2025-02-02 A Meditation on Innocents

“13 And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” 16 And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.” (Mark 10:13-16 ESV)

A bunch of innocents, yet at the helm: church and life, war, peace, all this brings to the table an Encouragement Divine, to be already ready, all good to go, and composed. Of sound composition. Sound mechanics. Sound spirituality. Indeed, our Christian forebears invented a magisterium most broad, benign, perspicacious: the magisterium of the spiritually-minded (the priesthood); of those who knock off early to prayerfully inquire as to the group’s mentality and locus of sensory, mindful, soulful instinct.

Learning in the field means that mistakes will inevitably be made. Good companions, be always mindful that—whatever your litany of prior sins—there is today invitation only for those Capable of forgiving themselves for new mistakes, mistakes in the field, responsibility, culpability. For, it is a svelte, a smooth, an indulgent lifestyle that stays compartmentalized to avoid “ever sinning again”: we are this day Forgiven, and it spells equality with even those long in the pews: Forgiven, as well. No one in such appalling guilt as to not be shown mercy.

Therefore, be healed, O mighty ones. Be healed, O intrepid ones. Be healed, O reality-struck ones. No time to dilly-dally around church membership, or rather for some, finding in the church mission central, homeland, life in the “cold” (alluding to “coming out from the cold”, one eventual lovingly awaited day). The church can do its duty of proclaiming Mercy, but we… we test those rubrics. We test that claim. We test that promise of benevolence, of wisdom, of loving Fellowship, of round-table Satiating Alongside each other our hunger, our appetite, our longing to be Forgiven.

And to the magisterium! In the panic of dying, one sees like Stephen saw as he gazed heavenward (Acts 7:55), a rhyme and sensibility to God’s Noble Sacrifice. On some spiritual plateau the starving dying one has deeper and more sanguine Vision than the well-fed. The hopelessly, mortally wounded one has a deeper message to relay back to that “magisterium”, to the elders and priests, to the drill sergeant, to the strategist: I had a vision, not of men counted against men, but of a deeper Reason and Logic, all this but the birth pangs, and we… we not afraid of the walk towards the Light of the Hereafter, together.