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JUNE 15, 2003 THE HOLY TRINITY
Moses said to the people: "…ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great happen before?"
-Deuteronomy 4: 32-34, 39-40
"Go, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."
-Matthew 28: 16-20
MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD
In February, every one if us lost a good friend - Fred Rogers, the host and producer of the PBS' series Mister Rogers Neighborhood, died at the age of 73. In this age of the bizarre and the manipulative that poses as reality television, Mister Rogers epitomized reality television in its purest form. For 33 years, Fred Rogers, a Presbyterian minister, spoke frankly about everything from death and divorce to loneliness and anger, reaching out to as many as 7 million kids and their families each week.
"The world is not always a kind place," he said. "That's something all children learn, whether we want them to or not, but it's something they really need our help to understand." He believed that even the worst fears had to be "manageable and mentionable," one way or another.
In one memorable episode, clad in his trademark cardigan sweater, Mister Rogers looked straight into the camera and calmly began talking about divorce: "Did you ever know any grown-ups who got married and then later got a divorce?" he asked. And then after pausing to let the question sink in: "Well, it's something people can talk about, and it's something important. I know a little boy and a little girl whose mother and father got divorced and those children cried and cried. And you know why? Well, one reason was that they thought that it was their fault. But, of course, it wasn't their fault."
These were the messages of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Respect your children, nurture their self-esteem, listen to their concerns, play with them. Fred Rogers undertook his life's work with extraordinary integrity and grace. Despite being a minister, he never preached, but then he didn't need to: his open demeanor and gentle drawl carried greater moral authority than a thousand pulpits. The way Mister Rogers saw it, a secure and happy childhood was of the greatest importance not because we stay children forever, but because we don't.
[From "What Mister Rogers Could Have Taught Michael Jackson" by Joyce Millman, The New York Times, Sunday, March 9, 2003.]
CONNECTION: Mister Rogers is the model of the "teacher" Christ call his first disciples to become in today's Gospel; his gentle, loving and respectful approach to children mirrors the ministry of teaching that Christ calls his Church to undertake. We have been called, as Christ's disciples in this time and place, to teach what we have seen and heard, to pass on to others "everything I have commanded you" through our imitation of the Teacher's compassion, forgiveness and selflessness. On this celebration of God's revelation as Father/Creator, Son/Redeemer and Spirit/Unifier and Re-creator, may we become "good neighbors" to one another, teaching others through the honest, compassionate lives we live about the God who loves us so completely and unconditionally.
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