Message of Abbot Paul - Saturday 14th August
Message from Fr Paul for Saturday, 14th August 2021
Yesterday was not the coldest or the wettest of Summer days, yet when I took Toby to the beach whilst visiting my mother, there wasn’t a living soul in sight. The vast expanse of sands and dunes was bare, even of seagulls and waders. Poor Toby had just me to play with, surely a disappointment for him, as he enjoys meeting and socialising with other dogs. In the distance, looking back towards the promenade, we could see a few brave windsurfers gliding to and fro close near the shore, but that was all. Where had all the people gone? A mystery!
Today the Church remembers St Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish Franciscan, who was murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz on this day in 1941 at the age of 47. He gave his life that a fellow prisoner, a complete stranger, who had a wife and family, might live. What an extraordinary example of Christian charity and love of neighbour. He was renowned for his devotion to Our Lady and was blessed to have died on the Vigil of her Assumption into heaven. May we be given grace to follow his example, albeit in ordinary, simple ways.
In our short Gospel passage today, we continue reading from Matthew, (Mt 19: 13-15), Jesus blesses little children. “People brought little children to Jesus, for him to lay his hands on them and say a prayer. The disciples turned them away, but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children alone, and do not stop them coming to me; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.’ Then he laid his hands on them and went on his way.” It was the natural reaction, wherever he went, for people to ask Jesus to bless their children. He did this, as was the Jewish tradition, by placing his right hand on their heads and saying a prayer. It is the Christian tradition to bless children in the name of the Holy Trinity, using the sign of the cross, and touching the tops of their heads. We might well ask why the disciples turned them away, suggesting thereby that children weren’t important enough or that Jesus didn’t have time for them. By way of correction, Jesus used that proverbial phrase, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (The translation is from the King James Bible rather than from the Jerusalem Bible which is found is our lectionary.) This is a clear example of the importance to Jesus, and to the Christian faith, of children, no matter how young, and of their rights, Yes, young lives matter too. Let us pray today for children all over the world, especially those living in poverty and deprivation, that God will bless them and that we adults do everything possible to improve their lives and give them hope, and that their rights be respected by everyone. Amen
