Out of the Mouths of Babes: "I'm taking them out!"

This story is one of a series of stories that begin with the title “Out of the Mouths of Babes.” These stories celebrate the Wisdom of God that can be ours when we listen to and reflect on the words that lead to worship and thanksgiving, words spoken by children. For, as Psalm 8:2-3 tells us, “O Lord, our Lord, how awesome is your name through all the earth! I will sing of your majesty above the heavens with the mouths of babes and infants...^”

Among the very special people I have met at morning Mass is a woman who shared the following story about her deceased son, a son who had died fifty years earlier, when he was a first grader. His mother shared this remembrance when I visited her home one Lenten lunchtime…

Walking into the living room, the mother was shocked to see her son, bent over something, with an uplifted hammer in one hand.

Horrified when the mother saw that it was a crucifix that her son was bending over, she could not believe her son could be so blasphemous.

Demanding to know what he was doing with the hammer and the crucifix, the mother was reduced to tears when her son explained.

“The nails hurt Jesus. I’m taking them out.”

Heartened that her son was only trying to release Jesus—to free Him—not to hurt Him, the mother embraced her little son.

I definitely could relate to that story—not that I ever found my son with a hammer trying to release the nails. But he did ask once, when he was about the same age as the mother’s son, in response to looking at the crucifix, why no one had called an ambulance, and proclaiming that if he and his father had been there, they would have called an ambulance and then Jesus would not have died.

Both boys’ hearts were in the right place, and surely Jesus’ Sacred Heart was moved by their compassion for Him. Yet, as compassionate and well-intentioned as the boys’ desires were, trying to save Jesus from the cross isn’t something we adults can wish to do.

St. Peter tried that, remember? The scene is recorded in the Gospel of St. Matthew (16:21-23). When St. Peter protested what Jesus had just predicted about His Suffering, Death, and Resurrection ("God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You."), Jesus used some strong words in reply ("Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's.").

I guess the message is that as upsetting as Jesus’ Suffering is, it’s His Will to die for us. As much as the mother’s son wanted to free Jesus, to release Him from the cross, Jesus died upon the cross so that we would be freed from the eternal debt due to our sins. In response to His Father’s Will, Jesus stayed on the cross to release us from the eternal punishment due to sin.

During the Passion Narrative from St. Mark’s Gospel, we hear the crowd taunt Jesus to come down from the cross:

“Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself by coming down from the cross.’ Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes, mocked him among themselves and said, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.’ Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.” (Mark 15:29-32)

Admittedly, the crowd’s motivation was not the same as the boys’ motivation, and yet Jesus’ response is lesson for us all. As I remind myself every time I paraphrase the message on a beautiful Crucifixion plaque that I have at home: It wasn’t the nails that kept Jesus fixed to the cross. No! It was His great love.

So, we do our best to appreciate His Mercy, and to “be there” for Him, as He continues to suffer in His Body the Church. And every time we sin and are forgiven, we realize how grateful we are that Jesus followed through loving us—to the loss of every drop of His Blood.

…About the boys, “back then” neither of us corrected our sons’ thinking—maybe we should have…but we couldn’t, because neither of us fully comprehended or understood the truth ourselves.

During this Mercy Jubilee, may God bless us, and may we be more grateful for His Merciful Love.