Children as Blessings and Gifts (09.09.

2012)
Today at this Eucharist gathering we are going to encounter, in the true eyes of our faith that enlightens and opens our inner vision to the ever-presence glory and perpetual miracles of God, the God who comes now to heal the blindness and darkness that have beclouded our true vision as special individuals of God called to bring alone within us, that love of God that has given us our existence and freedom, to others in the true convictions of this love for us also. It is this love that knows no boundaries, no limitations, no excuses and complaint, that longs always for others, always penetrating patiently into the very hearts of others and bringing the best out of them, the love that finds itself rooted in the very fabrics of human freedom; this is the very love that is going to heal the blindness, darkness and coldness of our human life and rejuvenate us to accepting others as they are. This is the love God in, with and through Jesus is offering us at this Mass. _________________ A preacher went for a-hunting on one Sunday morning. According to his religion, he carried along his gun. He shot a dozen partridges. On his way to the fair, he got down the road a little further and spied a big, grizzly bear. The bear stood up in the middle of the road. The preacher took to his heels and ran for his dear life. He was so frightened as the bear approached closer. He climbed up to a tree, at this time the bear was really closed up. The preacher casted his eyes to the Lord in the sky and prayed: Oh Lord, did you not deliver Daniel from the lions den? Also brother Jonah from the belly of the whale, and when the three Hebrew children cried to you in the fiery furnace you sent an angel to save them. Oh Lord, please spare my life, but if you Lord cant help me, please, dont help that bear either. Being a working woman can be tough, but holding a job and having children is even tougher. There is a story about a mother with three boys who were playing cops and robbers in the back yard after dinner one summer evening. One of the boys shot his mother and yelled,, Bang, you are dead. She slumped to the ground and when she didnt get up right away, a neighbor ran over to see if she had been hurt in the fall. When the neighbor bent over, the overworked mother opened one eye and said, Shhh. Dont give me away. Its the only chance I get to rest.

Psalms 127: 3 Truly sons are a gift from the Lord, a blessing, the fruit of the womb. 4 Indeed the sons of youth are like arrows in the hand of a warrior. 5 O the happiness of the man who has filled his quiver with these arrows! He will have no cause for shame when he disputes with his foes in the gateways. The various instances Jesus talked about Children, he was always making reference to the Kingdom of God, of which he categorically made it known that unless we receive the Kingdom like little children, we will be denied of it. (cf. Matt 18:3, 19:14). The basic fact that could be drawn from the point of Jesus, like the Psalmist we just read, is that children are gifts and blessings of God bestowed on us to open our minds to the true principles of the Kingdom, to bring us to a constant experience of this Kingdom, making it always alive in us everyday. As Gifts, children are bestowed on us voluntarily and without compensation by the God who creates. I really dont think any woman ever make children. Women bear them and only give birth to what God has provided to them as gifts. No woman or man ever ask for this child or the other child, they only accept faithfully and graciously what God has provided, with the right intention of bringing out in these children, with unconditional and non-comparing love, the very human or persons God has made them to exist.

As blessings, children are great assistances with our work, most especially at home. Children properly taught can be a big help around the household as young as 6 or 7 years of age. And as they get older, their abilities multiply, making their help even more valuable. When we are old and less capable of doing for ourselves, our children can and should be a huge help in a great many ways (just as we should also be to our parents and grandparents). Sometimes just having a grown child who sometimes visits or calls or writes makes all the difference in the life of an elderly person. When one becomes old and feeble, ones children, grandchildren and great grandchildren may become the primary reason for continuing to live. As blessings, children promote or contribute to our happiness, well-being, or prosperity as parents and people. When we always open ourselves to the tenderness and innocence of the children and try to be less selfish but more focused and attentive to the inner lessons of life, children are also our great teachers to the true values of life we sometimes lost or neglect. They teach us most essentially the values of love, trust, self-sacrifice, discipline, self-control, gentleness, and patience. God can use children so effectively to mature us and help us to develop godly characters. What better classroom does God have to teach these things than a home with children to be raised? A contest was drawn to find out who is the most caring child. The winner was a four-year-old child whose next-door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentlemans house, climbed onto his lap and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, Nothing, I just helped him cry. This act of love and care was displayed by a little boy who had learnt it from home. Give your children the best of values in life, not only they would never forget them, but that these would bring them to their true persons.