Children and the Church
Whoever drives children out of church drives Christ out with them (Bishop Ibrahim – Palm Sunday homily)
Today is the feast of the Lord Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, fulfilling the prophecy: “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The crowd spread their garments and branches of trees on the road before him, crying: “Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!” This feast has also become the feast of children, so it is a day of joy, for childhood and sadness should never go together.
In the Gospel of Matins (Orthros) for this feast, we read in Matthew 21 that among the people in the Temple there were many boys (children) shouting like the adults: “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
Their parents had brought them up from Judea to the house of the Lord to offer sacrifices for them according to the Law. When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things he did, and the children crying out in the Temple, they and those with them were annoyed by the shouting – just like many chief priests, priests and people today who are annoyed by the presence of children in church.
They said to Jesus: “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus answered them: “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have prepared praise’?” Have you not read the Scriptures?
Jesus’ “yes” means: yes, I have heard; I hear, but you do not. “Yes! Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have prepared praise’?” (Psalm 8:2).
Those who questioned him were supposed to be the people who knew the Scriptures best. Jesus spoke and argued with them and silenced them with the words of their own Scripture and Law, which they preached. Jesus was telling them yes: I am the Son of David, the king of Jerusalem, and what these children are shouting is right. Jesus wanted to show them the special role God has given these children.
He has given them a natural, simple and deep faith, planted in their innocent being; a faith that sometimes surpasses that of adults who claim to know everything. “Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have prepared praise.”
Even those still nursing and in early childhood have been given by God the power to pray.
Elsewhere in Matthew’s Gospel we see the disciples arguing about “who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”. Jesus called a child to him and placed him in the middle of them (the place of children is in the middle of the community, in the middle of the Church, not in what English calls “cry rooms”), and said: “Truly I tell you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (spiritual growth is not only an upward movement but also a movement of lowering and humility; and children are giants of heaven by the measures of the Kingdom).
“Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me” (whoever drives children out of church drives Christ out with them, because Christ has identified himself with them). “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (and here we must also admit that the Church, church gatherings and activities may harbour people who cause scandal and exploit, so we must surround our children with attention, protection and care). “Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! Such things must come, but woe to the person by whom the stumbling block comes!
If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the hell of fire. See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father in heaven. For the Son of Man came to save the lost. What do you think?
If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.”
And in Luke’s Gospel, chapter 18, we see how the disciples themselves were annoyed by children: people were bringing even infants to him so that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him and said: “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” (A Church without children is like a cemetery in its silence and lifelessness.)
Together we must build a world, in the Church and in society, based on the respect and esteem Jesus had for children and young people. The world showed this desire when the United Nations General Assembly adopted an international Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Finally, I urge you as a father, brother and friend: do not replace your role as parents with an electronic game, an iPad or anything like it, because these machines have no heart, no embrace and no tenderness. Nothing can take your place in raising your children. A child who cannot play, sleep or eat, and so on, without the help of an iPad is a child gradually turning into a machine and losing his joy.
Let us ask God to give Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week, back to our children, and their special place every Sunday and every feast, so that our children may have the joy of seeing Christ, knowing him and loving him. Amen.
Bishop Ibrahim Ibrahim
