THE CRY OF GOD AMIDST THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN
Written by: Fr. Nithiya OFM.Cap
The violence that the children in Syria are undergoing is shaking hope for the future. It’s horrible to hear Syria’s children express the realities of war in their own words. “There is no food and we can’t go outside… the planes are bombing,” says a terrified child. “One of my friends died in front of me – and I saw the blood,” cries another. According to a young boy in besieged Eastern Ghouta, “It feels like the end of the world.”
More than 6.1 million people are internally displaced across parts of Syria by violence. Globally, violence affects 1.7 billion children every year. There are both visible and invisible violence against children almost all over the world in families, in class rooms, on the streets and in society at large. Children undergo various forms of injury, illness, disability, child abuse with moral and emotional trauma. They also undergo socioeconomic, cultural shocks due to migration, and in several developing countries, they lack education, health care, sociability, trust. Lack of proper care and their suppressed emotions makes them juvenile delinquents, antisocial in future
Every child has the right to survival, protection, development and participation. Almost every government in the world has signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child. But in practice, the entitlements of children are at stake. In this Lenten season, it is worth reflecting on the last judgement scene (Matthew 25) in the light of child rights.
God is angry when the value of children’s lives is not recognised. The children should be given everything they need to survive (Lamentations 2:11-12, 2:19, 4:4). God, himself, acts to protect children and hails them as the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The last Judgement scene clearly tells of God’s profound concern for the marginalised and downtrodden. In today’s context, it fits well with the suffering children who are easily forgotten and exploited to the maximum. The passage on the judgement scene with the text, “I was hungry and you gave me food, thirsty and you offered me a drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me in your home, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you nursed me; in prison and you visited me" (Luke 6:20-25) is very relevant. In their fragility and dependence and amidst their cry of hunger, thirst, loneliness, misery and violence, God cries for them and with them and in them. Hence in as much as one does to the least of these one does it to God (Mt. 25:31-46).
Do you hear the cry of the children of the world from womb to tomb? Have you ever heard of His loud cry coming through your family, your neighbourhood, your media, and in your society at large? It is possible for us to respond differently with determined individual and collective actions. Is not this God visible to us? When are we to perceive mystical body of Christ suffering in the children?