Wednesday – 4th Week of Lent
Gospel – John 5:17 - 30
Doing My Father’s Work

Dad’s Store

My Dad began working in that little country store at the age of 16 and retired from that same store over 50 years later.  It was part gas station, part ice cream stand, part deli and liquor store, supermarket and local gathering spot.  After hours, it was also home for a long string of brotherly games of poker and pitch.  During all those 50 some years, he ran the store on his own, hardly ever took a vacation, and worked roughly from 5 in the morning to 10 at night, at least 6 days a week.  During the school year we basically saw him only at dinnertime for about an hour.  In the last 10 years of the store’s existence, he was also doing double-duty as the postmaster (yes, it was also the post office), taking over after my grandmother passed away. And yet in spite of all the hardships, somehow out of that tiny little store, he managed to put all four of us through high school and college.  I have yet to figure out how he managed to accomplish it.

I remember one of the last conversations I ever had with my Dad.  We were sitting at the kitchen table and I asked him if he ever regretted that I didn’t follow in his footsteps and take over the store.  His answer was quick and to the point.  No!  He said he would never have expected me, much less wanted me, to do that.  He reminded me that it was not really a career path he would have chosen but it was the path that was given to him.  And he accepted it and made it his own.  What he wanted was for me to find my own way in the world. 

I had always worried that, in a way, I was not following in my father’s footsteps, that I wasn’t doing his work by not taking on the store.  But as I reflect back on my Dad, I see not just the work he did but the qualities he embodied in that work.  Dad was compassionate, merciful, generous with his time and affection, respectful of others and always willing to offer counsel and support to those in need, and quick to provide a bag or two of groceries to someone who came up short for the month.

We hear a lot about fathers and sons in today’s Gospel.  “Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for what he does, the Son will do also.
For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything that he himself does,”

In a way, I do believe I am following in my Dad’s footsteps, that I am continuing his work, if I am kind and compassionate, generous and heartfelt.  So just a simple question today!   Is God the Father at work in us?  Does our Father’s love for us show forth clearly in our actions, in our words and in our  intentions?  Are we our Father’s child?