Jesus Has No Secret Agenda

Homily for Saturday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

The Gospel text today is the endearing story of Jesus and the little children. The disciples were trying to keep the children away from Jesus by rebuking them or scolding them. At that point we read a word that is not often used to describe Jesus; we are told that he became indignant for separating him from the children. Why would the disciples do this in the first place?

Children, and by that we mean both girls and boys who have not yet reached puberty, lived in the section of the house that was reserved for the women. The men of the household lived together in another space with the boys who had been sent by their mothers as soon they had shown signs of entering puberty.

While it does not give us information about why the children are coming to Jesus, the very fact that they are doing it suggests that there might be something amiss. Indeed, children were often sent by the women to the men of the household to collect information. The children would go back to their mothers and tell them what the men were talking about and what the men were doing. They often acted as little spies and reported back to their mothers.

Men, therefore, were always on guard when children were in their midst. They did not want the children to carry tales back to their mothers. When the disciples see children gathering around Jesus, they react to their presence as they would have in their homes. However, Jesus becomes indignant and welcomes the little ones into his loving arms. This is as much a statement about the love that Jesus has for the children as it is a statement that he has no secrets that the children cannot report to their mothers. He speaks plainly and in public. Because he often speaks in parables, which even the adults have some trouble understanding, Jesus does not fear that the children can in some way disrupt his mission.

Then Jesus uses the opportunity to put forth yet another example of the desire to become great by becoming small, the desire to become the first by becoming the last. He tells them that unless they look at the kingdom of God through the eyes of a child whose heart is pure and who has had no experience to corrupt him or her, they will not be able to enter.

Jesus offers us the same embrace and the same warning. We must put our trust in Jesus who loves us all regardless of our sins.