Child protection
Gospel: Matthew 2: 13-15; 19-23 ..the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and hismother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.”
Joseph had a singular role to protect the Child Jesus who was in great danger to be killed by Herod. At the command of the angel of the Lord, he brought the Holy Family to Egypt to be safe from destruction. This gospel event is a clear message from God for humanity to protect the family and particularly the most fragile and helpless member, the child. It reminds governments, societies and individual persons that the family, as the basic unit of society, has to be preserved. Children are essential members of a family; every marital union should be open to the generation of a child and any man-made effort to obstruct or even destroy the conception and/or birth of a child is not in accordance with God’s plan. Efforts to protect the family and especially the children are in harmony with God’s will, and are acts of obedience to His will. To my mind, one’s work and the way of doing it is a simple and concrete way of sustaining and promoting the life of the family and of the children.
Work and theway of working provides true life and joy for the family and children when it does not take away the valuable presence of the worker, such as in instances when one or both parents work abroad and leave the children behind. Researches confirm the fact that children who miss the presence of the father or mother or both for reasons of work abroad, suffer some behavioral dysfunction. In this sense then, work somehow destroys the family and children. While bigger material gains may be reaped from work abroad more than from local jobs, such a situation is not serving psychological needs and emotional needs of the child. The worker/s should consider the aspect of child protection or total promotion of the welfare of the child in their choice for work. And in many instances where workers have not much choice in the kind of work available, those who are in the position of power and responsibility should ensure an effective system of child protection in the community. After all, God became a child in our midst that all may have life.