Gleanings from today's Mass readings 8/12/06

Habbukkuk
13
Thou who art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on wrong, why dost thou look on faithless men, and art silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?
Psalms 9
9
The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.
10
And those who know thy name put their trust in thee, for thou, O LORD, hast not forsaken those who seek thee.
12
For he who avenges blood is mindful of them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.
13
Be gracious to me, O LORD! Behold what I suffer from those who hate me, O thou who liftest me up from the gates of death,
Gospel St. Matthew 17: 14 - 20
14
And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and kneeling before him said,
15
"Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water.
16
And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him."
17
And Jesus answered, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me."
18
And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly.
19
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?"
20
He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, `Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you."

Here again is another example of someone being healed, not by their own faith, but by the faith of a parent. If a father should come before the Lord and beg Him to heal his son out of love for the boy, how much moreso does our Lord honor the request of parents who bring their infants to the altar to be baptized by the Holy Spirit, the Helper and Advocate, promising to raise up that child with an accurate knowledge of Jesus Christ as taught by His holy church, and to continue on with the sacrament of confirmation when the child reaches the age where he is fully capable to choose to be a Christian? It makes much more sense to me, and I believe the child is much better prepared to accept the Lord as his Savior, when at the age of 13, after having been properly taught about Jesus Christ through scripture, Catechism and Mass, daily home life and example of his parents, that confirmation take place, rather than encouraging a six-year old to be baptized, as they do in other denominations, who has not even been fully schooled in Christ, nor has reached an age where his confirmation is valid. We don't let children order for themselves at restaurants at the age of six, how then can a six-year-old fully comprehend the life-binding choice to be a Christian?