Worthy of Aristotle
My son, Charlie, started attending Mass with my wife and I right before he turned three. One day, he said, “Nursery is for little kids. I want to go to church,” and so he started coming with us. We were going to starting bringing him anyway in a couple of weeks.
He’s pretty well-behaved, but he doesn’t know much about what’s going on, so I try to clue him in whenever I can. Last Sunday, as we watched the parishioners receive communion, I told him that although the little round pieces of bread look like bread, they’re actually Jesus.
Without hesitation, he pointed to the crucifix over the altar. “That’s Jesus,” he said confidently. “Well, that’s a statue of Jesus,” I explained. “It’s kind of like a picture, because it isn’t the real person. But the bread is really Jesus, and it’s called the Eucharist.”
“How does that happen?”
“Father changes it into Jesus when he prays over the bread.”
“How does he do that?”
“God does it through him.”
We talked a little more about it, and Charlie seemed satisfied. Josef Pieper once said that children ask questions worthy of Aristotle, and I’m beginning to see what he means.