Family Mass at my school parish today - gotta love it. The church was bursting with parents and their children, and the kids even helped at Mass as lectors, choir members, and altar servers.
What I think was the best part was at the homily - Fr. Larry (not our pastor but the one who helps out) invited all of the children to come sit at the altar. And he sat right down with them, giving his homily from there. He explained how Bartamaeus had been blind and had called out to Jesus - he wanted to see him more clearly. After being healed of his blindness, Bartamaeus chose to follow Jesus. (It tells us this in the Gospel!) He told the children that we are called to follow Jesus too - and guess where Jesus is. As much as we may hate to admit it, Jesus is in our brothers and sisters. Do you see Jesus in your brother or sister?, he asked them. He wrapped up his homily by having us all sing the refrain to "Day by Day" - what are we called to do? "See thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, follow thee more nearly"...when? "day by day - every day!"
As a child, those opportunities really have the potential to stick with you because too many times, kids (and adults too!) are passive participants in the pews. Heck, I still remember being called up with the other children on any given Sunday morning when our "paper bag priest" would deliver (what I now know as) an object lesson - he would take a candy bar or ketchup bottle or some other seemingly random object out of his bag and teach us the message of the Gospel through some thoughtful activity and discussion.
So, yes, God is calling us to love one another as we follow Him. And, yes, that includes our siblings and those hardest to get along with at times. And it's not just for today or for tomorrow but for always. Day. by. Day.
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