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Gospel Reading for March 1, 2025 – Mark 10: 13-16
MIRRORS
People were bringing children to Jesus that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” Then he embraced the children and blessed them, placing his hands on them.
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A lot of us are like the disciples. We think that children should be given limited rights. We treat them as if they do not have a mind of their own such that they just have to wait to be told what and what not, to do. We think that children do not have a place where adults are, or if they are, should not understand what the adults are talking about. This kind of thinking has even caused a local language to decline. The local language was not passed on to children because it was used for speaking when the adults did not want the children to understand.
We think we know better than them. But, do we really? While we have become adulterated with pride, greed, dishonesty, disobedience, etc., children are pure of heart, humbly dependent on their adults, obedient and truthful. So, who is better?
In Luke 17: 2, Jesus said: “It is better for him if a millstone is hung around his neck and he is thrown into the sea, than that he may cause one of these little ones to sin.” Most of the time, when a child is misbehaving in public places, even inside the church during mass, the child is just displaying how he/she is allowed to behave at home. Children who curse, hear the adults around them curse. Children who are lacking in confidence are those who are always being compared with their better-achieving siblings and are often told they are dull when they are unable to do better in school. Worse nowadays, children are given gadgets to play games so they will not be a “nuisance” to their parents or the adults around them. The gadgets have taken the role of nursemaids and parents. The tragedy of this is that the “nuisance” will be lacking in social skills because they will not learn to communicate properly with others; they will be addicted to games and worse, games that incite violence that help shape violent behaviour; they will become short-tempered and cannot be disturbed because they always have to win; and so on and so forth.
Children are MIRRORS of the adults around them. If we look at the mirror and find ourselves ugly or with blemishes, instead of breaking the mirror, should we not just have to fix ourselves?
Lord Jesus, may we be like your mother Mary and your foster father, Joseph, who took very good care of you when you were a child!
