Page 52 - Nurturing the Nurturer 2018 Flip Page Program

A Father Who Loves Us

By Chris Stefanick

The world is full of examples of God our loving Father
wanting to feed and provide for us.

There is no experience in the world like that of being a
brand new dad. On the one hand you feel completely inept
and at the same time I felt this new power rise up inside of
me. The heart of a father was born in me and I wanted to

stand between her and all in the world that would press
upon her. I was ready to lay down my life to protect her
from anything in the world that could hurt her. That is how
God loves us. See when a world of want, need, darkness, sin was pressing upon us,
God put himself between us and all of that and laid down his life to save us. That is
the love that we encounter at every Mass.

That is why Catholics for 2000 years have risked
their lives just to be at Mass and not just a 1000

years ago in history – all you have to do is watch
the news to see the reality that Catholics to this
very day are risking their lives to be at Mass.
There are stories coming out of Irac of Catholic
young people risking their lives to go to Mass and
their parents begging them not to go. But them
saying they have to go because “Mass is our life.”

And, yet, God knew that many of us would overlook the amazing blessing - the

experience of his love that we encounter when we go to Mass – and that we would
prefer to do other things like sleep in; that’s why Jesus didn’t just make Mass an
invitation – he made going to Mass a command.

Commandments, rules, regulations – these words conjure
up feelings of being restricted – but as a parent I can say
that rules, regulations, commandments come from a place
of love. I know it’s hard to get that. Even from the age of
two there is a battle of wills. Wherever our wills and our

brains are out of sync there is a struggle.

The devil’s motto is “non servium” I will not serve. He saw
God’s lordship as something that would limit him and we
can be that way too. When we think about the rules and

regulations that come along with our faith – things we can’t do; things we have to do
like getting up on Sunday

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