[STRONG DISCLAIMER: We are not there. We are inviting you to join us in the bold, self-effacing, amazing adventure of getting there.]
RECAP. My first personal story illustrated a defining truth of parenthood (Chernobyl Diaper): There’s nothing we can ever do that surpasses the impact of who we are. Put a different way, our parenthood is substantially proclaimed in the lives of our children. This begs the question: Who are we? What is our deepest quality? Does it color all we do? Join me now on a trip back to a powerful event in my life that took place in Brooklyn, New York.
1992. It was hot. 100 degrees hot. Kids everywhere. All the time. Nothing to do. Except for what "the street" could offer. Drugs. Gangs. Sex. Vandalism. Violence. I’d only been in New York a couple months. Following an exhilarating but exhausting season of evangelizing across the country for Franciscan University. Fr. Benedict Groeschel, with his Godfather-esque, Jersey accent, pressed me: “Gregory, if you’re gonna discern the priesthood ya gotta get off the stage. Come spend some time with me, kid!” Within weeks I found myself doing menial tasks and living in a small room at Trinity Retreat in Larchmont, New York.
Shortly after, Joe Campo called and asked if I would help out at an event called “Youth 2000.” Whatever that was.
When I got there, music was flowing out into the streets. Not hip-hop. Or rap. Worship. I followed the sound into the gymnasium and was moved by a wave of… Something. I can explain my senses. I can’t explain the sensation. The room was packed with kids. Inner city kids. Sitting, even kneeling, on little carpet squares. In pitch dark. Except for flickering illumination from hundreds of candles on a unique, pyramidal structure called a “Burning Bush.”
On top of the Burning Bush was a golden object with a sun-like receptacle. Rays all around it. Called a "Monstrance,” the Latin essentially means “to show.” What was it showing? A small, circular, white object. To the sense, nothing spectacular. At all. And yet, there was an aura about this unassuming “host.” Summoning attention. Summoning us.
Another oddity was the Gandalf-looking priest with a grey garb, long beard and sandals. For real. With a profound sense of reverence, with such authenticity and conviction, he invited us to recognize not a what, but Who was before us. Jesus Christ.
Speaking to unspoken doubts, this Franciscan Friar of the Renewal was able to awaken within us a deeper place of perception. Beyond sense. Beyond flesh and blood. An awareness that this was truly Jesus Christ. One Whose love was so great that He could not be separated from us. Who descended from the heavens. Who took on our flesh. Who spoke of the Kingdom. Who healed the sick and raised the dead. Who suffered and died. For us. Personally. Only to rise again. Defeating both sin and death. That we might live with Him now. That we might rise with Him.
Like Moses thousands of years before us, we were made to believe we were truly on Holy Ground. Before the one, true, living God.
Now let me tell you about the two greatest skeptics in the room. Perhaps in the world. Let me tell you about Jimmy and Rocco. Neither had experienced anything religious in their lives. Jimmy was a skinny kid with a relentless, smart-arse mouth. Rocco was a serious, huge Italian kid built like a bull. Both commanded the respect of their respective and rival gangs. Yes, gangs. Throughout the day and into the next, leaders were doing their best to keep them from killing one another. You could feel the tension. Surges of raw hatred. Oscillating with unseen waves of grace.
God surely saw warring heavenly forces. The staging ground for an epic battle between principalities and powers. Continuation of a war that had been playing out from the beginning of time. Whose consequences were not fleeting.
The battle came to a climactic showdown on the second night. In the flickering light of the Burning Bush, the priest read the gospel about the woman who touched Jesus' cloak and was healed. His words were clear and simple: Each of us are deeply broken. Wounded. From our past. From things we’ve done. From things done to us. Everything we do is out of a deep yearning to be healed. Everything. And there’s only One person who can do that. It was for this He came into this world. It was for this He was before us. The priest punctuated it: All who touch Jesus' cloak in faith will know His healing presence, purpose and power.
Holding Jesus in the Monstrance, the priest began weaving in and out of the sea of young people. Various hands reaching out. Sniffles and soft crying announced that unseen arms were reaching back. Unseen water rising. With each passing moment, pressing in and building with the force of the Niagara Falls. On so much junk and debris. Finding its way through a few drips. Then a trickle. Then streams.
It was then I noticed, as the priest passed a far corner, Jimmy reaching out. A contemptuous doubt to the promise of God's present power. A disbelieving dare.
Yet when Jimmy touched the priest's garment, something happened. He didn’t let go. I noticed his face. All the hardened lines were softening. After a moment he pulled his hand away, lowering his head into his hands. His slight shoulders began to shake. Just a little at first. Then more violently. He was helpless. Streams of water were breaking through. A growing crescendo. He could not stop rocking back and forth. Then it all broke through with a kind of holy violence. Jimmy crying out in uncontrollable sobs.
Who knows what kind of pain, rejection, anger, shame, bitterness, hatred, alienation those sobs pronounced. All of us present knew we were in the overwhelming Presence of something far greater than any of us. Jesus Christ is real. Real real. With us. Aware of us. Doing something powerful.
If there were any doubts, what happened next was even more incredible. From across the room, the vast expanse between warring tribes, Rocco stood up. All eyes watched as he made his way slowly over to Jimmy. None of us adults were on edge. The former intense atmosphere had been vanquished by the unspeakable Presence.
With Jimmy still sobbing, joined by a growing number of his gang who had also reached out, Rocco reached down to the former subject of his sworn hatred, took hold of his shoulders, seemingly lifting him off the ground... and embraced him and shouted, no, screamed... with an abandon I've never heard before, "I'm sorry. I'm SORRY! I'M SORRY!!" Jimmy reciprocated the embrace.
And now... the rest of the story.
Later that night someone shared that a member of Rocco's family had hurt, possibly even killed, someone from Jimmy’s family. That night the seeds of war, hatred and violence, lust, prejudice, indifference, pride, selfishness -- all those things we battle somewhere in our depths, all those things that keep us distant from one another, all those things that keep us in a state of half-life, were proven no match for the love of God in Jesus Christ.
Take a moment and consider. When was that powerful moment of your Encounter? What made it powerful? What lasting difference did it make? Are you living in its stream? Is it overflowing into your marriage and family? If it is, truly, no further parenting guidance is necessary; if not, no further parenting guidance will matter.
The Holy Spirit is just as present, purposeful and powerful with you now as He was then. The place you picture in your Encounter is now your home. The people you were with are now your family. And the leaders charged with guiding it are you, the parents.
Here’s the big point: No parental expression or expectation will ever replace living out of the Encounter. This powerful experience inspired my originating what became Mount 2000 at Mount St. Mary's, and is the very heart of our person, marriage and family revival movement. Find out more at ILoveMyFamily.us.
NEXT: PARENTING KIDS FOR THE KINGDOM: HEADBANGING (Part 3)
