A Sunday Thought to Start the Week Off Right

Our new President wants to "make America great again." His Inaugural speech was laced with the admonitions and exhortations we heard throughout the recent election campaign. Will those words prove to be a spark to right the ship of state from its listing to the left? Can Trump restore economic opportunity to the working middle class that has seen its wealth transferred to a small elite? Is one man strong enough to quell discontent and bring together in common purpose those warring factions that have dominated our political discourse? Such questions will only be answered in time.

As we Catholics contemplate all this, we would do best to remember that, while we wish our new President well, our primary focus in engaging with our society, our culture, and our political process should be based on, as we noted last Sunday:

....our complete, unadulterated trust in God, which includes an understanding that He has a plan which we endorse daily as we pray, "Thy will be done."

And so this Sunday, to help us better understand our relationship to our heavenly Father, we defer to these simple yet profound words from a man who left us so many inspiring spiritual works, Archbishop Alban Goodier, S.J. A careful, thoughtful reading of his words here will reveal a Father who, while Almighty, carefully and attentively watches over us each one of us. Compare this to even the greatest President, or Pope for that matter. The most they might accomplish would be to provide personal example and corporate leadership such that their organizations, government or Church, better serve their people. Contrast this with the loving Father portrayed by Archbishop Goodier:

To God the Father

Abba, Father
My Father. Our Father
Whom Jesus called: My Father and your Father.
You are so great. I am so little.
You are perfect being, I am but a shadow of being.
You are the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End
Almighty, Everlasting
And yet my Father.
You made me, the creature that I am.
With all my powers and weaknesses,
Powers, that I might use them,
Weaknesses, that I might trust You in Them.
And so rejoice in You the more
As an infant in its father’s arms
The more helpless, the happier.
You have wanted me, even me.
You have put me here
You have given me this state of life.
You want me back.
I try to walk,
Your hands uphold me.
I try to speak,
You find for me the words.
I try to do something for You,
Your hands are on mine.
I try to climb towards You,
You stoop down and lift me to Yourself.
I can do nothing of myself,
But with You I can do all things.

(Archbishop Alban Goodier, S.J.)

Recalling again the words of St. Francis de Sales (whose feast was celebrated in the Novus Ordo calendar this past week), we wish you a Happy Sunday!

“Trust the past to the mercy of God,

the present to His love,

the future to His Providence.”