Once while Bishop Sheen was saying Mass, a child in front kept making noises while he was preaching. After a few minutes the mother got up to take the child out of the church. Bishop Sheen told her, “That’s all right, your child is not bothering me.” In reply the mother said, “Yes, but you’re bothering him.”
Church ceremonies are events where everything is expected to be perfect. Choirs spend hours making sure they have the hymns down perfectly. The priest wears his ceremonial robes, all cleaned and pressed, and walks with solemn dignity down the aisle as all eyes are turned on him. The lector prepares the reading making sure she makes no mistakes. Amid the solemnity of the occasion, when a child begins to scream out, all eyes turn toward the child expecting the parents to quiet her down. Children don’t always follow the perfect routines that we adults create. They don’t fit neatly into our plans. Bishop Sheen was aware of this. His humor in such situations is what made him so lovable and approachable. If he loved noisy children, then he must love everyone.
Jesus used a child to help explain the attitude he was trying to develop in his disciples. They could learn more from children than children could learn from them (Mark 9:30-37).
“They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ But they remained silent. For they had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest.”
They were too embarrassed to admit to Jesus that they had been arguing about who was at the top of the power ladder. They were acting like little children in the worst sense of the word. Though they had spent much time with Jesus, they were still thinking in terms of power and prestige. Jesus caught them in the act.
“Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, ‘If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.’ Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me…”
Most rabbis would have asked parents to take children out of the room lest they be disturbed. Rabbi Jesus, however, loved little children, and in this case put his arms around the child. Suddenly the child, rather than the disciples, was the center of attention. As Jesus held the child, he gave them an object lesson about what holiness is really all about. It is not about having power or wearing fancy garments and adhering to ceremonial rules. It is about knowing who we are before our Father in heaven—little, lovable, and sometimes bratty children.
Jesus went so far as to say that the way we receive little children is the way we receive him. If we think we are so important that pesky little children are no more than a nuisance, then we are blocking Jesus out of our lives.
Self-importance is what made the devil fall. He couldn’t see himself as “little” in the eyes of God. Jesus didn’t want his disciples falling into the same trap.
No matter how powerful we are, rich we are, or important in the eyes of the world, we are little, struggling children in the eyes of God. When we are humble enough to realize this, we, like Jesus, will want to put our arms around little children. In doing this we allow Jesus to put his arms around us and draw us close to himself.
