Message of Abbot Paul - Saturday 19th August 2023

I usually write these short messages after Compline and before going out with Toby for our last walk of the day at 9pm or shortly afterwards. I’ve had to begin wearing my miner’s torch at both ends of the day, which for me means that Summer is over and the long Winter season, that includes the whole of Autumn and the beginning of Spring, has begun. This morning we discovered that one of the most beautiful trees on the estate, a huge blue conifer, had been badly damaged, yet there had been no wind or rain overnight. It appears that a particularly heavy branch way up top had snapped off and brought three other branches below it crashing down to the ground. The tree surgeon will have to come and take a look.

 

​Our short Gospel passage today comes from Matthew, (Mt 19: 13-15), and focuses on Jesus’ love and acceptance of children, his respect for them as human beings and children of God. Matthew writes, “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’s difficult to understand the attitude of the disciples, who turn children away. Surely they have as much right to healing or just a blessing as do adults, even though they are probably without sin and do not necessarily need forgiveness. In any crowd the children would have been many, so perhaps it was the time such blessings were taking, but it’s quite clear, even before he speaks, that Jesus was more than happy to bless them, and say a prayer over them, as we do with babies and young children when their parents come up to the altar for Holy Communion. Jesus reminds his disciples that they too must become as little children if they hope to enter the kingdom of heaven, “for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”