"Animated with love"

Last night at night prayer we introduced our two-year-old to the crown of thorns. Two-year-olds amaze me. Two years ago our daughter was only six days old, and now, now she's worried about Jesus. John showed our daughter the paper crown of thorns and explained to her about the "owie crown" and told her that it scratched Jesus head. Then he took our crucifix off the wall to show her that Jesus was wearing the owie crown on the cross. He then showed her the heart stickers we had on hand to use until we procured the flowers. The little lady got a very concerned look on her face and said, "Put happy sticker on Jesus head." We tried to get her to put it on the paper crown, but she was determined. Jesus had an owie on his head, and she was going to make it better with a happy sticker (our term for band aid). John tenderly placed the heart sticker on the cross. This still wasn't enough for my empathetic little girl.

The cross on our wall is a unity cross. It depicts Mary at the foot of Jesus collecting blood from his spear-pierce side into a chalice. Little one apparently thought that Mary was hurt, too. I tried to explain to her that only Jesus had the owie crown on. Silly me, so task oriented these days. John says, "Well, Mary's heart hurts because her son's head hurts. So let's put this sticker on her heart."

Unity cross

Who is to know if this is what she understood when she asked to put the sticker on Mary. Or if she thought that the whole cross had an owie. But how profound the thought was. Made even more profound to me that I was reminded of it in a simple exercise by a two-year-old. As a mother I can now understand a little bit what Mary must have been going through that day.  Even more so because I want to believe that my daughter did think that Mary's heart hurt, too. And that made me glad.

Later I was reading from Pope John Paul II's Familiaris Consortio (pick it up and work through it if you haven't already) on education. Specifically the section on "The Right and Duty of Parents Regarding Education" stood out to me. John Paul II quotes from the Second Vatican Council that

"[S]ince parents have conferred life on their children, they have a most solemn obligation to educate their offspring. Hence, parents must be acknowledged as the first and foremost educators of their children. Their role as educators is so decisive that scarcely anything can compensate for their failure in it. [ouch!] For it devolves on parents to create a family atmosphere so animated with love and reverence for God and others that a well-rounded personal and social development will be fostered among the children."--Declaration on Christian Education, Gravissimum Educationis, n. 3.

First of all, dem's fightin' words..."scarcely anything can compensate for their failure in it"! Wow. It is up to us as parents to teach our children. But the amazing thing about this quotation and it's message is that even though the task is so "solemn", so daunting, it is at the same time so, well, fun! We have to create an atmosphere that is alive with love. Not staunch and hard, but alive!

So I'm hoping that our little exercise is alive, and that it exemplifies joy and life for our children. And I do hope that even if she doesn't get it now, she gets it later. Mary loved her son so much her heart was pierced also.

leap 4 joy