Reflection for November 29
I recently became a “grown up.” I don’t know exactly when. I suppose
I could point to my 18th birthday, or maybe my 21st? Those are certainly important milestones. But this sense of “grown up-ishness" has to do with more than my right to vote or buy a drink. Something has changed inside of me.
I look at this photo and see complete joy, freedom. What happened to that girl? Don’t get me wrong, she’s had a good life....but, if I’m being completely honest, that little heart has hardened some.
We live in a hard world, after all. A world filled with hatred and violence. With disease and hunger. With confusion and disappointment and loss. As we grow older, we become more and more aware of these things. If not experiencing them firsthand, we witness them in the lives of our loved ones and on the news. And we learn to protect ourselves. We detach. We intellectualize. We expect the worst. We take up the armor of cynicism. We harden our hearts.
And yet, in today’s gospel, Jesus says that the Father has “hidden these things from the wise and the learned” and “revealed them to the childlike.”
I think that’s why I love working with our Youth Ministry here at Holy Family. Why I love being an older sister to three awesome boys. Children are the holders of God’s goodness and truth.
At Advent we often turn to the prophecy of Isaiah: “And the little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6). I pray that this Advent, we take that to heart. Let's allow the Christ child – and the young people in our lives – to soften our hearts and awaken the child within.
Caelie Flanagan
Holy Family Staff