21 October 2014
Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
There is a remarkable freedom that human intimacy allows. It is based on trust, and though as fragile as spirit, it is stronger than any contract or law, for if the spirit is the Spirit of God, then nothing can long interfere with it. We are children of God – by adoption – but very really children for all that. We are grafted onto the life of God Himself in Jesus.
That means we have ‘direct access’ to the Father in Him. We do not need to do all sorts of things, stand on our heads, follow detailed programs of meditation. For we are children who can speak to their Father directly, unabashedly, and with the freedom that children have. Naturally this presupposes the respect and honor good children give their parents – it also takes for granted the vastly greater wisdom that parents have.
It is a lovely thing to see a lovingly attentive parent watching a child misbehave before his eyes, trying to figure out what is going on in that little head. A bit like the child who thinks that by putting his little fingers together in front of his head, the world can disappear and he can hide, until by opening his fingers and saying “peekaboo” he can be seen. God the Father sees all, knows all, is willing to forgive all, for His very being is love. What peace comes to us when we realize that there is nothing that can happen to us that is not in His will for us – and that there is nothing that can separate us from His love for us in Jesus, His Son, our Lord.