How do we insure that your children prosper forever ?
It is only human nature to want your children to succeed and not only succeed but to prosper in life. Our first reading discribes the miracles that God has done for His people. The end of the reading from Deuteronomy says, “You must keep his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you forever.”
John Calvin, the French Theologian, had the doctrine of predestination which said in effect that there were only certain souls going to heaven and a sign of this predestination was the money and wealth you have accumulated over your life. This of course is not true. I do not think that John Calvin had met anyone like Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
I do not think the reading from Deuteronomy was talking about money or wealth. It was talking first about following the commandments but the result was not wealth and the land was not possessions. It seems that these things were a metaphor for heaven and their souls.
Remember Sunday’s gospel about the rich man with the bountiful harvest? I think that the theme is continued today but spread to the how our souls prosper and how we give spiritual wealth to our children.
This weekend is chaos in our household. Two of my pre-teen grandchildren are visiting. I look at them and hope the direction my wife, Anna, and I have given them over the years will take hold. Their parents may not have made the best choices but there is hope for them also. These are good kids and all any parent can do is pray for them and teach them the commandments and how prosper.
Baseball and Football do not have the same rules. Rules are something we cannot make up as we go and we all have the same rules of life. To really prosper we have to follow the rules.
Going back to the readings, my prayer is that all our children will prosper.
God Bless
Bob Burford
Note Feast of Saint Maximilian Kolbe is August 14th and the Assumption on the 15th. We have a busy week ahead.
