The Father who is present.

What is a father without a child? It is the child who gives the father his fatherhood because without the child, their can be no father. What a beautiful paradox. The father gives the child life through the mother, and the child gives parenthood back to them.

Due to my own weakness, I struggle to simply be present to my children. Yes, I must teach them; that is my duty. Yet this symbiotic relationship is here too. I have discovered that being present to my children's sense of wonder, I can be a much better teacher. It's much harder for me to do this; it really takes effort and love. In the end, it really amounts to the children teaching me about what I need to teach them.

I had this realization very powerfully this past week when I took my six year old for a walk in the woods. He asks hundreds of questions. Then he asked the clincher: "Why do you always say that, Dad?" You see, to many of his requests to go here or there, I would always say "We had better not." It was out of habit, and I might just as easily have replied with an other similar habitual demand for obedience. But his question was genuine and it struck me immediately. I thought it through and saw that there was simply a true innocent observance of the fact that I do often reply without being truly present to his question.

Yes, let's go down that path into the meadow, I agreed. It was a magical moment where my son taught me without knowing it, and I was suddenly drawn into his presence and wonder fully, and I saw the true gift that he is to me. What I taught him, I hope, is that he can trust his dad, that exploring is not to be feared, and perhaps he even learned unwittingly to be present to others.

God the Father is present to us continually, and if we communicate with Him and trust Him with the innocence of a child, if we really go to Him as Abba, He will surely reveal the wonders of His creation beyond our imaginings. To St. Faustina Jesus said "The more you trust me, the more I will bless you!" Jesus, I trust in You!

'Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the father in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves."

John 14: 8-11

Come, Holy Ghost.

Meditating on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, it is very informative and enriching to consider the relationship between the three groups of mysteries, the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious.

In the 3rd Joyful mystery Christ the King gives up his crown and becomes a helpless child, born into the cold of the night in poverty, for the love of sinful man.

In the 3rd Sorrowful mystery, Christ the King recieves a crushing crown of thorns in the ultimate act of humility. Bearing the cruelest of insults, spitting, and the unimaginable pain of the physical thorns, he accepts all of this for the love of sinful man.

In the 3rd Glorious mystery, Christ the King sends His Spirit, crowning us, with the fire of Divine Love. "O Come Down Love Divine, Come fill this heart of mine" we sing.

We often hear the words "God is love" which have always seemed trite and empty to me. Not that these words are not true, even ultimately true, but often those things which are most profound and intimate are lessened by our attempts to describe them. How does one describe the perfume of a rose to one who has not experienced it?

Our society needs to recover the beauty of true intimacy. There have been private revelations over the centuries, some of which have had heavenly messages for the seers only, for example revelations of the Holy Trinity which were not to be revealed. I often wondered what the point of that was. Then I slowly came to the realization that intimacy with God is the point.

God desires intimacy with all of His children, but He needs our cooperation to grow close to Him.
"If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." John 14:23

What is a law?

I have a wonderful six year old who loves to ask questions. He will eat an apple and say "Dada, what's an apple?" Riding in the car he will ask "Dada, what's a car?" At first these sorts of questions seemed nonsensical, but I have learned over the years to treat questions from my children with great respect because their sense of wonder and their innocent inquisitiveness is often profound and beyond immediate comprehension.

His questions of this sort are still coming. The latest is: What is a law?

I found myself trying to explain the different sorts of laws. There are the laws of nature, like gravity and inertia. There are juridical laws that governments make which have the common good at heart. (Sadly, in this impoverished country, laws are changed by judges through precedent or whim without even the consent of parliament.) There is the natural law which is written on the heart.

My son's other favorite question, which amazes me to no end, is "What happens if you don't?".

What happens if you disobey the law of gravity? Well, it could cost you your life. You can learn the law of inertia by leaving your seatbelt off. You may not die, or you may. There may or may not be a civil law to tell you to wear a seatbelt. And this brings us to the crux of all laws:

Laws, true laws. are grounded in reality and truth. Spend some time thinking and praying on that thought and you will come to see that our society is in trouble. Once the laws of a country stop having direct relation to truth, what is to stop them from becoming truly insane altogether?
The answer is scary: nothing.