Back in Saddle Again

I return to my office today after being off for the last week. In truth it seems like a much longer time. Most of the stretch between Christmas and New Year was spent with the baby. We were all dealing with the seasonal virus and were the worse for wear. Nights were shattered on several occassions by the constant ups and downs associated with "checking on the baby" when he cried. Sick or not, he is still remarkably pleasant.

I found myself thinking about the bonding process. There is much to be said for "quality" time and in our busy lives sometimes that is the best we can hope for. But there is value to quantity. Actually spending lots of hours together, day and night, has a way of tying people together. I found myself telling him, "I will miss you buddy" as I prepared to return to work.

The contrast on New Year's Eve was apparent to me. My own siblings and their children and grandchildren gathered for lunch on Saturday. It is something we do with irregularity. Once my mom and dad died, the family gatherings associated with them died as well. My folks have been dead 17 and 12 years respectively, so that means for well over a decade we do not see much of each other. It is compounded by my vocation. Priests tend to be busy when other people are off. My niece and nephew live together, which I think is wonderful. Extended family is a great gift. My own kids are somehow deprived of that as they are a decade behind everyone else and cousinless on my wife's side. We love each other very much, but I have not been privy to the daily lives of any of them for a long time.

The New Testament is rather ambivalent about family. Jesus says things about loving Him more than family, or renouncing family. Jesus' family is portrayed somewhat negatively by Mark (they think He is crazy). Flesh and blood relationships take a back seat to the 'church' family (of disciples). From what I understand, family connections in Jesus' day were even more intense than in our own. So it is hard to know the actual context of His sayings (and without context literal meaning is lost!).

I am watching two of mine hastening toward adulthood. We are talking about college choices and they spend much of their time with friends. Such passages are natural, customary, most welcome and painful! It is odd to be pouring so much energy into a seven month old while at the same time letting go of the other two. Yet that is the natural flow of things. The good news, I hear, is that they come back after college. I look forward to that.

Being connected to these people whom I call family has been a great gift. I am now back to my other family, the church. All family in its many forms (biological or not)  is a sacrament of Trinity, community, love. All of it bears the finger prints of the Creator. I am trying to focus my "eyes" to see God more and more. And to be thankful for all of them.