“Brand New Baby” by Brian Flanagan
30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
I’ve never changed a diaper in my life. At least I hadn’t until a few days ago when my wife and I had our first baby! Full disclosure: I still haven’t done it totally by myself yet, but I’m getting much better as long as I have my wife’s or my mother-in-law’s help.
The past week has been packed with emotions, adjustments, and chocolate cigars that say “It’s a Boy!” that make me feel like I’m in the new fathers’ waiting room in the 1950’s with Ricky Ricardo from “I Love Lucy”.
My little son can’t do much yet. He can only eat, sleep, and poop – but I love him to pieces. Oh, and of course he can cry. That’s really his only way of communicating at the moment. It doesn’t necessarily mean he’s sad, although when he cried during the 3rd Presidential Debate this week, I think it did mean that.
When I hear him cry in the middle of the night, I spring from my bed and run over to his little cradle to pick him up. Sometimes he just needs to be held. Sometimes he’s hungry. Sometimes he needs a clean diaper. I’m his dad, and when I hear his cries, I get there as quick as I can.
In the Psalm response from this Sunday’s readings, we sing, “The Lord hears the cry of the poor.” I definitely have a new understanding of God the Father’s love for us after becoming a father myself. My little boy is pretty helpless right now, but when I pick him up, he’s comforted and knows everything will be okay. His cries don’t go unanswered.
God hears our cries too. He has always heard the cries of his people throughout Salvation History. He heard the cries of the Hebrews in Egypt and sent Moses to the Pharaoh saying, “Let my people go.” He heard the cries of the people of Poland under Communism and sent St. John Paul II, the great Polish Pope, to preach love and solidarity that helped turn the tide. He heard the cries of the sick and the dying in Calcutta and sent St. Mother Teresa to bring them his healing and his peace. God hears our cries, and he answers. Not always in the way we expect, but he answers us.
He also promises in the book of Revelation that one day (when we’re in heaven), he will wipe away every tear from our eyes and there will be no more mourning or crying or pain or even death.
So cry out to God! Let him know your pain and your suffering. Let him know what you’re having a rough time with. He’ll hear you and he’ll answer you.
Speaking of hearing the cry of the poor, my poor little baby boy is in the other room probably with a not-so-clean diaper, so I better get on that…