When my son was born, Fr. Tom told me, "All children come with a PhD, a Parental Healing Doctorate. Your son will be your teacher." I was reminded again of this while waiting with my son about six years ago. I had misjudged a car repair appointment, and we had hours to wait, not minutes. I decided we'd go for a walk and run some errands to fill the time. Walking hand in hand with my five-year-old son brought me reflections on my walk with my heavenly Father.
Delight in People and God
While it seems commonplace to delight in children, it occurred to me that there must come an age when we cease to be delightful to others. Other people frequently seem to be obstacles and enemies. Perhaps even within ourselves, shame and contempt begin their dark work, and we cease to feel valuable or delightful to anyone.
I wondered as I walked along, what it might be like if we could all look at each other the way we look at children, or more than that, I wondered what it would be like for us all to see one another as God sees us? Other people would not be hindrances to our happiness or mere objects for our satisfaction. We would see all people as broken and beautiful, as wounded and beloved. For many of us, our view of ourselves would have to shift as well because it is one thing to be loved and delighted in, but an entirely different thing to receive it.
This shift would also include receiving God's love and delight.
"Do you know what all these people have in common?" I said while walking through a grocery store.
"What, daddy?"
"God loves every one of them."
"Yeah, daddy," he replied, "and they all want food."
He was right, and how often do we miss that God's love, delight, and unending joy are offered to us through Christ, but we settle for food or other lesser delights of this world?
Delight in Presence
For our walk, I planned destinations along the way and tasks we could accomplish. It could have been easy to be driven by those goals and push through the day. Several times as we walked along, my son announced, "Daddy hug time!" He grasped my arm with both hands and clutched it to his cheek laughing. He reminded me that nothing we were doing that day was as important as the time together we were sharing.
I also thought of how often in life I have focused on arriving at some objective. Whether that was an event, a job, or an accomplishment, that thing took precedence, and I easily forgot about the present moment. The present moment being the only place to truly encounter the loving presence of God. I so often forget to be like St. John at the last supper hugging Jesus (John 13:15a).
To put it another way, St. Paul says in every moment to, "pursue what is good...rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks" (1 Thes. 5:15-18). Can you imagine living each moment like that?
To put it yet another way, St. John of Kronstadt writes, "The Holy Trinity sees and hears me; this is the most life-giving assurance for my heart, penetrating it with peace and joy" (Kindle location 331, My Life in Christ). God sees and hears us! We do not need to be seen and heard on social media or anywhere else. We do not need the attention of others because we have the attention of God.
Fr. Roman Braga, of blessed memory, would talk to Jesus all throughout his days. He said, "When I go for a walk, I say, 'Lord Jesus, would you like to go for a walk with me?'" I hope that every day we are walking with God, but regardless of the day, the destination is always Communion. In this moment, while reading this, God sees you. God loves you. He bids you be freed from sin and distraction and be filled with peace and joy. I will share a couple more reflections from my walk with my son in the next newsletter, but my prayer for you today is a prayer from St. Paul. Maybe you can memorize it.
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." (Romans 15:13)
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