13th of August 2022

Saturday in the 19th week of Ordinary Time, Year 11

_Ezek. 18:1-10,13,30-32_

_Mtt.19:13-15_

Help the young ones to the Lord

I welcome us all in the name of the Blessed Trinity who continues to grace us with a presence wonderful and sacred for mortal eyes to see.

In the liturgy of today, the Lord reminds us that little children have the same right as we do to receive God's kingdom as well as his blessings. The best we can do is to support and not discourage them.

The gospel presents the disciples of Jesus who tried stopping little children from getting to Jesus. At this, Jesus reminded them that to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.

In the first reading, we can pinpoint a very important message which is that those who will gain life are those who have treated others well, while those will die are the uncaring and selfish.

During our moral theology class on the fifth commandment, taught by Fr. Jude Njoku, he made us to understand that this command proscribes as well as prescribes. This means that while the commandment proscribes us from killing, it prescribes what we are to do to help aid life.

We can see something close to that in the gospel reading of today. Jesus today proscribes the disciples from stopping little children who were coming to him. This also placed an onus to them and to all of us to do whatever we can to bring young children to him. We have some questions to answer here, does my actions encourage young ones to go to God or does it discourage them?? As parents, do we bring our children to Jesus for blessings or are we passive to their spiritual growth?

•Secondly, the Lord reminds us today that the race to the kingdom of God is not reserved for the strong, the mighty or the intelligent. We are taught today that when it comes to our relationship with God, those who appear least in the eyes of the world are actually those who have a lot to teach us.

•Finally dearest friends, there is power in intercessory prayers. When we bring people to Jesus in prayers, he touches them and visits them at the point of their needs. Like the parents of these little ones today, we are to be intercessors. May we always pray for one another and take one another to Jesus. However, there may be obstacles and resistances, but we must keep trusting that the Lord will always find a way of reaching out to us.

Every blessings and a happy weekend

(Fr. Camillus Nwaigwe)