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Search for God begins at home, but needs nurturing
January 1, 2009
Our two youngest boys, 9 and 13, were on a mission: find that errant MP3 player or bust. I happened upon them diligently searching under couches and rifling through drawers, all to no avail.
“Did you pray yet?” I asked them with a smile. The smaller one’s eyes lit up. “The other day we said, ‘Come, Holy Spirit,’ and it worked right away!”
Ah, yes, the ever-favorite word search assigned earlier in the week. “Why do teachers assign these things?” I remember asking myself as we hunted, fruitlessly, for “star,” the last word in the Advent-themed puzzle.
“Let’s pray,” I said to my son. “Come, Holy Spirit,” had barely left our lips when the missing word seemed to leap out at us from the page. I praised God for allowing this small sign of His care for His little ones. How tender is the faith of a child, and how important it is to ever implore the grace for it to flourish.
The search for the MP3 player temporarily halted to allow for our usual family prayer time. We thanked God for the blessings of the day, asked Him to forgive us our sins and please, help us find that little electronic gadget that had gone AWOL for more than a month.
When it was discovered just moments later (having been forgotten in the center console of Mom’s taxi on the way to school one morning), their little faces shone with joy. I’m sure it’s a moment they’ll not soon forget.
As I thought about their belief in a loving God and the lesson on entrusting all our concerns to Him, I silently thanked the Lord for allowing these encounters with grace in our lives. It’s in these everyday moments of family life that a deep and abiding faith takes root.
And yet, as I was reminded later that evening, it doesn’t take much to tear down what has been so carefully nurtured.
Tragic loss of faith
Across the country in New York, a father grieved the loss of his 22-year-old son to suicide.
Jesse Kilgore, a committed Christian and student at Jefferson Community College in Watertown, N.Y., was taking a course from a biology professor who goaded him into reading “The God Delusion,” written by militant atheist Richard Dawkins.
While atheism is nothing new, the fervor with which it is being foisted upon unsuspecting college students (and their debt-ridden parents) is something catching a few headlines these days, at least among Christian news outlets.
According to some reports, Kilgore’s friends told his father after the funeral that Dawkins’ book had devastated the young man. Despondent over what he had read, Jesse Kilgore stopped believing in God and an afterlife all together.
Were there other factors at work in Kilgore’s tragic demise? Perhaps. And yet, as a parent of a college student, his undoing is not entirely surprising. I recall with sorrow a professor of mine who seemed to take particular delight in ridiculing anyone brave enough to admit to faith in God. Thank God there were others who, at a state university, had the audacity to teach us about Aristotle, Aquinas and the natural law.
College students are often separated from their families and quite captivated by their professors. Sadly, some of these professors are not always content to keep their atheism to themselves and seem determined to inflict it on their hapless students.
May Kilgore’s passing inspire us to pray for our young people, that they will be steadfast in faith and find the spiritual strength and support they need to grow closer to God as they seek a higher education. Let us pray also for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on their professors, that they will lead students to know and love Truth.
Joyce Coronel is a regular contributor to The Catholic Sun. Send comments to letters@catholicsun.org.
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