As part of our church's Sacramental preparation, the kids get a subscription to "Magnifikids." I wasn't sure what to think about that, but my little guy was excited: "So, this tells me *everything* that's going on and what the priest says?" He was a little disappointed that he couldn't do the word search during Mass, but with a toddler in the family, it's not a good idea for us to introduce pens into the pews!
Though I'm blogging about the highlights (mostly) of this whole process, I don't want to give the impression we're a scrubbed up, modern holy family. First of all, I missed most of Mass because I was outside with a screaming toddler. (Which brings up a whole lot of questions about Communion and when it's okay to receive. I didn't, because it didn't feel right since I wasn't in the building. My husband thought it would've been fine in the sense of home visits and that I honestly tried to attend.)
Secondly, here's how our preparation went. After K. read today's Gospel, he asked me:
"Hey, Mom, do you want to be great?" Yes, I replied with a smile.
He laughed, "All right, then, you get to be MY SERVANT." A bigger smile and more laughter.
So I asked him: well, do YOU want to be great?
He thought about it for a moment (with a heart breakingly cute far off stare).
Then he says, "I want to be good, Mom, but not great. Just good." A small smile.
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He's been interested in money lately: earning, getting as gifts, saving, spending on toys. Last week, I was very interested to hear what he thought about the Rich Young Man Gospel. The priest had a great homily that told about how a monkey will grab something shiny in a small neck bottle, and be trapped there because he won't let go of his shiny treasure. It seemed to capture K's imagination, but I didn't push the issue about giving up everything for Jesus.
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These are hard teachings, in familiar stories. Am I ready to give up everything I think I "own" or "control" for Jesus? Do I really want to be great, or will I settle for "good enough"? And how do we raise a family, balancing safety and stability, with the Gospel, which calls us to continually give up what we've worked to build in order to rely more on God? Tough questions for me, let alone my 7 year old. So I'm not pushing him to be great. I'm not even joking about already being his servant. I am praying more, and more, for each of us to have the desire to be great (like the sons of Thunder) or perfect (like the Rich Young Man).
