We Are Not Enough

In the delightful comedy, Moonrise Kingdom, the eccentric, dysfunctional couple (Bill Murray plays the husband) are speaking to each from separate beds. The wife has been trying to corral her three rambunctious boys and one tempermental early-teen girl through her bull horn while committing adultery; the husband is rarely without a glass of wine in hand as he exudes midlife disorientation and quiet despair. At this point, however, they address each other with a tenderness flowing from shared sadness, hurt and contrition. "I am sorry she says." "That's alright," he replies. "But for which precise hurts are you sorry?" After a pause: "For any that still hurt you." He replies: "It's okay. Half of them are self-inflicted anyway." Later, he adds that he wishes the wind would just blow him away with the roof. But she alludes to the children: "We are all they have!" Again a poignant pause and he adds: "It is not enough." It is not enough!How true!As a father I heartily agree: "We are not enough: my wife and I!" But the good news is that within the Church we don't have to be enough. Rather, we have a limited, humble, distinct but significant role as mother and father...but we are part of a greater whole: grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, priests, teachers, virgins, coaches, neighbors, saints and angels. From that point in the movie, the drama goes into overdrive with a string of preposterous, serendpitous, and providential events in which the rich ensemble of characters (Ed Norton, Bruce Willis, Harvey Keitel, and some remarkable children) rise to the occasion to rescue the young people in crisis. What this means is that we as parents can relax, trust in God, and surrender our children into the broader communion of love that is the Church.