Let the children come

The mystery of dependence on Jesus is a reflection for us from the texts today in the Roman Catholic Lectionary. The letter from James encourages us to pray for healing when we are suffering. Our dependence is not passive. We are encouraged to act to bring those needing healing to the presbyters who will, as Friar Jude Winkler notes, stand in the person of Christ to make visible the action of God in our lives through a sacramental anointing. The continuing mission is to act to gather the lost and misdirected by sin back to the community which witnesses to Christ. The witness we choose to give to Christ may miss the point as Mark A. Copeland notes in his exegesis of the Gospel today from Mark. Jesus disciples act with mistaken zeal to keep the parents from bringing children to touch Jesus as He shared the healing power of God. The author describes Jesus as using His displeasure or anger with the actions of the disciples as a learning opportunity for them. When we allow our attempts to act for Jesus to depend on Him rather than our impulses or assumptions we will be more genuine in the message we send to others. This dependence is shown as loving action in support of those who, like little children, are completely dependent and whom we might on our own mission ignore. In addition, as Chris Duffy, S.J of Creighton University identifies, we are invited by Jesus to return to the childlike dependence on loving parents which makes each day filled with the joy of discovery and the peace of knowing we are loved. Don Schwager identifies the challenge we may have with the exuberance and impatience of youth who are the children in the faith which bring so much more to our communities than the behavior natural for their stage in life which annoys us. Depend on Jesus that our encounter with people He puts in our lives is opportunity to grow in intimacy with Him