This evening at Holy Thursday Mass, LilKsby spent most of the service sharing toys with the child in the pew in front of us. As I watched them interact by passing their toys back and forth, I thought to myself that these two children who are around pre-school age understand the true message of the Gospel more than 70% of people who call themselves Christians. They may not have understood the message in the readings about Passover or been able to relate to the sermon, but they do understand the importance of treating one another as you want to be treated and showing love towards other people. Reflecting on this, I feel like children get how to live by the Golden Rule, and adults are the ones who don’t remember how to do so.
What is my evidence for adults not remembering how live by the Golden Rule? There are so many things you could cite as examples from the things people say on social media and the Internet to the way people behave in public. Right now one of the biggest examples is all of the acts of government currently being carried out that openly discriminate against people. I cannot count how many pieces of legislation have been passed (even though some governors have attempted to use their veto power) that openly discriminate against members of the LGBTQ+ community so far in 2023. The passage of each one breaks my heart as I cannot wrap my brain around laws that hurt people. Likewise, today, my heart breaks and my mind is outraged for The Tennessee Three. They are being punished for standing up for what they believe to be necessary for protecting innocent lives. They are being unjustly compared to people who led riots that caused deaths even though all they did was peacefully protest. Two of the three are being further discriminated against because of their race. Again, it is 2023, and frankly, I believe that the people of this world can do better than that! I could go on and on with examples of adults who have forgotten how to live by the Golden Rule, but just thinking about it makes my blood pressure go up, and I’d like to sleep tonight.
So how do adults purposefully discriminating and children treating each other with kindness at Mass tie together? First of all, Jesus would have fallen into one of those categories that still gets discriminated against. So in some ways discriminating against someone because of the color of their skin is kind of like discriminating against Jesus himself. Think about that for a moment. Secondly, if you believe that Jesus came to save ALL people – the sinners who admit their sins and the sinners who think they are above sin – then you should believe that Jesus would want ALL people to treat one another with kindness and love. You should believe that Jesus would want you to share the toy with the person the next to you. There again, children get it, and some adults need to get it!
XOXO,
The Great Kasyby
The Great Kaysby 