LET THE CHILDREN COME TO ME

Jam 5,13-2 0; Ps 140; Mk 10,13-16
26 MAY
We know from Ancient Scripture and also from the New Testament that the Lord chooses the people to whom to entrust the mystery of salvation from the mother’s womb and sometimes even before their own conception. Samson was chosen before conception. Samuel was offered to God when he did not even exist as a possibility. Anna was sterile. Jeremiah was called from the mother’s womb. John the Baptist was announced to Zachariah filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb of Elizabeth even before being conceived. Even Paul is said to have been chosen since the mother’s womb.

An angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Though you are barren and have had no children, yet you will conceive and bear a son. Now, then, be careful to take no wine or strong drink and to eat nothing unclean. As for the son you will conceive and bear, no razor shall touch his head, for this boy is to be consecrated to God from the womb. It is he who will begin the deliverance of Israel from the power of the Philistines” (Jdg 13,3-5). “O Lord of hosts, if you look with pity on the misery of your handmaid, if you remember me and do not forget me, if you give your handmaid a male child, I will give him to the Lord for as long as he lives; neither wine nor liquor shall he drink, and no razor shall ever touch his head” (1Sam 1,11).

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you” (Cf. Jer 1,5-10). “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of (the) Lord. He will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord” (Lk 1,13-17). But when (God), who from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; rather, I went into Arabia and then returned to Damascus (Gal 1,11-17).

Every man belongs to God from eternity, since he is in his thoughts since eternity. If he belongs to him from eternity, he is also his from the first moment of his existence. This is the error today. It is no longer believed by parents that the fruit of their love is of the Lord and that they are his instruments to give him the children that He has already thought in his heart. Since the parents are separated from God, the child or children they conceive are also separated from God. Being the Lord the life of the soul and the spirit, separated from God, they can grow only with the body, but without soul and spirit. They have a body that is neither governed by the soul nor by the spirit. This is the true crisis of today’s society. Without soul there is no reference to the supernatural. Everything is lived in the realm of the earth. Without spirit there is no relation with moral good. Society is thus deprived of its essential principles of fairness and sound morality.

And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them (Mk 10,13-16).

Our society is not like the disciples that rebuke those who present the children to Jesus. It has gone much further. It decided that Jesus must be exiled from this world. In this way every “temptation” to bring someone to Him is avoided radically. Jesus banned from our history, humanity is condemned to live by immanence alone, of matter alone, but also of evil alone. The world must know it. Only one takes away its sin: Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God. Having banned the Lamb of God from the world, the world will be submerged by sin and death. Others work in sin at the service of sin. Only Christ crucifies sin in his body and takes it away from the world.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us true disciples of Jesus.