November 2, 2005
A father's forgiveness
From Benedict XVI's recent commentary on the De Profundis:
It is significant that reverent awe, a sentiment in which respect and love are mingled, is not born from punishment but from forgiveness. Rather than sparking his anger, God's generous and disarming magnanimity must kindle in us a holy reverence. Indeed, God is not an inexorable sovereign who condemns the guilty but a loving father whom we must love, not for fear of punishment, but for his kindness, quick to forgive.
Posted by Bill White at 12:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 13, 2004
Sam
Hi Guys:
I posted this letter last week as a reply to another post, as I could not figure out how to post a new letter. Richard showed me how, so here goes.
It's good to be reading posts from committed dads again. I have been working with committed people this last month, but then, I am a lawyer and these committed people are insane criminals. I do prefer interaction with committed Catholic dads, who are not in mental institutions.
My old buddy Richard Chonak put me onto this list and suggested I post something. So, by way of introduction, I thought I would post something about one of my six children, Sam.
Sam is 19. In elementary school, he had severe learning disabilities. When we realized in the third grade he could not read at all, we pulled him out of parochial school and tried home schooling. We actually tried homeschooling all three of our school age children. It didn't work for Sam.
By the sixth grade, despite long hours of homeschooling with my wife as chief teacher, he still wasn't getting it. Testing that year disclosed he was dyslexic, suffered from non-hyperactive attention-deficit disorder, had an immature brain (was developmentally about 2 years behind his age group) and processed information at 1/2 the speed of the average student. We were in over out heads trying to homeschool Sam.
We then put all our kids in public school, and got Sam special help for his disabilities. With medication and assistance in school, he began to learn to read in the 6th grade.
Even with special help in junior high and thereafter, we had to give Sam extra help with homework, and had to constantly inform his teachers that he suffered real and serious disabilities. Every mid-term, we received reports from one or more teachers that Sam was failing, and we would have to remind the teachers that Sam was supposed to be getting special assistance because of his learning disorders. By the end of the quarter, things would be worked out, then the cycle would repeat itself. I hoped that some day, Sam would be able to get through all this and find a niche, something he could do, and some way to support himself.
To make matters worse, in the 8th grade, Sam was attacked by a local group of gang-wannabes; after Sam came back from the hospital, I decided it was time for him to learn how to fight to defend himself. I enrolled the family in karate classes.
To make a long story not quite so long, Sam finally graduated from high school--by his senior year, he became motivated to be a soldier. He was a competitive karate fighter, went to the state championships in swimming (his first year in the sport), and he started applying himself in school. He studied for the Army entrance exam, and passed with a high score. Despite leg problems that kept him off the track team, I helped him train for the running he would do in boot camp. He went to boot camp, and when his legs hurt, he ran anyway and refused to quit. I traveled to Ft. Knox, Kentucky, to see him graduate from boot camp in the honors platoon.
Now, at age 19, he's entering his third year in the Army reserve, and is ready to become a sergeant. He's enrolled in a business administration program in college--to learn how to lead men. In less than 2 years, unless he is deployed to Iraq (he has volunteered to serve in Iraq twice, but the Lord put obstacles in his way that kept him here), he will graduate from college with his bachelor's degree, and enter the Army full time to be, he hopes, a combat officer with the Rangers.
I can't express how this all makes me feel. Worried? Yes. Proud? Absolutely. Moslem extremists want to kill us, and Sam has put on the uniform to stop them, at the risk of his own life.
While he used to look up at me, and perhaps see things he hoped to be someday, I look at him now and see a young man who had to overcome barriers I never faced; a young man with more purpose than I ever had, and a young man with more guts than I ever had. I watch him with great admiration.
Some ten American soldiers were killed in Iraq last week. That news hurt, but another ten soldiers, like Sam, will take their place and affirm the American solders' mantra: "These colors never run."
Allen Browning
Posted by Allen Browning at 3:28 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack