OUR FATHER

Our Father

 

“While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was filled with compassion.” – Luke 15:20

 

My father was a stern disciplinarian. He would admonish us — sometimes gently, but more often sternly — when we would come home late. But still he would always stay up to wait until all 10 of us children would come home. Sometimes, he would get angry when we didn’t do well in our studies but that spurred me to do better in school. He taught me to be industrious and I had to work as a student to help in the expenses of our big family.

He was also a tower of moral propriety, which he passed on to us through sermons that were sometimes spoken condescendingly. When I reflected at the times when I resented his words, tears would roll down my cheeks in repentance for rejecting his well-meaning sermons. Looking back now, it was the values and character traits he passed on to me that gave me success and integrity.

In many aspects, my dad is my image of God the Father, Abba. God’s words in Scriptures may sometimes come as sharp admonitions but they are wise counsel. His tough love can be painful but it’s a wealthy source of valuable lessons. Our God is a God of discipline but He is also our endearing Abba. Rolly España (rolly@homeliving.com.ph)

 

REFLECTION:

“Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline?” (Hebrews 12:7)

 

Abba, Father, thank You for disciplining us as Your children.

Temptation for the Good Ones The elder son, faced with the extravagant welcome extended by the father to the returning young son, felt that he was the victim of injustice. By his own words, the elder son described his life as a life of obedience to, hard work for, and duty towards his father. Despite our Christian bias against them when we read the Gospels, the Pharisees were also like the elder son. They were lawyers who were loyal in defending the Law and the rightful worship of Yahweh amidst the many pagan incursions that came with various foreign invaders of Israel and the Holy City of Jerusalem. The Pharisees had an illustrious past. They were first mentioned as a Jewish group around 200 B.C. during the reign of Jonathan, a descendant of Judas Maccabees. It is said that they were spiritually descended from the “Hasidims” (meaning godly people) who banded together and encouraged one another in the study and practice of the Sacred Law of Moses amidst the moral and religious decline (cf. 1 Maccabees 2:42; 7:14; also 2 Maccabees 14:6). Their passionate devotion to God and His Law made them true patriots who fought on the side of the Maccabeans against the Seleucids and against all other pagan foreign incursions into Israel. Their ability to resonate with the sentiments of the people made the Pharisees an influential group. The Sadducees who formed the majority group in the Sanhedrin (Jewish supreme council) were obliged to respect their views. The Pharisees and the elder son in Jesus’ parable were good persons. They had some big problems, though: it made them intolerant of others’ weakness. Their strictness about justice made them impose a claim for their goodness before God. They bound God to their own terms, and they forgot that God’s will and ways are supreme above all human standards. They forgot that amidst our goodness and uprightness, before God we remain to be all creatures who can only invoke God’s grace and mercy. Fr. Domie Guzman, SSP     Reflection Question: Were there instances when we felt like the “elder son” before God? When did you also feel that God’s ways are “unjust” amidst your own honest and sincere efforts to goodness and right? Spend time reconciling with God.   Forgive me, Lord, for the times I considered myself short-changed for all that I have given You. Make me humble, Lord.   St. Baldred, pray for us.