Being a son of the Father means living like the Prodigal Son
The B.C. Catholic
Wax on, wax off. Just like Ralph Machio’s character Daniel in the 1984 film “The Karate Kid,” practice and repetition is the key to sonship with God, said Jake Khym.
“It’s okay and necessary with sonship to go back regularly to the Father for mercy,” Khym said. “He is quick to forgive, and boy, do we need it.”
Khym presented his topic: “True Sonship – Receiving God as the Father,” at Our Lady of Assumption Parish to more than 50 men May 7. The half-day recollection was for Catholic men interested in changing their personal lives for the better, both spiritually and emotionally.
Khym’s own process of improvement began with practising Christian disciplines after learning to seek forgiveness. Khym played clips from “The Karate Kid” to demonstrate the importance of practising these disciplines, including self-awareness, humility, and surrendering to the Father’s love and mercy.
“When you start to dive into (these disciplines), you start to feel Daniel’s frustration,” noted Khym. Initially, it is difficult to see the improvement God wants us to make. “But brothers, I can promise you, if there is one thing you take on this talk, one sword to practise, it’s humility. It’s the fast track to sonship.”
Khym relayed the importance of being humble and seeking forgiveness in his own journey to the Father. After struggling with an addiction to pornography that threatened his marriage, he finally embraced the Lord’s mercy.
“In my journey out of addiction, confession was the centrepiece of the conversion process,” Khym said. “I went to the same priest hundreds and hundreds of times, and he gave me this glimmer of the Father’s mercy. He was never upset with me, he was never mad at me, even though I confessed the same things, sometimes twice a day!”
He introduced the men to the different relationship levels with God the Father, using the parable of the prodigal son. “The grasping orphan finds security in what he can grasp for his pleasure,” Khym said. “The performing slave (or obedient son) finds security in self-reliance, and judgmental comparison and competition with others.”
However, the most important role to aim for is the abiding son, who “finds security in his relationship with Abba, Father.” By accepting the Lord’s mercy, a man can choose to become a better person, instead of being a slave who simply obeys and never rises to improvement.
“We are beloved sons of Abba, Father; however for many reasons we often live like orphans,” said Stephen Unser, the event organizer. Khym’s talk reintroduced the men present “to the wonder and freedom of being God’s sons, and offered practical ways to live as a son and not an orphan.”
