Tuesday of Week 7 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
Saint Peter Damian, Bishop, Doctor
Ecclesiasticus 2:1-11 | Psalm 36(37):3-4,18-19,27-28,39-40 | Mark 9:30-37
‘Anyone who welcomes one of these little children in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’ (Mark 9:37)
I spent over two hours on the phone and WhatsApp with a client yesterday, trying to debug what should’ve been a simple network setup issue. We were getting nowhere, until I thought to ask him to check something fundamental that I’d assumed had been configured correctly.
It hadn’t.
ARGH!
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
Children have a way of cutting through complexity and getting to the heart of whatever matter is before them. Without many preconceptions, they often notice things we “wise” adults blindly pass over.
We could stand to be childlike in our approach to God. Rather than trying to quantify the depth of our sin, and inadvertently convince ourselves that we are unworthy to be forgiven, we should draw close to God with a simple wish, “Father, I have sinned. Help me find my way.”
So as we prepare to enter the season of Lent, let us come to the confessional in hope and faith, that Christ comes to meet us in the person of His priest, to absolve us, to free us, to love us.
And let us come back again next month, and the month after that, until Reconciliation becomes as regular as the breath of a child, rather than gasping and wheezing as we adults tend to.
Amen.