Newspaper Page Text
December 20,1979
PAGE 5
The Child
BY EUGENE S. GEISSLER
One of our older daughters, with her
three children, has just visited us for a
month. She lives far away and she can’t
come very often, so she comes for a long
stay when she can. The three children are
six, four and one. It’s nice being
grandparents because the cares and duties
are all someone else’s, and the grandparents
have only to enjoy, enjoy. The children have
an uncanny sense of returning the
compliment. They also know how to enjoy,
enjoy their grandparents.
Might one say that children and
grandparents were made for each other? I
think so. Sometimes it doesn’t work out that
way, but all the possibilities are there for a
love affair. The grandparents have the time
and the wisdom and the money (it takes
very little), and the grandchild has the need
and the trust and the enthusiasm to go
places and to do things, as the saying goes.
Or to do nothing together, just so it is done
together with love. How is it that the child
does not see wrinkles or grey hair, and
doesn’t mind the slow pace? And he is so
trusting that every smile begets a smile.
Our children when young beguile us and
grandchildren in their turn beguile us a
second time. It is even more evident the
second time than the first that of such as
these is the kingdom of heaven. Those three
grandchildren are gone again, but they have
enriched my life. I feel younger. I look
forward to hanging around a while to see
them grow up. They have put new life into
me.
We all need the child for these very same
reasons: to be enriched, to feel young, to
have something to look forward to, to put
new life into us. We are enriched because the
child takes us beyond ourselves whether we
are young, middle aged or old. We feel
younger because the child tells us not to
take ourselves so seriously. We have
something to look forward to because the
child gives us hope. There really is such a
thing as a future. And the child puts new life
into us because he incarnates God’s plan for
us and our part in it. We aren’t the whole
cheese but neither are we nothing.
It is not difficult to see that every child
needs a brother and sister for a full young
life. It should be even more obvious that a
couple needs a child for their
self-development, self-fulfillment, and
hopefully their self-transcendence. How do
most couples get beyond selfishness if not
through their children? It is only a little less
subtle how old people need the child for the
rounding out of life. The child represents
God’s plan for a future. The child is God's
manifestation of his creative presence, of his
pro-life attitude. In the hands of such a God,
the old can rest secure in their own future.
There is a passage in the Bible where Paul
lists a number of evils and then says, “These
are not so much as to be mentioned among
you who become saints.” If he lived today
he would probably list abortion among those
evils. Why shouldn’t they be mentioned
among you? Maybe it is because mentioning
them makes them words, and words give
currency to ideas, and in time we become
used to the ideas. That’s where I think we
are with abortion today.
Who was the first to form the words
“unwanted child”? There is always
somebody who wants that child. The child
could hardly be more innocent. What
reasons are these valid enough to snuff out
innocent life? What has become of us in a
mere decade since six or seven men were
enough to make abortion legal? How could
such a thing happen without reference to all
the people? Or has the plan been all along to
let the people vote on it after they have
become used to the idea?
We all need the child to teach us how to
live and how to get to heaven. (In Jesus’ own
words: Unless you become like little
children you cannot enter the kingdom of
heaven.) Who else will teach us littleness,
purity of heart, trust, hope, dependence on
God?
Love Leads Us All
To Grow In His Image
BY WILLIAM E. MAY
One of the marvelous things about
marriage is that in it a man and a woman are
called upon and given the grace to grow
together in a life-giving love. In expressing
their love for each other,
they can also give love to children, persons
like themselves and summoned like
themselves to a life of loving friendship with
God. The love that husband and wife have
for each other, in fact, is the soil in which
new life is meant to take root and grow, to
develop its capacities, to learn how to live.
Parents have the vocation not only of
giving, in cooperation with God, the
precious gift of life to children, but also, as
WILLIAM E. MAY writes, “Parents
have the vocation not only of giving,
in cooperation with God, the precious
gift of life to children but also, as St.
Augustine said so well, of ‘nourishing
this life humanely and educating it
Christianly.’ Children are not toys or
pets, nor are they nuisances or pests.
Like their parents, they too are
persons with a need to reach out and
to touch others and be touched by
others.” (NC Photo by Jim Harris).
St. Augustine said so well, of “nourishing
this life humanely and educating it
Christianly.” Children are not toys or pets,
nor are they nuisances or pests. Like their
parents, they are persons with a need to
reach out and touch others and be touched
by others. God has equipped them with the
native ability to learn how to do this well,
for he has made them in his image and
likeness.
But in learning how to touch and be
touched, they need help. They can also be
terribly hurt and crippled. A major
responsibility parents have is to provide the
help their children need. They do this
chiefly by the way they “touch” each other
and “touch” their children, extending
themselves, with heart and mind, body and
soul, in acts of friendship.
The special, utterly unique and exclusive
kind of friendship that the parents are to
share with each other — marital friendship —
supports the special kind of friendship they
are to have for their children and that their
children are to have for them. They know
that friendship is demanding and
challenging, that it overcomes obstacles and
is meant to help the other in recognizing
shortcomings and growing to full stature.
Because we have true friendship, we are
ready to help one another in our struggle.
In being friends to their children, parents
are to help them grow. At first they help by
doing things for them, and throughout their
lives they are always ready to do things for
them when necessary. But, and this is most
important, from their parents children learn
how to do things for themselves. They
become capable of managing their own lives.
They grow up.
The parent-friend now is to rejoice that
the child is no longer a child, no longer
helpless. And the parent-friend must now let
go while still being in touch and ever ready
to reach out if help is needed.
Growing in the kind of love whereby we
have been and are loved by God never ends,
not even for parents. They, too, need help in
becoming fully the persons they are meant
to be: close friends of that greatest of all
friends, God. From their children they, too,
can learn how to grow. In giving friendship
to their children, they receive; in pardoning
their children, they are pardoned; in
reconciling their children to them, they are
reconciled to themselves; in ministering to
their needs, they come to a deeper awareness
of their own deepest needs, needs that can
only be met by our heavenly Father.
/ \
KNOW
YOUR FAITH
(All Articles On This Page Copyrighted 1979 By N.C. News Service)
V >
“CHILDREN AND GRANDPARENTS were made for
each other,” Eugene B. Geissler writes. “All the possibilities
are there for a “love affair.” How is it that the child does
not see the wrinkles or grey hair, and doesn’t mind the slow
pace? And he or she is so trusting that every smile begrets a
smile.” (NC Photo by Mimi Forsyth)
Our Loving Father
BY FATHER JOHN J. CASTELOT
One of the most familiar paintings in
Christian art is that which portrays Jesus
surrounded by little children, embracing
them, laying his hands on them in blessing.
The picture is based on a scene in all three
synoptics (Mark 10, 13-16; Matthew 19,
13-15; Luke 18,15-17).
“People were bringing their little children
to him to have him touch them, but the
disciples were scolding them for this” (Mark
10, 13). The disciples were probably
well-intentioned, but if the children didn’t
annoy Jesus, they did. And his reaction to
their self-importance was not just mild
annoyance. He “became indignant” (Mark
10, 14). He said to them: “Let the children
come to me and do no hinder them. It is to
just such as these that the kingdom of God
belongs. I assure you that whoever does not
accept the reign of God like a little child
shall not take part in it.” Then he embraced
them and blessed them, laying his hands on
them.
Why would the first Christians have
preserved this particular bit of tradition
about Jesus? Undoubtedly it is charming and
gives a heart-warming insight into his
gentleness, his love for children. But they
were not just fuzzy sentimentalists. They
had hard questions to answer, questions
about Jesus’ identity, his meaning in their
lives here and now, and the practical
implications of all that for their daily
conduct. One of those questions may well
have concerned the place of children in the
Christian community, a predominantly adult
community. This incident furnished an
answer.
But there is more to it than that. One of
Jesus’ main purposes was to reveal God to
the world in a unique way. He was, in his
humanity, the embodiment of the Father:
“And the word became flesh ... No one has
ever seen God. It is God the only Son, ever
at the Father’s side, who has revealed
him ... if you really knew me, you would
know my Father also ... Whoever has seen
me has seen the Father” (John 1,14,18; 14,
7, 9). Obviously the only way they “saw”
Jesus was in his humanity. As a man he
accomplished perfectly the intention of God
who created people in his image and likeness
(Genesis 1, 26-27). He was “the image of the
invisible God” (Colossians 1,15).
To be created in God’s image and likeness
is to be given a share in the creative love of
the loving Creator. To the extent that a
person loves creatively, unselfishly, to that
extent he carries out the divine intention.
Everything Jesus did on earth was a practical
manifestation of this creative love, a
concrete reflection of God.
There may have been those who preferred
another image of God, like that of a majestic
lawgiver, remote, aloof, even terrifying in his
supposedly vindictive punishment of those
who were unlucky enough to transgress his
law. But Jesus did not come to confirm
people in their concept of God; he came to
reveal God as only he knew him: as a loving
Father.
That is why the incident of his welcoming
and embracing the children is so profoundly
significant. It reflects God as a Father who
cares for, welcomes, enfolds even the
smallest of his creatures, even those
considered of no great account by people in
general. And this is so very important. It is
simply appalling to meet so many people
who go through life actually afraid of God.
Somehow, somewhere, they have been given
a viciously distorted image of God. For them
he is a stem, vindictive legislator and judge,
just waiting for them to slip so he can crush
them. They are terrified of him and the
slightest suggestion of “God-talk” upsets
them badly.
This points up a serious responsibility of
parents. They image forth God to their
children. If little ones are told that God is
their Father, they will automatically think
of the only father of whom they have any
real experience. The image they have of him
will shape their image of God, for better or
for worse.
When they hear that Mary is their
mother, the impression they have of their
own mother will color their impression of
Mary. How could it be otherwise for
impressionable minds and hearts? And when
parents “use” God to maintain discipline by
voicing such threatening reproof as “God
will get you for that,” then, for their
children, God becomes in the course of time
someone whose sole function is to “get
you.” This is almost blasphemous.
Like Jesus, good parents reveal in their
own persons God as he really is, a loving
God who cares and shelters and forgives.
And their children, in turn, image forth to
them the childlike dependence, faith, trust
and love which Jesus had in mind when he
said: “I assure you that whoever does not
accept the reign of God like a little child
shall not take part in it” (Mark 10,15).
Discussion Points And Questions
1. Why does the world need children? Discuss.
2. Discuss this thought in Eugene Geissler’s article, ‘The Child”:
“The child is God’s manifestation of his creative presence, of his
pro-life attitude. In the hands of such a God, the old can rest secure in
their own future.”
3. What was Paul’s reasoning when he listed a number of evils and
then said, “These are not so much as to be mentioned among you who
become saints? Do you agree that the words, “abortion” and
“unwanted child” might validly be added to this list today? Discuss.
4. Give your definition of the vocation of parenthood. Discuss this
vocation with a group of people.
5. How does the parents’ relationship affect the child? Discuss.
6. Discuss this statement from William E. May’s article, “Love Leads
Us all to Grow in His Image”: “From their parents, children learn how
to do things for themselves. They become capable of managing their
own lives.” . ~
7. Why would the first Christians have preserved the story of Jesus
and the children?
8. Discuss this statement from Father John J. Castelot’s article, “Our
Loving Father”: “To the extent that a person loves creatively,
unselfishly, to that extent he carries out the divine intention.”