Johnathon
Steve Cisneros Nieves
Mark
10, 13-16
13 And people were
bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked
them.g14When Jesus saw this he became
indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them,
for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.15Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God
like a child* will not enter it. Then he
embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them.
Luego le trajeron niños a Jesús para que los bendijera, [d] pero los seguidores de Jesús los regañaron. 14 Cuando Jesús se dio cuenta de eso, se enojó y les dijo:
—Dejen que los niños
vengan a mí. No se lo impidan, porque el reino de Dios es de los que son como
ellos. 15 Les digo la verdad: el que no acepta el reino de Dios como
un niño, no entrará jamás en él. Jesús tomó a los niños en sus brazos y los bendijo,
imponiéndoles las manos.
When Johnathon was born less than eight years ago his
parents Gonzalo and Maria did exactly what the people in the Gospel did. They
brought him to Jesus that he might touch them. From the very first moment of
his precious life Johnathon’s parents and his brothers and sisters knew that his life was
fragile so they brought him to Jesus. They asked that Jesus touch him through
the sacrament of baptism. He was brought to Jesus, so that he might touch him,
and by his watery touch, he was blessed by God, with all that that blessing
gives.
The people in the Gospel who were bringing their ‘little children’
to Jesus, were admittiting that, in some way, their child needed something that
they could not give them. But they believed that Jesus could. They wanted Him
to “touch them.” They believed that, in His touch, He gave
“God’s blessing.”
To be “blessed by God” is to be loved and cared for by almighty
God. It was to be protected and delivered from the power of sin and death and
even the devil himself. In a word, to be “blessed by God” was to be saved.
That is exactly what Maria and Gonzalo did 8 years ago. They
knew that Johnaton needed something that they could not give him. They knew
that only Jesus could give Johnathon what he needed, so they brought him to
Jesus.
The disciples thought that Jesus would be bothered by the
‘little children.’ They should come back when they’re grown up, more mature and
able to control themselves. But when Jesus saw what was going on, He was
“indignant.” This is the only
time the word is ever used for Jesus is when the disciples “hinder the little
children from coming to him.” Here is the one thing that our Lord cannot
stomach. “For to such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven.”
So what Jesus is
telling us is not only is it proper to bring the little children to him, he
says that if we want to enter into the Kingdom we need to become like
Johnathan. Getting into the Kingdom isn’t about what we’ve done with our lives,
it isn’t how many years we’ve lived, how good we’ve been, or our
accomplishments or our achievements. Nor is it about our love for others or
how we took care of others.
Johnathan needed to be taken care of and he was happiest and
secure and confident when his mom and dad, his brothers and sister, Tara, Courtney
and other care givers were taking care of him. Johnathon was not independent
but dependent, and he knew it and he didn’t fight it. And that is what we need to do in order to
get into the kingdom of God. We need to be dependent upon God. How many minutes
would it be ok to leave Johnathan alone?
Not even a second. What did Johnathan need his family and caregivers
for? For everything. And that is what Johnathan teaches us we need to do in
order to get into God’s kingdom. We need to remember that we can never be away
from God, not even for a second. We need to learn that we need God for everything.
We come here today because we took care of Johnathan. Johnathan
needed us for everything. But the truth is we needed Johnathan for everything,
because it is Johnathan who can teach us how we can enter into the Kingdom of
God.
“And He took them in His arms and blessed them, laying His hands
on them.”
I was aided in this reflection by a homily I found on line by Kathryn Marie Pryor a Lutheran minister.
I was aided in this reflection by a homily I found on line by Kathryn Marie Pryor a Lutheran minister.
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