Feb. 20, 2011: 7th Sunday Ordinary (A)

Children have fascinating ways of putting into words the world they see. The other day, a parishioner was telling me about what her four-year-old granddaughter asked her. The grand mother told her grand daughter that she needed prayers because she was going to have eye surgery. The little one assured her grandmother that she was going to pray for her. Then the little one turned and asked, "Which eye do I need to pray for?"  

Sometimes their honesty disarms us. On one of Art Linkletter's show, "Kids Say the Darndest Things," Art asked a boy what his daddy did for a living. So the following conversation ensued:

Boy: "My dad's a lawyer."
Art: Does he put people in jail?
Boy: "No, he's on the innocent side."
Art: I suppose you want to be a lawyer too.
Boy: "No, a cop, so I can put my daddy in jail."
Art: Why would you do a thing like that?
Boy: "He spanked me last night."


Sometimes children can help open adults' eyes to heaven. A parishioner whose husband had terminal cancer told me how her husband changed over the last 11-months of his life as he interacted with his two-year-old granddaughter.  Her husband, who was normally shy and reclusive, was not the talkative type who liked to express his thoughts and feelings. His reclusive tendencies became more pronounced as he faced the prospect of death. Then a bright star entered into his life. As his granddaughter learned how to talk, she would wake up and go up to her pawpaw who was lying in his bed and announce loudly, "Good morning, pawpaw! Are you sick? Do you have a boo-boo? Can I kiss it well?" Her pure and innocent love opened up her pawpaw's heart and helped him see the world through the wonder of a child's eyes. In turn, he began to open his heart to his daughter and his wife. His daughter said, "I feel like my dad made up in the past 11-months what he failed to do in decades of trying to be a loving father."


We heard in our First Reading, "Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy." We heard something similar from Jesus in our Gospel, "So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” After hearing these words,  did we wonder to ourselves, 'How can I be holy. Only God is holy?' For man by himself, attaining holiness is impossible. But with God, everything is possible. St. Paul instructed us today, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" The pawpaw with terminal cancer rediscovered, through a child whose pure love radiated from her little heart, the God who dwelled in his heart.  He rediscovered God who is kind and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in kindness. He experienced in a profound way God who did not deal with him according to his sins but was compassionate. The pawpaw rediscovered that he could also love as that little child did, for the Spirit of God dwelling in him overshadowed his shyness and reclusiveness. In a sense, the granddaughter taught him how to be holy by helping him encounter the God who desired him to be holy. Blessed Mother from Medjugorje pointed out to us how we can be holy through child-like humility. She said:

“Dear children! God wants to make you holy. Therefore, through me He is inviting you to complete surrender. Let holy mass be your life. Understand that the church is God's palace, the place in which I gather you and want to show you the way to God. Come and pray. Neither look at others nor slander them, but rather, let your life be a testimony on the way of holiness. Churches deserve respect and are set apart as holy because God, who became man, dwells in them day and night. Therefore, little children, believe and pray that the Father increase your faith, and then ask for whatever you need. I am with you and I am rejoicing because of you conversion and I am protecting you with my motherly mantle. Thank you for having responded to my call. ” (Our Lady of Medjugorje, April 25, 1988)