Gospel (Mk 10,2-16) - At that time, some Pharisees approached and, to test him, asked Jesus whether it is lawful for a husband to divorce his wife. But he answered them, "What did Moses command you?" They said, “Moses allowed a bill of divorcement to be written and to be repudiated.” Jesus said to them: «Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote this rule for you. But from the beginning of creation [God] made them male and female; for this reason the man will leave his father and his mother and will be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh. Thus they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, let not man divide what God has joined together." At home, the disciples questioned him again about this matter. And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she, having repudiated her husband, marries another, she commits adultery." They brought children to him for him to touch, but the disciples rebuked them. Jesus, when he saw this, was indignant and said to them: «Let the children come to me, do not prevent them: for to those who are like them belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you: whoever does not welcome the kingdom of God as he welcomes a child, he will not enter into it." And, taking them in his arms, he blessed them, laying his hands on them.

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

“Truly I say to you, whoever does not welcome the kingdom of God as a child welcomes it will never enter it.” In welcoming the little ones and becoming little, there is the whole secret of the kingdom of heaven. A kingdom that too often we think of as distant, projected into a hypothetical future. In reality, every time a little one, a child, a poor person is welcomed, there is already a piece of the kingdom of heaven there. This, after all, is God's will for man's life from the beginning: "It is not good for man to be alone". Man was not made for solitude, but for love and we understand the meaning of our life only together, going beyond ourselves, thinking about it with others, in the demanding path of love. How much loneliness unfortunately marks the lives of men today. An individualistic and materialistic mentality hardens hearts and leads to "repudiation" of others. It is the sad story of loneliness and little love that generates that throwaway culture that throws away so much life and so much humanity. Evil divides and disperses men, pushes them to justify the repudiation of others, leading them to believe that it is possible and it is better, in the end, to live alone and live only for oneself. This is how you repudiate your wife (or husband) just as you can repudiate and send away someone who becomes a burden or a problem, like a foreigner. Jesus reminds the Pharisees and everyone that we are never happy alone. God unites and man must not separate. Jesus does not condemn anyone but teaches men that in love the world manifests itself as God wanted it, God's dream for each of us and for this world still too divided by wars and conflicts. But what is the secret? Putting the little ones at the center, welcoming the poor, those who cannot do it alone. For this reason Jesus becomes indignant with his disciples who were chasing away the children. The kingdom of God belongs to those who are like them, says Jesus. Jesus is the first of the little ones, and in reality we are all in need of love, but we do not understand it until we spend ourselves loving and welcoming, and welcoming the little ones renew our aged and closed hearts. The kingdom of God belongs to those who are like the little ones, and those who are not like them remain excluded from it. How much energy, time, thoughts we spend trying to be self-sufficient and do without others, to affirm ourselves. But if we do not become like children we will not enter the kingdom of heaven.