I Took You in My Arms: Reflections on Divine Filiation by Saint Josemaria Escriva by Mardegan Andrea & Mardegan Andrea

Author:Mardegan, Andrea & Mardegan, Andrea [Mardegan, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Midwest Theological Forum
Published: 2017-05-23T16:00:00+00:00

1. It is where a child belongs.

Don’t try to be grown-up. A child, always a child, even when you are dying of old age. When a child stumbles and falls, nobody is surprised; his father promptly lifts him up.

When the person who stumbles and falls is older, the immediate reaction is one of laughter. Sometimes this first impulse passes and the laughter gives way to pity. But older people have to get up by themselves.

Your sad experience of each day is full of stumbles and falls. —What would become of you if you were not continually more of a child?

Don’t want to be grown-up. Be a child; and when you stumble, may you be lifted by the hand of your Father-God. (The Way , 870)

Your involuntary falls—a child’s falls—show your Father-God that he must take more care and your Mother Mary that she must never let you go from her loving hand. Each day as our Lord picks you up from the ground, take advantage of it, embrace him with all your strength and lay your wearied head on his open breast so that you will be carried away by the beating of his most lovable Heart. (The Way , 884)

Just now, Jesus, when I was considering my wretchedness, I said to you: Allow yourself to be taken in by this son of yours, just like those good fathers, full of kindness, who put into the hands of their little child the presents they want to receive from them . . . knowing perfectly well that little children have nothing of their own.

—And what merriment of father and son, even though they are both in on the secret! (The Forge , 195)

The discouragement produced by your repeated lack of generosity, your lapses, your falls—which perhaps are only apparent—often makes you feel as if you had broken something of exceptional value (your sanctification).

Don’t be worried: apply to your supernatural life the wise way simple children have of solving such a conflict.

They have broken—nearly always because of its fragility—something their father values greatly. They are sorry, perhaps they shed tears, but . . . they go to seek consolation from the owner of what has been damaged by their awkwardness, and their father forgets the value—great though it may be—of the broken object and, filled with tenderness, he not only pardons, but consoles and encourages the little one. Learn. (The Way , 887)

But, let me go back to what I was telling you before: we have to learn to behave like children, we have to learn how to be God’s sons. At the same time, we have to pass on to others this outlook which in the midst of our natural weaknesses, will make us “strong in the faith,”1 fruitful in good works, and certain of our way, so that no matter what kind of mistakes we may make, even the most embarrassing, we will never hesitate to react and return to the sure path of divine filiation which ends up in the open and welcoming arms of our Father God.

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