Gospel: Matthew 19: 13-15
Today's Gospel portion finds the disciples engaged in their favorite pastime - attempting to keep people away from Jesus. In past scenes they have attempted to keep away foreigners, women, and those deemed to be unclean. Today it is children they deem unfit to be in the presence of the Lord. As in all other scenes where they attempt this shunning, Jesus rebukes them and encourages them to have a relationship with him.
This scene could also be the history of Christianity writ large: the various and sundry ways in which Christians have kept people away from the Lord Jesus, the vast categories of the unworthy we invent to keep God all to ourselves. Can we really wonder why so many different denominations exist, why secularism exists, and why the lack of interest in religion in general grows?
Today is opposite day - the day we begin to do the opposite of what we normally do. It is a day to be conscious of how we might deter people from seeing Jesus and stopping that behavior. It is a day to commit to finding ways of caring for others in love and mercy, in getting out of the way so that others might encounter God as well.
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