Courage

What is courage? Who is courageous?

We honor the brave men who traveled across the English Channel one stormy June day and then ran onto sandy beaches trying to elude enemy fire.

Tears still flow at the memory of the firefighters who ran into buildings while people were fleeing from them.

Those are big deeds, and they deserve big honor.

But what about smaller deeds? And those who do them?

What about the nurses who work the night shift? And inner city teachers?

After he retired my kindly grandfather served as a crossing guard in his small Wisconsin town. He stood outside on bitter cold mornings so students could get to school safely. It was a small deed performed most honorably by him on a daily basis.

As we remember the courageous, let’s not forget the mothers who take their toddlers to church on Sunday mornings.

That takes a lot of courage and faith.

My daughter, Katie, has three young children; and from their earliest days she has taken them to church on Sundays. Some days she spent the entire time in the cry room trying to discern the words said at the altar by listening to them on a small speaker.

Some mornings, I know she didn’t feel like she was gaining much as she mediated disagreements between toddlers, but I think she was. I believe she was setting the cornerstone for her children’s faith. Proverbs 22:6 tells us to “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

I recently accompanied my daughter-in-law, Melissa, and my just-turned two-year-old grandson to Sunday Mass. We sat in the very back of the cavernous parish church. Things were going pretty well as the Mass progressed because he was happily putting stickers in a coloring book and eating a snack.

During the Sign of Peace, he knew to extend his tiny hand out to his doting grandmother and say the word “peace.” He knew to turn around and do the same to the people in the pew behind us. And then for good measure — as the Mass continued — he continued to practice. The word “peace” echoed up and down the aisles as he made sure he got it right.

As I sat and watched my grandson pray, I asked the Blessed Mother, “What was Jesus like when He was two? How did He behave? Was He quiet as a Lamb? Was He chatty? Did you bring toys for Him? Snacks?”

This is the time of the year when we remember Jesus the Infant who was born in Bethlehem and Jesus the Child who lived in exile in Egypt with his parents.

Let us pray for all the young mothers. The one who dared to travel to find safety in Egypt, and the ones who are brave enough to bring young children to Sunday Mass.

Let us welcome them and their children as Jesus taught us. “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

And let us honor these mothers for their faithfulness. And their courage.