

          Mother Teresa, in her book One Heart Full of Love, writes: An incredible poverty exists today. Unborn children are aborted because they are unwanted. Children die in their mother’s wombs because they are unwanted. A nation that allows abortion is a very poor one. A mother who is capable of killing her own child only because she is afraid of having another one is poor indeed! She is afraid of feeding one more child and educating one more child. She prefers to have another television set or an automobile instead. A child condemned to death for that!

          She continues: I think that abortion is the greatest destroyer of peace today precisely because it is war. It is killing. It is a deliberate and calculated murder carried out with the mother’s collaboration. … There is simply no greater destroyer of peace in our day. If a mother can kill her own child, what is the difference with my killing you or your killing me? There isn’t any. In India and everywhere else, this is my fervent plea. Let’s save the children.

          The second message is that the kingdom of God is both a gift (“receive the kingdom of God as a little child”) and a place into which one may enter. But before we can enter the kingdom and partake of its blessings, we must first be willing to receive it as a gift. And we must receive it with the simplicity of a child.

          In Christian communities there are always a few who feel and act as if they have already reached a high level of holiness that they tend to look down on the spirituality of others. Like the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, they display spiritual arrogance. They would criticize the service of others while boasting about their own. My brothers and sisters, you should not fall into this trap of the evil one. Instead you should constantly strive to live out the words of St. Peter to, “like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation” (1 Pt 2:2).

          But becoming like children before God is not the same as being childish. St. Paul tells us: Brothers, stop being childish in your thinking. In respect of evil be like infants, but in your thinking be mature (1 Cor 14:20).

          What Jesus calls us to is, like children, to come to a more profound realization of our own helplessness. Our positive acceptance of helplessness and humble acknowledgment of God’s infinite power will draw us close to experiencing the kingdom of God in our hearts. God’s kingdom is for those who have no pretensions to superiority. Like children, they recognize that it is a gift freely given.

          Jesus’ indignation at the conduct of His disciples, His strong command (“let the children come to me, do not prevent them”) and His emphatic statement (“truly I tell you”) impart a very strong signal about the seriousness of His message. We should therefore take this message to heart and approach God with the spontaneity, spirit of dependence and sense of wonderment of a little child. And then we can come to Jesus as He says, “Let the children come to me.”

    Table of Contents