It’s interesting as a parent to hear a priest talk about children since their celibate life will never allow them to have children of their own. But does that stop them from gaining wisdom from their upbringing or, more importantly, as a shepherd for the flock they lead? Listen to what Fr. Ron Rolheiser offers in today’s verse reflection: “Let the children come to me.” He writes, “We need our children. Our children raise us, not vice versa. It is they who put a rope around us and take us where we would rather not go, namely, into adulthood and into a selflessness that, without them, we would never attain. We become adults by having and raising children. That, perhaps more than anything else, moves us beyond being children ourselves. Why is this so? Some of the reasons are more obvious than others: When we are raising children, it is more natural for us to stop thinking of ourselves as children. When we are forced to respond to others’ needs, we tend to be less focused on our own. Raising children forces us to live a certain virtue. It is conscripted adulthood; we mature almost against our will. But there is a deeper dynamic operative: Children have the power to fire within us the deepest and most powerful surges of love that we can ever experience in this life. More so than does romantic love or the love that we have when we get involved in causes, love for our children is a love that can take us beyond ourselves, break our narcissism, and let us genuinely imitate (weak though it may be) the life-giving love of God. There is something in children, some combination of helplessness, dependence, innocence, trust, vulnerability, simplicity, playfulness, and simple physical beauty that opens the heart to selflessness in a way that our other loves do not.”