The Reality of Being a Son of the Father

Every January at St. John Paul II seminary, the seminarians have a weeklong silent retreat in Malvern, PA. It is always a wonderful time to start the year off in silence with the Lord after Christmas break. Our faculty says that retreat week is the most important of the year. After having an amazing time with the Lord in the retreat last year, I was really excited for this year, but I did not want to set myself up for disappointment with my own expectations. As I have experienced many times from the Lord, He is never outdone in generosity and the same was true for this year’s retreat!
 
The night we arrived, we had a conference from the priest leading the retreat. Usually there is a theme or topic that the retreat master talks about in his conferences, and this year’s topic was “Friendship with Christ.” All the conferences were incredible, but the biggest focus for me was how my relationship with Christ also means true sonship with God the Father. Because Christ is fully united with His Father in heaven, I too am a son of the Father if I am in friendship with Christ.
 
In the past, I’ve heard the importance of living as a beloved son of God the Father. Even though I knew the importance of living as a beloved son of the Father, I just knew it in my head and not in my heart. But on this retreat, the Lord gave me the grace to desire closer union with Him and experience the love He has for me as my Father. In my desire to be closer to God the Father, I remembered a passage from St. Paul about being His son or daughter. All I could remember was the words of St. Paul when he says, “Abba! Father!” but I could not remember which epistle it was from. Incredibly, when I was in Eucharistic Adoration later that day, I found those words and was amazed at what St. Paul said:
 
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” (Romans 8:14-17).
 
Reading this passage, I realized that we are joint heirs with Christ! The closer we are in friendship with Christ, the closer we are as sons or daughters of the Father. This truly opened my eyes to my sonship with the Father. Through His grace, I experienced His intense and unending love for me and every one of us.
 
On the last day of the retreat, our retreat master said that even though the wonderful retreat we just had might feel, in a sense, outside of our routine and the real world, this feeling is not true. Spending time with the Lord and being with Him in silence is what reality is all about.
 
In other words, God is reality because God is truth. Living in the world, as good as it may seem, is not heaven. But spending time with the one who loves us more than we love ourselves is having a taste of heaven. Being with God is reality and the greatest part of that reality is living as His son or daughter!

Mr. D'Andrea is a College II seminarian for the Diocese of Arlington.