Scripture:
Joshua 24:14-29
Matthew 19:13-15
Reflection:
It is in keeping this over-riding theme in mind that the first reading today is then a bit easier to understand. God’s faithfulness should be Israel’s faithfulness, both collective as a nation and personal as individuals. And while faithfulness is not a transferable trait from father to son like blue eyes or brown hair, it can be learned, it can be communicated by example. Moral responsibility to God applies both to nations as well as individual persons.
The coming of Jesus inaugurates the new messianic age. More than words, God’s faithfulness takes flesh in Jesus. That faithfulness has a body, legs and arms, head and heart, hands to touch and bless. Children, a symbol of the Kingdom due to their innocence as well as their defenselessness, are brought to Jesus to have "hands laid upon them" and prayed over. Normally we think of Jesus just blessing children, but perhaps he was doing more than that…perhaps he was healing them or loving them or even just acknowledging their presence. As a modern society we acknowledge the power that touch can bring to any relationship…how much more the touch of God? Would that not perhaps open them up to the coming Kingdom in their midst?
God’s enduring faithfulness, personal as well as collective moral responsibility, the power of reaching out and touching others in the name of God, food for thought as we go about our daily routine.