Whoever Receives One Child
Piety
“The Lord upholds my life.” (Psalm 54:6)
Study
“Wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant., full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity. And the fruit of righteousness is /’sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.” (James 3:16-4:3)
Action
“(JESUS) Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, (........) [read the rest of the Gospel again, and then again!] (Mark 9:30-37)
“Prayer is the center of the Christian Life, it is living with God in the here and now.” Henri Nouwen
Sometimes, I read a passage in Scripture and fail to place myself within it. I think, “It’s about the disciples.”
Living in the NOW of The Gospel, I must apply it to my own Life; otherwise,
it’s just a failed attempt at “hearing.”
Jesus is taking (this child) me in his arms…he is speaking to me, both as child and disciple (whom he loves).
You see, I’m not so different than they were in the pack on the way to Jerusalem. Jesus is taking me gently by my ego, my hurts, my success, and my failings and teaching me! Teaching us (to live in the Now).
Children, in Jesus’ time, were considered “least.” Jesus, in His Father’s stead, takes this child and wraps his arms around “it” as the Mark recounts.
I recently met a couple, Mother and Father who had lost their son, just two months after I had lost mine. We met at a Bereavement/Grief Group. We were the only ones who had lost a child, the others had lost a spouse.
While my grief and loss had been two months longer, I witnessed the rawness of their wounds. I knew that the last time I spoke with Michael on the phone we finished with “I love you” to each other. I hung on, am hanging on and will hang onto those words of blessing.
This was my child, who had come to me when I turned 40. Twenty-Eight years later. Gone On! I now hold onto to his two-year-old daughter who lives with us four days of each week.
Back to this couple. I went up to them after the group ended and embraced each of them in that community center parking lot where we met. I found out that they were both Catholic and were being challenged on very personal levels. We agreed, that God had not done this to us.
As I said to them: “When asked if I was angry at God for Michael’s death, I told people ‘NO.’ I am thankful that it was the same Father who had placed him in my care, the one who now has received him back to his embrace.”
This Gospel passage has a new lesson to apply to my Journey to Jerusalem with Jesus. I must decrease; so that Jesus might increase in ME.
This is where I am called to discipleship.
This is where he calls me as his disciple.
...In the Here and Now.
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