Reign of God - a child's play!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 7th week in Ordinary Time

May 25, 2024 - James 5:13-20; Mark 10:13-16

Referring to something as a 'child's play,' we intend to say it is an easy task, or a no taxing job, or an uncomplicated project! The underlying fact is that it can be done by the adults, with their eyes shut, or their hands down! It is the classical despise of humanity for children as dependent and immature. 

In contrary terms, today Jesus calls the Reign of God a child's play... but meaning to drive home to us how difficult it is for the grown ups to arrive at it! There is this insistent call of Jesus to become like children, to have the heart of the children, to grow to be children!

The qualities that are underlined here by the first reading and the Gospel are: innocence of heart, unsophisticated dependence on God and non judgmental relationships! These are the very things we lose as we grow up: we become hypocrites at heart, complicated and self righteous in our rapport with God, self centred and calculative in our relationships. The challenge to us is remaining a child in these counts, which will alone make us worthy of the Reign of God. And that is why it is a child's play, not a grown up's game!

Can we grow up to be children, to be children of the Reign?