Last night, I had dinner with one of my cousins and her family. Her 8 year old daughter was with us in the restaurant as we scoured the menu for something that didn't have meat on what was a Friday of Lent (not as easy as you think). My little cousin wanted to have the sliders, which are excellent by the way, but her mother was hesitant because even though she was young and technically didn't have to abide to the abstaining from meat rule until she was 14, she still did not usually eat meat on Fridays. So my cousin looked at me as if I was the family arbiter in this dilemma, so I looked at her young daughter and simply asked her: "What's worse? Eating meat on Friday or treating someone bad?" Without hesitation she responded, "Treating someone bad." I turned to my cousin and said, "Let her eat her hamburger."
Children have a way of seeing past the rules and regulations that we govern ourselves with and getting to the heart of the matter. They have no guile, are still fool of innocence, and say the first thing that pops into their heads. No wonder they have favored status in our Lord's eyes. We spend our entire adult lives trying to recapture that innocence which leads us right into tomorrow's gospel and homily...stay tuned...
