The Guardians

Gospel: Matthew 18: 1-5, 10

Time and again Jesus sets before us the presence of children to serve as a model for the Christian life, and to warn us about having any harm come to these children in the form of any violence or scandal.  How are we doing on that score?  For all the talk we have about caring for children, the report card remains very poor in our actual results.  The violence and scandal that children experience in our world continues unabated in our day.

Some see in this Gospel passage some reference to abortion, and yet those who would make that claim have little concern for the exploitation of children for sex and labor profiteering.  They have little regard for the genocide of Gaza or sub-Saharan Africa where children are directly targets.  There is actual glee at deporting young children unaccompanied back to countries torn by violence, or keeping them in unsanitary cages indefinitely separated from their families.  

If we ourselves are not willing to be guardians and protectors of children, then today's feast has no meaning other than to shift our responsibility on to beings of another realm.  Today's reading and feast remind us that we are the first and primary guardians of children in our world, that Jesus has left us with this responsibility to them, and for all our talk about having an "adult faith", it is the faith of children, the faith in children, that is our model for Christian living.