The Reason Behind "A Child Shall Lead Them." Thoughts for the 46th Anniversary of Roe V Wade

         Have you ever heard someone say something that was completely unexpected, totally out of the ordinary that in some ways it served as a mental knockout?  Sure, when you are listening to what that person has to say you might feel uncomfortable, fidgety, uneasy and ready to gun it for the exits.  But after that person is done talking, the bigger man or woman inside of you sits back, lets out a deep exhale and utters “Finally! Someone said it!”  

            For years many good and faithful Catholics have grown tired of the sugarcoated preaching, ministry and down-right boring homiletics. Now, I am not saying that every homily I have ever heard in my life is pathetic.  Nor am I saying that men and women of good intention who take on ministries sugarcoat and water down everything.  I have heard many good homilies from numerous fine, devout and humble priests.  Many men and women I know who are in ministry do not sugarcoat anything, they call a spade a spade.  Sadly, this dynamic Catholicism, (which is the true version of Catholicism) has been very much hit or miss since the 1950s.  

            When we hear a good homily, its like an Oasis in the midst of the Sahara Desert.  A couple weeks before Christmas this past year, a young and courageous priest took the opportunity to speak about society’s distaste for children.  No, this was not an abortion homily.  He mentioned how we, as culture, ignore the most vulnerable among us, children.  He went on state that this not only happens due to abortion, but through contraception, pornography, living together before marriage, choosing pleasure over children and becoming pet parents instead of real parents.  

            His homily is so fitting because, in America we are now in the midst of a demographic crisis.  Recent census data has found that America is well below the replacement rate.[i]  Choosing pleasure over parenthood and selfishness over selfless love has dire consequences, the annihilation of a nation is among them.  However, for as much as society shares its distaste for children, along with the shameful silence of the Church, one thing that is rarely hit on is the great lessons children can teach the rest of us.  

            Yes, I know Christmas was a month  ago and “we are back in the swing of things.”  But one verse we hear during Christmastime is “A child shall lead them.”  Of course this refers to Christ’s Public Ministry, Death and Resurrection.  But I would ask you to take a moment and really think about this verse.  Why did the authors of scripture write “A child shall lead them” and not “The Messiah shall lead them”?  Christ could have come down from heaven in a blaze of glory announcing who he was to everyone.  Instead, he came to us through Our Lady, as a child.....as a defenseless baby.  Allow me to say this again, He, Jesus Christ, the Lord and Master of the Universe, came to us as a baby.  He did not come to condemn us, to judge or shame us.  His entry as a child speaks to the merciful love of the Father, that the Father's heart is mercy and tender love for everyone of us.  But there is more to this verse in scripture!  

            Part of me believes he came as a child, to remind us of the childlike qualities society has thrown out the window, qualities all of us are called to embody if we are to inherit eternal life: Innocence and Trust.  No one exemplifies these better than children.      

Innocence and Trust

            Contemporary culture would have us believe that innocence equates to an embarrassing lack of life (mostly sexual) experience, naivete, prudishness and foolishness.  Society berates men and women who try to protect innocence, labeling them as out of date, out of touch with real life, homophobes and worst of all "helicopter parents."  Innocence, surprisingly, has nothing to do with being a prude, homophobe, naïve, or a helicopter parent.  Innocence, according to the Oxford English Dictionary means “freedom from corruption, guilt, defilement, chastity and purity.”[ii]  It means that far from denying reality, we are meant to acknowledge the evil that exists among us, but we are meant to remain detached from it.  Not only are we meant to remain detatched from all evil, but we are meant to be free from it.  To detatch yourself from something is one thing.  Detatchment still seems to infer an interior longing for something, whether it is good or evil.  Freedom means your heart longs for the good, true and beautiful; only those qualities, nothing else!  

            Children exemplify this freedom of innocence.  A child, most especially a baby and toddler look for love, affirmation, goodness, truth and beauty.  They are born free from evil, save from the inheritance of Original Sin.  They know nothing but the good.  When you and I were children we longed for nothing but what was pure and beautiful.  In a word, we craved love.    

            Children also exemplify what it means to trust. Trust means “bold, confident and sure security”[iii] we have in someone.  It means to literally put our life in the hands of someone else.  Look at every child and you will find one irrevocable fact, they place their lives in the hands of their parents.  They rely on their parents for…..everything, or else they die.  As time goes by, no matter how much society erodes the relationship between the parents and their child, this element of trust still remains because they know their parents care about them, love them and are there for them. 

Too Such As These……                        

            I often like to think that God gave us the beautiful Holiday of Christmas to bring all of us back to the childlike innocence and trust we tend to lose focus on throughout much of the year.  Amid the hustle and bustle of shopping, buying food, wrapping presents, spending time with relatives (for many of us it is more of a chore than we admit!) Christmas brings us back to what is important in life: God, family, friendships, love and self-giving.  The Christ Child leads us back to what is most important in our relationship to Our Father in Heaven, total and unlimited trust in Him, abandoning our lives; body, mind, heart and soul to Him, not so he can enslave us, but set us free from evil and bring us back to the innocent love our first parents in the Garden of Eden had for him.     

            As January 22nd rolls around, we are reminded of the devastating blow delivered to the United States through the infamous Roe V Wade decision.  The beautiful qualities children exemplify are gone to the tune of 60 million dead.  If we continue to snuff out life, we also lose the innocence and trust these chlildren could educate us on.  And we are seeing it within our culture: people are spiritually fractured, Churches are under attack, homosexuals, masons, and communists have entered the ranks of the clergy because we have chosen to turn a blind eye to the innocence and trust the Christ Child exemplifies for us.  Every child is a reflection of the innocence and trust Christ bore all his earthly and yes, heavenly life.  

            I encourage you to join me and make 2019 a year where we recover that trust in the Heavenly Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and through that trust, may they restore the innocence evil has robbed us of.  May whatever evil has taken from us, be given back to us 100 times over in this New Year so our innocence and trust may inspire others.  May our example remind them of the example a child can give so all life may be welcomed and rejoiced over, just as Christ was over 2000 years ago.  May those wounded by the culture, Roe V Wade and the Sexual Revolution experience a profound restoration of what was lost and may their trust in God once again be bridged by the Son, through the Immaculate hands of his Mother.  

            For it is such as these, the childlike, who entrust their lives to Him and strive for purity of heart and soul, who inherit the Kingdom to Come. (Matt 19:14)

            God be with you in 2019 and may Our Lady always watch over you! 

[i]Chappel, Bill.  May 17, 2018. U.S. Births Dip To 30 year Low.  Fertility Rates Sink Further Below Replacement Levels.  https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/17/611898421/u-s-births-falls-to-30-year-low-sending-fertility-rate-to-a-record-low

[ii]https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/innocence

[iii]https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/trust