Let The Little Children Come to meby John P. Moore "Whatever you do to the least of mine, you do to Me." Being a non-Chinese, totally non cognisant of Chinese culture, I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I said yes to a request to take over the first CCD class for the community. I had no doubts about my abilities given years of preparation in the seminary, conducting CCD programs in other parishes and years of teaching experience. There was no doubt about the sincerity of the people who asked my to teach and I accepted the request with enthusiasm and without reservation. What I wasn’t prepared for was the group of unknown adults who were apparently horrified that I was teaching their children. Almost from the beginning, subtle messages kept coming to me in one form or another that certain, unknown parents were not happy either with the way I was teaching the content of my teaching. Every invitation for them to visit my class of to talk to me personally were not accepted. For me, all of this came to a head at a retreat. After spending months, years, listening to my kids complain about the way their parents were treating them and them trying to cope with the obvious dichotomy between in school, I thought it was time to share with the parents what I had learned, so that together we could work through some strategies to help them muddle through this mess a bit better. Whoa!! I invited the parents, I was given a session to address the parents, a large group showed up. I was excited and ready to go when I was introduced. Barely had a gotten a sentence and a half out of my mouth, when someone I had never seen before, nor have I seen him again, got up and asked me to leave, because he said no one was interested in hearing what I had to say. Without response of argument, but very confused, I turned and left the room. In my adled thinking, I thought I was an excellent resource to help our parents learn how the bridge the gap between the culture they brought from China and Taiwan and the fears they had of losing their children to vagrancies of American society. What shocked me even more was the fact that no one from the community stood up to defend my right to address this group. When I left, I didn’t leave the community, but I never tried that again. This incident did not stop me from listening to the kids and spending time with them. They still are and always will be special to me: everyone of them. I am the one who has learned from them. My association with them, now young men and women, has probably been the greatest force in my own spiritual formation. I am extremely proud of everyone of them. I am particularly gratified that they, as they finish their university work, are coming back to serve the community that supported them in their formative years. When a person gives his time and effort to serve his Church and his community, it is not appropriate to consider the color of his skin, the shape of his eyes or the languages he speaks or doesn’t speak. How much he allows God to fill his heart and his mind is more important. Everything he does, he must do in God’s name, if he is to share this God-ness with the children. I will close this article with the words of St. Zita of Lucca, “Piety, that is work shy, is sham piety.” <
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