Gospel: Matthew 18: 1-5, 10, 12-14
"Lord, who is greatest in the kingdom?" This one sentence contains the entire history of Christianity, the never ending debate over this one question. Along the way the admonition of Jesus regarding children and the little ones goes unheeded, or at best given lip service, or serving as a talking point to whatever our pet political issue happens to be. But the overarching priority of male dominated clerical hierarchies is the preservation of power at the expense of others.
Today's Gospel portion stands as an everlasting indictment against all the crimes against children perpetrated, covered up, and ignored by the Church. Seeing the idea of children of God in an even wider context, the crimes against God's children is ever wider. The single cause of secularization and the loss of religious practice is the behavior of the Church itself, the utter scandal it causes generation after generation.
The Church grows ever smaller not by divine plan but by human activity. The Church will only grow again when it gives up all striving for power, influence, and wealth. She will rise again when her people live in humble service to others with no thought or pretense to advantage for oneself as individual or institution. She will once again be attractive to others when we actually treat all people with dignity and respect and not merely speak pious words about it.
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