missing the children in you - sto nino B 2018

What intrigues me is the reason or reasons why the disciple rebuked the parents for bringing their children to Jesus.  It is never mentioned why, but let us make some good guesses.  First, probably because Jesus is too important to be bothered by children.  It was a very busy day and Jesus must have looked tired.  And so the disciples thought that he should not be bothered further.

Second, the disciples turned away the children probably because they did not see any need in the children to make them come to Jesus.  If that child was sick or possessed by a demon, I don’t think they would turn him or her away.  I think they themselves would bring the child to Jesus.  But they saw no need.  All the children were fine – they were not sick, they were not possessed, they were not sinners needing conversion.  The children were fine, at the very least there was no obvious reason to bring them to the attention of Jesus, so why bring them to Jesus?

I was searching the internet the whole afternoon trying to find out any scholarly work that would point out the reasons of the disciples to turn away the children from Jesus.  There was none and so I made these reasons up if only to explain why. 

More and more, people today abhor children.  Demographics say that last year for the first time in the history of Japan and of any country for that matter, more adult diapers were sold and used than infant diapers!  It’s a first in history.  In China with their one child policy then, it was 1.6 births per woman.  In the US it is 1.8 births per woman.  It is not enough to sustain the present population.  Luckily, they have immigration and so the population is sustained.  You need 2.1 births in order to sustain the present population.  In the Philippines we still have 2.95 births per woman, but it is going down fast.  Later we could become like Japan and Singapore, countries in the negative – meaning, that the number of the old and the dying are not replaced by babies .... which explains the diapers.

I was searching all these because I cannot understand why some people hate children.  I heard of a priest in my younger years who would stop the mass whenever he hears crying children in his church and he would drive them all out.  He is dead now.

I cannot believe why they have to drive them away.  In fact among the seminarians I really like the lower years better the older ones.  They are our children, our little kids and I think I will be more happy if they win the dramafest over their older brothers.  I remember the first year high school the year I became rector.  They were staying in front of my room for their study periods.  They were good kids and you feel they are all too eager to become priests.  They do their prayers there and though they always sung out of tune the prayers were always full throated and whole hearted.  And sometimes as they study I would secretly slip on their desks some chocolates and they would always smile at me and thank me profusely as if I just gave them the whole world.  And sometimes when I lose my temper because they were unruly and noisy they immediately behaved and they would give me that look on their faces that would always make me feel bad for being angry with them.  They were forgiving and I was also forgiving towards them and I did not have to work hard in order to make them more obedient and respectful, to keep them in line, and even to fascinate them and hold them in awe of the priesthood.  Cellphones were not really an issue then – if they were not allowed then they were not allowed – no fuss, no deceit, no fabricated reasons, no lies. 

Now as you grow older the innocence is lost, the thankfulness is forgotten, the vocation is even missing in most. 

I really missed the children in you.  I already missed the children in you.  How I wish you were still the little children you were years back.