If in a quiet moment on a sun lit park bench someone was to ask me what I most desire in life the answer would be simple, which is fitting because it would come from a simpleton. What I desire most is that the Catholic faith be planted deeply in my children. And in this damning post modern and post Christian cesspool of a culture we are swimming in, my greatest fear is that such dreams will be thwarted.
The greatest hurdle my kids might face is their father. Are the other families in the pews in similar straits? I have abounding doubts to that question. I empathize with the late “Magister Johannes” John Senior who wrote in “The Restoration of Christian Culture”
“It is with a certain reserve that, like a janitor holding the door, I have urged others into rooms I have never myself entered; or like someone who had studied maps and read directions and diaries by travelers to a far country reporting such marvels as to make the place seem a terra aliena, I have awakened to some deep ancestral memory of my native country and King.”
I was cursed with a sense of humor that sorts belly laughs out of the most inappropriate subject matter. Something inside me casts aside most reservations in commenting on the absurdities of our lot in life. Over the years, my family has grown used to such outbursts, but it has taken too much of a toll and it would appear that many times such comments on absurdity have been taken to imply acceptance of immorality.
Should I state for the record that this is not the case? I do so forcefully, now.
It also puts my children in a quandary when I do attempt to address certain topics near and dear to those who would cast off any moral restraints beyond those which have already or are still in the process of, being shed.
What is the antidote to that which I have poisoned? Does a cure remain?
Perhaps it is what it always has been: The great and unutterable secret behind the “thou shalt nots.” It is the burning fire of love with which our God burns for the souls of the children of men. Should they get a true taste of that, I believe that the worthless trinkets we hold up to our eyes to block out the sun would be cast aside and be seen for the junk they are.
That has always been my ultimate goal, but my inappropriate laughter and deadpan social commentaries could drown out the nine choirs of angels. Am I alone the simpleton?
