The Holy Father, our Father who is in heaven, how do we see You? In our attempts to understand the relationship we should have with You, do we put You out of reach? In our attempt to be close to You, do we become too familiar? In our attempt to deify You, do we give You human frailties? We say You are our Father but that Jesus is Your only begotten child. We say that You are our Father and that we should fear You. We say You are our Father but do we fear to endear ourselves to You?
You are my Father and I am Your child. That is a relationship, but it is not always easy to understand You in that way. Instead I give to You the weaknesses of humans and place You out of reach. Because I think of You wanting as a human king or lord would want it to be, I make you untouchable. A man king wants the highest seat and wants to be served by the people. A man king takes from the people he rules and makes himself rich. Those that minister for a man king give to themselves a position of authority and lordship over others. The man king and his ministers sing each other’s praise and lift each other up. It is not so with those who minister for the Holy Father, or is it?
You are my Father and I am Your child. In that relationship I come to You with injuries that need Your touch. Other times I come to You with joys and still other times with needs other than healing. But with all these needs I bring to You, I also have need of Your arms around me. It is not only the need that the moment has provided, but the constant need to feel secure, that is in the understanding of You as my Father.
You are my Father and I am Your child. We have been told and so repeat that Jesus is the only begotten child of God. So how can I be Your child? Have You not begotten me of the Holy Spirit? Do I not grow inside the spiritual womb and do You not prepare for my birth? Could it be that Jesus came from God and from woman to be the first born of many children of God, and that I am now one of those children. When You are first, there is also a time when You are the only.
You are my Father and I am Your child. It is written that we should fear the Lord our God. Is it not also written that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul? One definition of fear is awe and another is to dread. Should we dread what we love? Is it not fitting to be in awe of what we love? Our Father is wondrous and deserving of our respect. Our brother, Jesus, came to tell us of the wonderful Father and to reassure us that He is our Father who is in heaven.