December 2003

One of the greatest thrills of my life is being a father. One of the hardest things in being a father is seeing my child struggling in pain and being prohibited from rescuing him. Recently our 8-month old, Jack, was taken to the hospital. While there, it was necessary for them to draw his blood. Because he's a squirming lad, my wife and I were required to hold him down to help the process. But what complicated the matter was that Jack has extremely tiny veins, making the process longer than normal. Because of this, he was “stuck” with needles several times in different locations of his body trying to find veins large enough to transfer the needed amount of blood to the vial. Throughout the entire ordeal I could only stand there, pin him to his little bed and look into his eyes.

While he screamed and tears streamed down his face, though not able to talk, it felt like he was looking at me saying, “ daddy, daddy, can't you help me ? Please help me !”

To this day, that was one of the most heartbreaking days of my life.

It was if at that moment God spoke to me. “ Now you have a small taste of what it was like to see my son's bloody, swollen, tear-drenched face and hear him crying out to Me from the cross as the Romans drew his blood .”

‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani' Matthew xxvii