A Reflection for Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Find today’s readings here.
“The Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Mt 19:14)
To meet my high school graduation requirements, I had to complete a set number of community service hours. I spent my time in a kindergarten classroom at the Catholic elementary school I had once attended. At the time when I was a student there, my grandmother had been my fifth grade science teacher, but by the time I returned for senior service, she was the school’s principal.
Our drives to and from the school during those final weeks before my graduation are some of my favorite memories with my grandmother. From the minute we got into the car until we pulled into the driveway at home, we laughed and laughed about all of my stories from my day in kindergarten. The students were endlessly entertaining; as they learned to read, count and play well together, they managed to say some of the funniest and most charming things I have ever heard.
My favorite time of the day in kindergarten had to be when the class gathered on the rainbow rug for prayer time. Their exceedingly kind, patient and animated teacher gave each child a turn to share their prayer intentions as the rest of the class practiced their listening skills. Years later, I remember the kinds of things they prayed for with deep fondness (and a chuckle or two).
“Today I’m praying that my mom packed me a yummier lunch than she did yesterday.”
“I hope God is with me today at my little league game. I want to win!”
“I’d like to pray for my Uncle Peter. He’s bald. Maybe God will give him hair again if I pray hard enough.”
While I’m not banking on the fact that Uncle Peter miraculously grew a new head of hair, I think of these prayers—and more importantly, the children’s style of praying—to this day. Prayer for the kindergartners was often a stream of consciousness exercise; if they were hungry or tired or antsy to get to recess, you usually heard that in the intentions they shared with the class.
As we grow older, we start to filter out some of these thoughts and urges in our prayer. Maybe we decide that they’re not worth presenting to God, that there are more important and sophisticated ways to pray. But children tell God everything. They are unfiltered, open and honest.
When my grandmother and I got in the car each day, I told her about prayer time. We couldn’t help but smile—and remark out loud on just how special the perspective of these little ones was. A teenager on the brink of adulthood and a grandmother with decades of life experience learned something profound from five-year-olds about how to talk to God.
As today’s Gospel tells us, “the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” These funny ones, these honest ones, these decidedly not self-conscious ones. Adults can’t turn back the clock and become children again, but what can we reach back to from childhood that will bring us close to Jesus? Thankfully we have little ones in our midst who have something to teach us about the kingdom of heaven on earth.
