Subject: Daily Gospel Reading - Saturday, August 17, 2013
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| Weekday Gospel Reflection |
| Saturday in the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time |
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13 Then little children were brought to Jesus, that he should lay his hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But Jesus said, “Allow the little children, and don’t forbid them to come to me; for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to ones like these.” 15 He laid his hands on them, and departed from there. |
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Matthew 19:13-15 - World English Bible |
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Twice in Matthew (18:1-6 and here), Jesus stated that the Kingdom of heaven belonged to children. As you may have remembered from Matthew 18, children occupied the bottom of the social scale, useful for gleaning gossip from others and manual labor. Because half the children born at the time of Jesus died before their sixteenth birthday, society encouraged large families as a means to increase a clan's wealth and support the elderly. In other words, children had a utility value beyond any emotional ties. This judgment on children made the words of Jesus more jarring. If the Kingdom was for children who could only perform limited labor, what did that say about the adults? One could not earn his way into heaven and God was concerned about the least in stature. Who one was and what one was mattered little under divine providence. If the Kingdom was for children, it was for everyone Who has limited value in your life? How are they candidates for the Kingdom? |
| Daily Readings for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time Studies for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time |
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