I looked at him directly in his eyes. He glanced at me for a moment in amazement and ran towards the giggling group of children.  He was the little boy I usually see in and out of the church almost every day. He is not like an ordinary boy. He does not have the ability to concentrate nor stay in one place for a long time. Though very typical for a “batang hamog” as others would prefer to call them, this one is a little extraordinary. He does not rest and is not willing to be controlled by anyone. I am not sure but he might belong to what psychologists say, hyperactive children, children with ADHD* or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Being a typically hyperactive child, his actions and noisy scenes distract almost every churchgoer.  His disruptive behavior is really quite annoying and will surely test anyone’s patience to the limit. I can truly say so because I have also tried to stop him several times but to no avail because he does not listen. And I pity him every time I see him acting like that.

This time, I stopped and rested for a while to watch him more closely.  Call it coincidence, but while I did, I happened to bump into a close friend who, out of nowhere, talked about that hyperactive boy I just encountered a while ago. Her heart was as broken as mine in pity. I was quick in asking why. A churchgoer, she said, a middle-aged lady, having experienced the boy’s “kakulitan”, was not able to hold her temper and suddenly hit the boy real hard in the head as he passed in front of her, an action that surprised those around them and moved my female friend in tears.

The gospel for today speaks of the Lord’s desire for children to be near him. In our country, the Philippines, it is also during third Sundays of the first month of the year that we celebrate the Feast of the Child Jesus, the Sto. Niño.

“People were bringing their little children to him to have him touch them, and the disciples rebuked them for this. When Jesus noticed it, he was very angry and said, “Let the children come to me and don’t stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” Then he took the children in his arms and laying his hands on them, blessed them.”  MK. 10:13-16

Truly, sometimes, in our desire to see the Lord in moments of our deep and solemn prayer, we fail to see the chances of discovering him and his message thru the persons or events around us.  Discontented by not meeting our needs and wants, we fail to connect with God in real life and eventually fail to discover his very powerful message sent right in front of us, “Let the children come to me,… for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Maybe because we are trapped within the boundaries we ourselves have set that when hampered by an overly active child or an unwanted situation, we fail to recognize that it might be a call for us to slow down, pause a while and see beyond. In the end, in our inability or unwillingness to see deeper, we become disconnected not only to God but to everybody else, failing to see our real selves, our physical and emotional needs, our weaknesses and strengths, and of the people we meet and that of the world around us.

Being with a child is discovering our very own selves, reminiscing a life of innocence, of simplicity and of our dependence on our Creator. In the gospel, we are challenged to discover the child within us.