Whoever Welcomes

Icon of Christ with the Children

I come now to a reflection on the passage in chapter 9 in Mark’s gospel in which Jesus welcomes the child into the midst and then unfolds for us the very meaning of welcome, indeed unfolds the whole Gospel as a kind of welcome:

Mark 9 :36-37

Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’

 

I love the way each welcome seems nested and folded inside the other and it prompted this sonnet as part of my work in progress ‘Parable and Paradox. It was just after I had finished writing this poem that I first saw the terrible image of Aylan Kurdie’s little body washed up on the beach which only gave added urgency to our need to recover a gospel of welcome. In some ways this sonnet is a companion piece to my sonnet ‘Be Opened’

As always you can hear the sonnet by clicking on the title or the ‘play’ button

Whoever Welcomes

‘Welcome’, the word is always on your lips,

Each welcome warms another one inside,

An interleaving of relationships,

An open door where arms are open wide.

First welcome to the child and through the child

A welcome to the Saviour of the world

And through the Saviour’s welcome all are called

Home to the Father’s heart. Each call is curled

And nested in another, as you were

Nested and nestled in your mother’s womb,

As Mary carried One who carried her,

And we are wrapped in you, deep in the tomb,

Where you turn our rejection into welcome,

And death itself becomes our welcome home.