It is Catechetical Sunday and the official kickoff of the catechetical season in the American Church—essentially Sunday school is back. This year’s theme is “Safeguarding the Dignity of Every Human Person.” I’m not sure it is because of my being from Miami, which has no true seasons, or being a teacher for the last nine years that has made me really fall for Fall. I love autumn. The crisp air, the damp mornings and evenings, all those school buses, for me it has symbolized the New Year with all its hope and excitements before champagne and Times Square. Maybe it is my October birthday that finds me particularly reflective during the start of football and pumpkin flavored everything. In today’s Gospel the beautiful image of our Lord Jesus with children makes us think of our own children, or may bring us back to images of where it began for us — when we were excited or dreaded the coming of the new academic year.
The arrival of children in our Gospel story isn’t random; the Apostles are being so human! They are arguing among themselves “who was the greatest?” I can imagine our Lord walking slightly ahead of them rolling His eyes as He overhears them. Perhaps He smiles at first, but when He just can’t take it anymore He lets them have it! Our Lord tells his beloved what true greatness is, explaining to them that essentialism of all Christian contradictions, namely, being first, is making yourself last.
True humility, living a thoughtful and conscience life requires us not to think little of ourselves, I know I certainly don’t feel that way, and something tells me St. Peter never did either, but true humility lies in thinking of ourselves as little. Christ knew these men were special, with great gifts and talents, large personalities and all too frail shortcomings. He wouldn’t have chosen them, and coincidentally us, if He thought little of us. But, it is important to know that we must know that we are little, we are just a small part in a drama lasting centuries. It reminds me of when Saint and Pope Leo the Great tells us, “Remember O Christian your dignity, remember Whose body of which you are a member.” (Sermon 21, 1.3). Dignity. That’s a great word; being confident without being proud is true humility. Being egotistical or, the opposite, beating ourselves up, is actually quite beneath our dignity—our worst selves. Jesus, being the best of all teachers, demonstrates this by using everyday examples. He sees a child.
The children in the Gospel story are the true teachers, and the Apostles, the students. Children in much of the ancient world were seen as non-citizens, quite literally property of their parents and other adults in their family. They were expected to do any and every menial job given. I can imagine the child being scared when this adult Jesus touched him — What work will I have to do for this man? — they may have thought. A scary image, and one not so foreign in these United States until the first half of the 20th century. Jesus, by welcoming the child, this symbol of innocence and simplicity, is also saying, this child, this person considered worthless by society, is truly the greatest. And why?
When someone asks me why did Jesus die for us, I tend to give a really long complicated response to what I see is a complicated question. If I asked one of our kindergarten students in the Academy why Jesus sacrificed himself for us, the answer, I venture, would tend to be some variant of “because He loves us.” It is that easy, and maybe it should be for all of us. “Out of the mouths of babes” (Matthew 21:16) indeed!
Having been accused and commended, (it depends on who’s describing me) as being the boy who never grew up, I’ve always loved this story, and hope to find myself being a little more childlike today. It is my prayer, at the beginning of fall to thank God for the teachers that can be a bit more like their students, the parents that are a little more like their children, and all those wonderful falling leaves. Enjoy the week.
I’ll be seeing you,
Elliot Guerra