Main news for 20 December 2019

In the East there is a widespread belief: if a prophet or righteous person touches an infant, the child's fate will be happy. Even adults have sought and still seek to touch people known for their righteousness, and if parents manage to have someone known for his righteousness, for example, stroke their infant's head, they could wish for nothing more for their child.

Obviously infants were brought to the Savior for the same reasons. The disciples, as is clear, thought that common popular prejudices were present here. Indeed, traditional Jewish ideas about spiritual life presuppose that it must be at least somewhat conscious, so that, for example, with respect to a child unfamiliar with the Torah, one cannot speak of any spiritual life.

And they perceived the parents' desire to bring infants to Jesus as absurd and meaningless: at such an age one still cannot speak of any spiritual life. Jesus Himself, however, sees this situation somewhat differently. He, of course, does not intend to teach the infants who are brought to Him. But He also does not drive away those who happen to be near Him.

This is understandable: if Jesus were simply a teacher of the Torah, even the greatest of all, infants would have nothing to do beside Him. But He is not only Teacher; He is the Messiah who brought the Kingdom into the world. The Kingdom that is always with Him and that can be opened to those who seek if they entrust themselves to Him. And here it is not always important to understand what is happening. Sometimes the breath of the Kingdom affects even those who have only the vaguest ideas about God, the Kingdom, and the Messiah.

Of course, in such a case there can be no question of conscious spiritual or church life: for such life a person must understand and recognize how God is working with him. But the action of the breath of the Kingdom can sometimes be useful from the point of view of preparing a person for conscious spiritual life. In any case it will never be superfluous, and therefore the Savior rejects none of those who come to Him with pure, even if naive, intentions.