The beauty of a human being often lies hidden ... even more so in our cyberspace world.Today's gospel reading is significant not only for children but for adults as well. Matthew's recollection of Jesus' reprimand of his disciples for trying to prevent the children from coming to him is a challenge to the teachings of the ancient religious and philosophical teachers that children do not count for much. Even the animals that provided food for the family table was of more "value" than children. Perhaps Jesus was addressing what is a problem not only in his times but in ours as well: abortion!
The event of today's gospel is a reminder that every human being is a creation of God. Every creation, especially that of human life, is a work of God's creating beauty. Interestingly this thought made its way into St. Paul's converted thinking. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul wrote these words: "...my friends, fill you minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable" (Phil 4:8 -- Good News Translation).
While there are few who cannot see beauty in our world, we have to be careful in our cyber-space existence not to cut ourselves of from the beauty of people because we either take each other for granted or we become so busy we don't take notice.
People are "beautiful"; people are "lovely" to use Paul's word: all people from the little child to the elderly man or woman caught up in life's tragedies of poverty or abandonment. Whether a person is handsome or gorgeous in appearance is not the issue. A person's true beauty lies in the reality that she or he is a creation of God's goodness, God's love for you and me.
The challenge for us today is not to defeat our awareness of others and their beauty especially those who might be different from you or me. Recently I watched the acting out of a frequent event: a striking younger couple were having dinner together. Almost as soon as they were seated, the cellphone dance began: two or three times each of them pulled out a cell phone and started talking and not briefly. When the meal arrived, eating began. Hardly a word was exchanged!
Jesus' story, Jesus' reprimand of the disciples is a teaching moment for our times: don't overlook the beauty of God's most beautiful creations --- you and me and the people around you and me whether young or old, beautiful or not so blessed!
