Greetings Parents!
Although my youngest (now a teenager) seems completely dependent on me at times – i.e., when he has a need, be it for an injury, locating socks, or planning and making his dinner – most of the time he makes clear that I should better recognize his growing independence, especially when asked to do chores. If he’s independent, then shouldn’t he make his own decisions about everything? Ha! Ha! Ha! (Yes to a point, decide not to do them and experience the natural consequence of being grounded.) We seem to have some conversations repeatedly – yes, you are more independent and therefore I shouldn’t have to keep reminding you to do these chores or find your basketball because you should be able to manage these things on your own. Independence is not freedom, but the ability to complete on your own all that is necessary for your life. Until you can eat, breathe, and survive without any assistance from me – in a house that is not mine, waking up on your own for school and work, and without me doing your laundry… you are not fully independent.
Taking that to our relationship with God, we first realize that we are never truly independent of God. Even when we die, whether we are in heaven or hell, our very existence is dependent on His willing us to exist. In the Avengers movies, the bad guy, Thanos, had to roam around until he collected all the special stones and then he snapped his fingers to literally extinguish half the population of the universe. With God, every moment we exist only because He wills us to keep existing. Pretty humbling! And how much love is that – to continue to will the existence of those who hurt us in both small and massive ways? There are some people in history that had I the power, I don’t know that I could have resisted “erasing” them from existence. But God doesn’t – for which we should all be grateful! If he were to have in mind a line we shouldn’t cross, are there times in our life that we might have crossed it, but now we realize the errors of our ways and either have or are trying to correct ourselves.
What a strange God He must have seemed to those of other faiths! Redemption offered through second, third, and quadrillionth chances? The only definitive line is when we die. And we know we WILL die, so no secrets there! But so many other gods were vengeful and unforgiving, focused on themselves and their power, much like many earthly rulers. In myths or other stories of their deities, some gods might offer forgiveness to a few favorites, but this revolutionary idea that a God would love ALL people was beyond anyone’s experience: A mighty and powerful being, a male image, with tenderness, compassion and understanding like a mother, a female image. How did they process the idea of our one true God who has the best attributes of both men and women in one all-powerful Being? Actually, it is humanity who has been made in God’s image and been given these “best attributes” in our human nature. When we live them, we are more like the God Who made us to become like Him.
Hug your children tight and help them see, and appreciate!, that God loves them at every instant and we need Him at every instant!
-- Linda Bader, Coordinator of Religious Education
P.S. Did you know... St. Gabriel spoke to people before he spoke to Mary? He spoke to Daniel in the Old Testament to help him interpret his dream and then to John the Baptist's father to tell him Elizabeth would have a baby. He is considered a patron of messengers. If you have difficult news to deliver, perhaps ask his help beforehand!