A young father to be was pacing back and forth, wringing his hands in the hospital corridor while his wife was in labor.
His stomach was tied up in knots of fear and anxiety. Beads of perspiration were dripping from his brow. Finally at 4:00 AM a nurse popped out of the delivery room and announced, “Congratulations, Sir! You now have a beautiful little daughter!”
He dropped his hands and became limp as he blurted out: “Oh, thank God, it’s a girl! She’ll never have to go through the agony I’ve had to go through tonight!”
MYOPIC!! This father surely suffered from myopia – nearsightedness. Didn’t he have the slightest idea of what his wife was going through in labor? Don’t we all suffer from myopia until we change our location?
When we visit or are a patient in a hospital or a nursing home we often say: “Boy, I didn’t have it so bad after all, compared to some of the other people around me.”
I know I suffer from myopia every time I go to Haiti and visit the materially poor who only earn a dollar or two a day. I then realize that many millions of people on earth are in a similar situation.
On this Father’s Day we realize that fathers too, continually struggle with myopia – so they can see more and be more for the sake of their children and their family.
In today’s Gospel (Mark 4:35-41) Jesus gets into a boat with his disciples when a violent squall arises. Jesus uses his power to calm the seas. Jesus is still able to use his power today to calm our inner life when the violent storms in life toss us here and there.
Think of a time when YOUR father or a special man in your life calmed the turbulence you were going through.
GOD TOOK THE STRENGTH OF A MOUNTAIN, THE WARMTH OF THE SUMMER SUN AND THE CALM OF THE QUIET SEA. GOD CALLED HIM DAD!
