2007 April 01 – The pastoral text of Fr Reuter is this: A good husband and father gets more joy from his children than he can ever find in a night club, with a bar girl.
Of course! Father, if I may say so myself, even if I’ve never been to a night club. But it’s not an easy lesson, Father. I wasn’t a philandering husband or anything; I was a computer widower from 1987 to about 2000; years before that, I was a non-performing father, in the sense that I was never very concerned about what was happening to my children, how they were growing up, what they thought and felt about their father who was around almost all the time but wasn’t there at all – physically present, mentally absent. I was the father who refused to grow up. I was minding more my writing, my editing, my desktop publishing; I was always worried, though I hardly told anyone, including my wife, how I could earn more because I knew I wasn’t earning enough. After all, I had 12 children, yes, a dozen.
Then one day, a silent voice gently castigated me for being so proud and selfish of my talents, and for being content with what I had, what we had. Then I learned, although not immediately, to cast all my cares at the foot of the cross. ‘Take all of them, Lord, because I can’t handle them anymore. And, thank you, for another day, another morning, another evening, another rainy day.’
It took me years, nay, decades, to learn to be mindful of my own family, to be glad I had them like I had them. Not that I would say I am now a good husband and father, but that I finally learned to be thankful for everything. And I mean everything.
I think, Father, that the greatest lack in the world as far as marriage is concerned is the education of couples about to get married, about married life, about family life. We have the Marriage Encounter Weekend, of course, but that’s only 2 nights and 3 days. The charismatic groups could fill in this lack if they would.
Posted by frankahilario 