Reflection and Prayer for Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity – 7th October 2018 (Proper 22)

This material was first published by Redemptorist Publications
and is included here with their permission.

Mark 10: 2-16

Like a little child – If only!
 
It’s easy for you to say, Lord, that we need to receive your kingdom with the trusting innocence and joy of a child. We’re not children and we’ve experienced too much to return to the purity of mind and heart we once had. We’ve been hurt by too many rejections and broken promises to trust readily in your promise of loving acceptance. We’ve seen too much cruelty and neglect to accept without question your loving kindness. Some of us were robbed of our childhood by abuse, poverty or neglect. These things have shaped our lives and how we relate to other people and to you. We can’t un-learn what our lives have taught us.

But what if it were possible for lost innocence to be restored? Could we learn once more how to trust, how to love, how to be happy in our dependence upon you? If this is possible and we dare to enter into this new relationship with you then our world would change beyond recognition.

If we could begin to become the people you mean us to be then we’ll also begin to form relationships in the way you intended us to. As our relationships grow into healthy maturity without losing the innocence of childhood so, too, will fade away our need for laws to govern what to do when those relationships go wrong.

Lord, it seems like an impossible, idealistic dream: Help us to begin to live that dream.

Prayer
Lord Jesus, you welcomed and blessed children who were brought to you. Help us to welcome you into our lives. Restore our lost innocence. Forgive us our past mistakes and heal the wounds we have suffered. Then go with us into the new life of your Kingdom. Amen