The worst of us is not without innocence, although buried deeply it might be.

Every person that comes into this earth ... is born sweet and full of love. A little child loves ever'body, friends, and its nature is sweetness -- until something happens. Something happens, friends, I don't need to tell people like you that can think for their selves. As that little child gets bigger, its sweetness don't show so much, cares and troubles come to perplext it, and all its sweetness is driven inside it. Then it gets miserable and lonesome and sick, friends. It says, 'Where is all my sweetness gone? Where are all the friends that loved me?' and all the time, that little beat-up rose of its sweetness is inside, not a petal dropped. - FLANNERY O'CONNOR: (1925 –1964: was an American writer and essayist.)

Gospel Text: (MK 10:13-16)

People were bringing children to Jesus that he might touch them,
but the disciples rebuked them.
When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them,
"Let the children come to me; do not prevent them,
for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Amen, I say to you,
whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child
will not enter it."
Then he embraced the children and blessed them,
placing his hands on them.

Children know that they absolutely depend on the big people.  They know that everything is a gift.  They know that they depend on others.  And if they have been taught to pray, they recognize immediately that they are dependent on the ultimate Other.

Utter dependence.  That’s not a much-valued quality in our post-modern world, or, for that matter, in most models of maturity.  To be an adult is to have learned to stand on your own two feet and make your way in this world.  And any parent wants those qualities for their growing child.  Yet here is Jesus saying that we are going to miss the gift of the kingdom, if we are not childlike enough to receive it here and now.