December 21, 2010 – Mark 9:33 - 10:16

“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me.”  In my line of work I see a lot of children and I deal with a lot of foster parents.  On the rare occasion, there is a situation where a child may be taken from a bad situation and put into one that is as bad or worse.  But for the most part, these foster care placements are a loving and nurturing environment.  These people are on call so that at any minute they may receive a call from DCFS and they are going to have a child or children in their home.  Not just any children, but sometimes they are children with very special needs or have been through very traumatic events.  I would imagine there is a special place in God’s heart for foster parents, not to mention the special feeling He has towards the most famous foster parent, St. Joseph.

Verses 38-43 cause me great confusion.  On one hand, anyone that does good in Christ name should not be stopped.  We should look as an example to our Protestant brothers and sisters and the good works they do for Christ.  We cannot take anything away from the many great things that have been accomplished by them.  Yet we have also the warning to those that may cause someone to sin.  When those same Protestants may condemn the Catholic Church or preach against the Eucharist or say the homosexuality or abortion is not a sin, how do we mesh these two together.  It seems very clear in both cases, yet it seems easy to find an example of someone who might fit into both camps.      

We see here that a marriage, entered validly, is for life.  Today, we see people going into marriage planning for what the divorce will look like.  It also spells out pretty clearly that marriage is meant to be a union between a male and a female.