KEVON FELMINE

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

Af­ter two years of COVID-19 pre­cau­tions cur­tail­ing the bless­ing of chil­dren’s Christ­mas gifts at the Feast of the Holy In­no­cents, Fa­ther Jayson Grell glee­ful­ly did this for young mem­bers of his con­gre­ga­tion yes­ter­day.

He al­so called on par­ents and guardians to al­ways en­sure they pro­tect chil­dren and guard them from harm. Many chil­dren and their par­ents/guardians were in the con­gre­ga­tion at the Pro-Cathe­dral at our La­dy of Per­pet­u­al Help along Har­ris Prom­e­nade, San Fer­nan­do, for the an­nu­al re­mem­brance of the mas­sacre of young chil­dren in Beth­le­hem. This was when King Herod sought to kill Je­sus, who he feared would take over his throne.

Dur­ing mass, Grell blessed the toys and prayed for the chil­dren’s con­tin­ued well-be­ing.

“In­deed, the chil­dren are God’s gift to us so that we can pre­pare a fu­ture for them. What an awe­some re­spon­si­bil­i­ty in­deed for par­ents and guardians. My friends, to harm chil­dren, or to even kill them, is re­al­ly un­think­able. It is some­thing very wicked.

“That is what King Herod did to the in­fant kids of the Jews. King Herod sim­ply could not ac­cept the birth of Je­sus. Of course, we are told that he went to the ex­tent,” Fr Grell said.

He said Herod did not re­alise that he was ac­tu­al­ly prepar­ing a death sen­tence for him­self, as his­to­ry shows his even­tu­al demise.

Fr Grell said the church ho­n­ours ba­bies and in­fant be­cause Herod’s ac­tion was di­rect vi­o­lence and hos­tile ag­gres­sion to­ward in­no­cent and help­less chil­dren. He called on the con­gre­ga­tion to al­ways pro­tect the un­born, the ba­bies and all chil­dren and re­spect their dig­ni­ty.

“They are in­no­cent and help­less against any act of ag­gres­sion against them, and more so, my friends, chil­dren are God’s gifts to each one of us. When we care for them and nur­ture them with love and faith, they will be God’s bless­ings to each one of us.”

He re­mind­ed the con­gre­ga­tion that the ul­ti­mate rea­son Chris­tians live is to serve and glo­ri­fy God. He said they should not live for per­son­al am­bi­tions, as world­ly glo­ry and pow­er do not last for­ev­er, as King Herod found.

Af­ter Herod died, his King­dom quick­ly fell apart and di­vid­ed, and the Ro­mans took it over.

In 2020, the church asked par­ents/guardians not to take toys to church for fear of COVID-19 trans­mis­sion, while at­ten­dance at the usu­al­ly well-at­tend­ed oc­ca­sion dropped dras­ti­cal­ly as well. It con­tin­ued in 2021, and al­though yes­ter­day’s mass sched­ule for the Christ­mas sea­son re­quest­ed that chil­dren not bring their gifts, Grell let the chil­dren show their toys and boys, even let­ting a few demon­strate their ac­tions be­fore the con­gre­ga­tion. Grell re­called that when he was a child, chil­dren would bring their toys to church and play with them on the aisles.

How­ev­er, not all priests bless toys on the day.

Vic­ar Gen­er­al Fr Mar­tin Sir­ju does not up­hold the tra­di­tion and pre­vi­ous­ly asked par­ents/guardians not to bring toys to church. In­stead, he would anoint chil­dren’s fore­heads with anoint­ing oil and pray for each of them. In 2016, Sir­ju said there was noth­ing wrong with bless­ing the toys. How­ev­er, he said he re­searched the mat­ter and did not see the sig­nif­i­cance of it, ex­cept that it was a tra­di­tion in T&T. In 2019, he reaf­firmed his stance, say­ing he did not know when or where the cus­tom start­ed, but reaf­firmed bless­ing toys had noth­ing to do with the feast.