The deception of feminismThe other day I was talking to some people about one of the most typical Spanish Easter movies: "Marcelino, pan y vino", the story of a little boy abandoned by his mother and taken in by some Franciscan friars. One day, when the little boy approaches the image of the Crucified Christ in the convent, it comes to life and begins to speak to Marcelino.
The central message of the film is perfectly summed up in the phrase pronounced by Christ in Marcos10, 14: "Let the little children come to me; do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these".
It would be absurd to think that Jesus, after saying these words, would want to keep the children away from the mystery of his Passion. In the classic film we see that the Lord does not hide his death from Marcellin, on the contrary, he shows himself to him nailed to the Cross, a suffering Christ who speaks and challenges the little boy.
The mystery of pain
It is difficult for children to understand grief; it is terribly complicated to explain to them the death of a family member. How can we make them understand the death of a whole God?
It seems impossible for a child to understand that the same Jesus, of whom we say that he went through the villages healing people, casting out demons and raising the dead, is the same one who was later nailed to a tree and died impotent. However, I am convinced that children understand the Passion much better than we do.
For adults, the pain of the Cross is nonsense, but children are much simpler. It makes perfect sense to them that no one recognizes Superman when he puts on glasses and says he is a journalist, even though we would recognize Henry Cavill's face even in Mercadona. For children it is perfectly possible for a rubber ball to disappear in your hand and for toys to come to life at night.
The wisdom of children
The little ones believe all this because they think that whoever does it is capable of it. Christ, who could resurrect others, heal the sick and calm storms, can die on the Cross, simply because he is capable.
It is up to us to explain to them that he dies not only because he can, but because he wants to. That he does it for them, for you and for me. The Cross has a meaning, it is not an absurdity, a whim of God. Everyone who contemplates the Way of the Cross can see that it is a way of love. Children, who are much less complicated than we are (and precisely because of this they are much wiser), can understand the Passion in a way that we, with our adult glasses, cannot see.
"Let the little children come to me; do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." What Christ conquered for us on the Cross is exactly that, the Kingdom of Heaven. If Heaven belongs to the least of these, let us not hide from them the Crucified One, who is more theirs than ours.
Perhaps this year is the time to look at the Cross with the eyes of Marcellin, taking off the glasses that make us myopic. Let us allow the children to go up to Calvary too, to accompany us. Let us avoid the overprotectionism of parents who, with good intentions, forget that Jesus also calls them, because the Kingdom of God is theirs. In this way, perhaps we will discover the most beautiful part of the Passion, that mystery that can only be discovered through the eyes of the little ones.
