(3 year old devoted son of Blessed Mother. A parishioner's grandson)
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This week a parishioner sent me a photo of her grandson taken out in her yard. Her grandson has a routine. When he's ready for a little outing outside, he gets on his motorized Lightning McQueen car in the backyard and drives it fast--approximately 1 mile per hour--to make a complete circle around the house. About half way around the house, he stops by the tree to say hello to a very important person. Underneath the tree is a 3-foot concrete statue of Blessed Mother. He gets out of his car, walks over to her, and gives her a big hug. He's been doing this since he was a year old. You can see him hugging her with all the love in the world. How many of your little ones do that? His grandmother's hope is that this little son of Blessed Mother will remember his Heavenly Mother even when he grows up. How many of us have that tender affection for Blessed Mother just like that 3-year old boy? How many of us have that tender affection for Our Lord Jesus? Where did those feelings go?
I wonder about that as I sit and listen to people in the confessional. They say, "Father, I went to Catholic school all my life, but I stopped believing and left the Church. But now I'm trying to change my life. I'm gonna come back to Church." They are bit surprised when I give them unusual penance for their confession. They expect me to give them long and difficult penances. They think since their sin was serious and heavy, they deserve equally heavy penance. Then I say to them, "I want you to spend 5 to 10 minutes in a quiet church or in your own room. Then I want you to close your eyes and imagine that you are back when you were 3 or 4 years old. And I want you to imagine that Blessed Mother is sitting in front of you in a easy chair. What does a Mama do when she sees a cute 3-or 4-year old son or daughter? She wants to pick them up and place them on her lap. Now imagine that Blessed Mother places you on her lap and gives you a tender, motherly hug. I want you to stay there with her for few minutes." At that point, I begin to hear sniffling or a sigh of relief.
What does repentance look like? Isn't it coming back our senses and realizing that by our own fault, we strayed far from the loving arms of the Heavenly Father? And part of repentance is sacrificing our own appetites, desires, and sinful habits; in other words, we stop acting like we're big kids who think we know it all and become like a 3-year old again, who listens and does what his mama tells him to do. In today's gospel when people asked Jesus, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” Jesus replied, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough." Our Lord will clarified this elsewhere when he placed a child in the middle of a crowd and said,
"Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Matt 18:2-4) That 3-year old who likes to hug Blessed Mother's statue knows a lot more about heaven than we do. For what is getting into heaven all about? It's about a desire to love and to be with the Heavenly Father for all eternity.
This week I celebrated a mass for a nursing home, and I asked those at the mass the following. "What was the one item that you had difficulty letting go when you had to come to the nursing home?" An elderly lady said her china cabinet. A man said his big screen TV. All the residents when they came to the nursing home could only bring what they could fit in a single trunk. They couldn't bring what was in their attic, living room, garage, and their storage facilities. If you brought a U-Haul full of stuff from home, you wont't be going pass through the narrow gate of your single room. If I told you now that you had to go to a nursing home, how many of your cherished things would you have to leave behind at storage facility? I reminded them that all of us would follow Jesus' footsteps when we die. All we will possess is the clothes we wear when we die just like Jesus. So Our Lord reminded us the Kingdom of God is within us. What did he mean by that? What is the Kingdom of God? More accurately, who is the Kingdom of God? Our Lord. When he said, "Take this all of you and eat it. This is my body which will be given up for you," we received and still receive the entire Kingdom of God in us. For what more could we ask? No thief can steal that. It takes a humble child to know the most important thing in life: to love and serve the Lord in this world and the next.
After the mass, I followed an elderly lady to her room to chat. I was anxious to see the treasures she brought from her home. She showed me her room and said, "This is all I own. And when I die, these are the only things left to give away." I saw framed photos of her deceased husband, her children, and her grandchildren. And on a long table were her most precious treasures. She had a 3-foot statue of Blessed Mother and a 2-foot statue of Sacred Heart of Jesus. Here I found a 90-year old woman in a nursing home who shares same treasure with a 3-year old. They both know that the Heavenly Treasure is knowing and loving Our Lord and Blessed Mother.
