A few weeks ago I got a call from Dale Price who, in a bout of temporary insanity (I swear I didn't threaten the guy) told me that he and Heather were expecting a fifth child to be born in October and "we need a Godfather." (Heather has already made an announcement, and Dale let it slip en passant in his combox, though I can't find it very quickly.)
I was frankly so nonplussed that I didn't handle it well. The very notion of me as a father of any description is not something that's been in my head for decades. But once I had accepted and talked with Dale for a bit, I was beaming with the same sort of humble pride (if that makes any sense) that I imagine affects men when they find out they'll be biological fathers, though they generally have a little more of an inkling that such news is potentially in the cards.
Goes without saying, of course, that the Prices will be the primary religious educators and parents and authority figures and whatnot. But in several months there will be a human being for whom I have some responsibility before God, a kind of parentage. I can't even type those words in without welling up. I even said to my confessor that "I now have a reason for living," though he (understandably) didn't care for those precise words and said, "you always did, this just makes it clearer to you."
And please forgive the joke pic ... too obvious too pass up.
6 comments:
I can't even type those words in without welling up.
I can't read those words without welling up. God bless you always CourageMan.
As I said at my blog, I may be nuts, but Heather isn't, as you well know.
Oh, and I forgive you for gratuitious use of French, too.
I don't know what to say besides...
As the mom, I'm 9 weeks and 2 days, up 2.5 pounds, and feeling tired, hungry, and hormonal (weepy and overemotional, not angry).
According to Tsarias' From Conception to Birth, at 51 days your godchild (how's THAT for pulling your heartstrings?) has webbed recognizable fingers and toes, eyes, elbows, ears (though the auditory nerve isn't quite done yet), and is about 18mm long.
I hope there's a smile in there, sir.
Congratulations!
Indeed, all of us men are called to share in God's fatherhood — be it biological or spiritual — and with your godchild you will be able to experience this in a very real way.
Saint Joseph is a great patron for godfathers:
"Speaking to the crowd and to his disciples, Jesus declared: 'You have only one Father' (Mt 23:9). There is but one fatherhood, that of God the Father, the one Creator of the world, 'of all that is seen and unseen.' Yet man, created in the image of God, has been granted a share in this one paternity of God (cf. Eph 3:15). Saint Joseph is a striking case of this, since he is a father, without fatherhood according to the flesh. He is not the biological father of Jesus, whose Father is God alone, and yet he lives his fatherhood fully and completely. To be a father means above all to be at the service of life and growth. Saint Joseph, in this sense, gave proof of great devotion. For the sake of Christ he experienced persecution, exile and the poverty which this entails. He had to settle far from his native town. His only reward was to be with Christ. His readiness to do all these things illustrates the words of Saint Paul: 'It is Christ the Lord whom you serve' (Col 3:24)."
from the homily of Pope Benedict XVI, first vespers of the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, 18 March 2009
God bless you and the Prices. Congrats to all of you.
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