Saturday – 19th Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel – Matthew 19:13-15

The Child in All of Us

Family Time!

Our daughter Jaime said it perfectly a while ago – this is where my 2 worlds collide!  What she meant was her personal life and her professional life.  Ginger and I have been blessed with an amazing, talented, gifted, compassionate, and confident daughter who just happens to be a nurse practitioner specializing in oncology.  Over the past year (unfortunately), we have witnessed up close and personal, her skill and compassion as an NP as she journeys with her patients through their struggles with cancer. We could not be more blessed and more proud of her.

And it reminds us that somehow, some way, Ginger and I must have done something right as a Mom and Dad.  Believe it or not, our parental journey began 51 years ago tomorrow as we exchanged rings and vows of love and devotion before our friends and family.  From that day on, our love grew from husband and wife into Mom and Dad, especially on the day we welcomed Jaime into our life with open arms and an open heart. 

In today’s Gospel, the disciples are reprimanded for trying to keep the children away from Jesus.  “Let the children come to Me!  Do not prevent them for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”  Jesus welcomes them with open arms!  I use this reading at Baptisms all the time and I usually reflect on how parents respond to the needs of their children with love and compassion, no matter the time or place.  How parents welcome and cherish children with open arms!

 Maybe that is our task today.  What about those childlike qualities that we still see in Jaime?  Have we become so jaded that we fail to cherish and foster those same qualities of faith and trust and wonder in ourselves?  We welcome our kids with open arms!  We welcome friends and family with open arms!  But I wonder!  Do we embrace our faith with open arms?  Do we willingly and lovingly accept whatever challenges the world hits us with?  Do we welcome our Christian faith with open arms, with love and compassion?  

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