Getting To Know The Father

“[ . . . ] and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” // Matthew 11:27

I couldn’t wrap my mind around it: I knew Jesus, I knew the Holy Spirit, but the Father? He was “out of sight, out of mind” for me. After my conversion, it was easy for me to pray to Jesus since I came to know His true presence in the Eucharist. After Holy Communion or while in Eucharistic Adoration, I could really talk to Him. 

I grew up in the charismatic movement of the Catholic Church and had my conversion within this context, so the Holy Spirit was not foreign to me. I knew that the Spirit was real and at work in my life personally. Yet still, this First Person of the Godhead was missing in my conscious prayer life somehow. I didn’t avoid the Father on purpose, but I just did not know how to pray to the Father specifically—what to say or what to think. 

I see now that I had so much pride and self-reliance keeping me from knowing the Lord better. As Jesus says in today’s Gospel, these things are hidden from the “wise and learned” but revealed to the childlike (Matthew 11:25). The Lord was patient with me and tenderly guided my heart from its pompous ways to an understanding of true humility. 

And as I descended from my throne, as I became more dependent on Him instead of myself, as I was sobered by the reality of my sinfulness and my need for the Lord, Jesus began revealing the Father to me. In my heart, I began to know better this Person of the Trinity that had once seemed to evade me. I could perceive the Father’s knowledge of me, His love for me, and that He cared for me. 

Sister, I invite you today to pray with me for the full revelation of the Father’s love in your heart. That Jesus would lead you to the Father, as the Holy Spirit purifies your heart, so there may be a kindling of love and devotion “like the kindling of fire” (Isaiah 10:16).