Aug 8, 2010: 19th Sunday Ordinary (C)

We often think that as we get older what God asks of us gets more difficult to fulfill. So from our adult view, to be a child is ideal because he has no cares or responsibilities to worry about. This past weekend, I buried a premature baby at a cemetery, surrounded by his family. This tiny, less than a foot high boy fought bravely in an incubator over a month, watched over by his worried mom and dad. His parents stayed by his side sleepless for many weeks, only to watch him after a month to die in their arms.

As I drove to the grave site to do the burial service, I pondered about this question: when God creates our souls, when does He expect us to begin the mission that He gave us? Is it after we come to an age of reason--that is,  6 or 7 years old? Or, does it begin at the moment of our conception? We sometimes say, how does a little child know what he is expected of him? He need to be taught to know that, we say. This question is an interesting one. At the burial, we had a Baptist minister who shared a very comforting words to the family, saying that their baby boy was now in Heaven in Jesus' arm; in other words, as the gospel said this Sunday, "Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom...For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be." For that little baby soul, all he knows of is God who created him and the mom and dad to whom he was given to as a gift. Was he aware of his own parents, even though he was a tiny, premature baby whose brain is yet to be filled with knowledge of the outside world?

After hearing a parable about being vigilant servant waiting to open the door when his master arrives, Peter asked this question to Jesus, "Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?" We can expand this question a little further. Was this parable meant for even the littlest of ones and the oldest? And our Lord answers Peter by way of another parable. And the heart of the parable is, knowing and doing the Father's will--the true treasure that cannot be stolen.

Did that premature baby know anything about his mission and true treasures? Perhaps. Even when this little one was hooked up to all sorts of life-support machines and was in pain, he knew that there were loving gazes, touches, and words spoken about him by his parents, aunts and uncles, his grandparents, and his cousins. If all of us were given the same mission, to be God's love in action, then this tiny soul who is now in Our Lord's Kingdom still has the same mission--to love and to pray for his parents and family, just as they did for him while his short life here on earth.