Back when Jesus walked, children were definitely kept in their place, seen and not heard.
They did not get sweets and presents for their birthdays. (In the big scheme of things historical, birthday celebrations are relatively new.)
People in New Testament times were eager to welcome and rub elbows with people of high social status in order to raise their own status. Even the disciples were prone to this. (See here.)
So when Jesus embraced children against the protests of his disciples — when he said that one had to be like a powerless little child to enter the kingdom of God — he shocked people out of their socks.
He was always good at going for the shock effect.
This Guatemalan girl, who became congested and very ill with a 104-degree fever, was never properly treated before her release from custody in the ICE detention center in Dilly, TX. She died shortly after her release. This was before the current flu outbreak that has caused three deaths of children.
“The Gospel of life is at the heart of Jesus’ message.”
So wrote Pope John Paul II in a document in which he contrasted the Gospel of life with the world’s culture of death and destruction.
“And how can we fail to consider the violence against life done to millions of human beings, especially children [my italics for emphasis], who are forced into poverty, malnutrition and hunger because of an unjust distribution of resources between peoples and between social classes?
We are living in shocking times in America, a time when the leader of the free world (and “King of Israel”) seems to go out of his way every hour to spin our heads around with his shocking words and actions. Me, I’m still trying to get over the shock of something that happened in Donald J. Trump’s America a couple of weeks ago.
In these United States, where we supposedly cherish liberty and justice for all, it took a federal appeals court ruling to ensure that powerless children with brown skin have enough edible food, clean drinking water, sanitary bathrooms and sleeping conditions.
Not to mention soap and toothpaste.
Think about that, people (and especially you who are fine with Donald J. Trump and his treatment of powerless children and their families). It took a federal court order for vulnerable children — who now are being denied flu shots in the wake of three child deaths from the flu — to be treated as Jesus would have them treated.
Jesus was always on the side of life and that which gives life. He was a life giver, a carpenter-turned-construction worker for life.
Denying children soap and toothpaste and reasonably healthy food and clean water runs counter to what Pope John Paul II said was at the heart of Jesus’ message.
And meanwhile, oh by the way, millions of impressionable American children are being brainwashed into believing that owning weapons made for war, and not for sport or even for protection, is a God-given right.
Whatever heart that America once had — an American nation that we’re constantly told was founded on Judeo-Christian values — is suffering from a near-fatal coronary attack.
I am praying every day that the nation I love will be able to repair her damaged heart back to good, holistic health.
Pray, and then put prayer into action in order to advance the kingdom on earth.
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