Old Stuff

Holy Shit!

Sorry for the vulgarity, but, well, parents of infants will know what I mean. Back in their diaper days our two oldest children each made a distinctive "poop face" while filling their diapers, and all three of the kids have the same "poop sound" - the classic series of short grunts interspersed with Benedictine silence and Dominican concentration. Aside from the sound, the baby poops with a Jesuit stoicism.

When his poop sounds started up this morning during breakfast, followed quickly by that old stench, I realized that his grunts were the voice of God calling us to holiness; that the road to holiness runs right through his full and stinking diaper. Ah - the smell of holiness! The basis for these scatological thoughts of holiness is, of course, Matthew 25:40, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." If he was serious, then every day we feed, clothe and change Christ himself.

Parents have the privilege of being apostles of the Divine Mercy at just about each moment of the day; if we take care not to resent the opportunity, the spiritual and corporal works of mercy can become virtues we practice daily. As Kimberly Hahn says, "we're changing the world one diaper at a time."