Both of the readings for mass today talk about the children of God. The first reading from the book of the prophet Baruch says, “For the sins of my children I am left desolate, because they turned from the law of God.” Then Jesus praises his Father in today’s gospel and says, “although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.”
The first reading tells how the Jewish people had abandoned God. The entire reading comes across the same way that many parents today feel about their adult children who left the Catholic faith they were raised with. “With joy I fostered them; but with mourning and lament I let them go.” Later in the reading it says, “For the sins of my children I am left desolate, because they turned from the law of God.” Many parents have a great deal of guilty feelings over the fact their adult children no longer practice the Catholic faith. They ask themselves over and over again, what did they do wrong? But, according to the scriptures we are reading for mass today, there is a good chance they didn’t do anything wrong in how they raised their children. Mankind has been abandoning God for thousands of years. It isn’t anything new. It’s more fun to chase after “other gods” that are new and more interesting than the God they’ve always known. The God of their childhood is boring and old fashioned. But, parents grieve because they know the “other gods” their children are chasing after are a type of fools gold and not the source of genuine, life long, love, peace, happiness and joy.
Sooner or later though, most adults come to the realization that something is missing in their lives. They feel a sense of emptiness that nothing seems to satisfy. Sometimes adult children only return to their faith after they’ve really made a mess of their lives trying to do things “their way” and realize that maybe God’s way was a better way to live after all. Mom and dad were right. People sometimes have to sink to the bottom of a pit before they see the light. Remember the story of the prodigal son? The first reading for mass echos this sentiment when it says, “Fear not, my children, call out to God!”. “As your hearts have been disposed to stray from God, turn now ten times the more to seek him.”
When a person has sunk to the bottom of a pit in their lives, like the prodigal son did, God will often reveal to them the reason why. In the silence of their misery, God will sometimes speak to their hearts and they will come to understand why they ended up so miserable in life. Jesus echos this in the gospel today when he says “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and learned you have revealed them to the childlike.” When people are deeply hurt, grieving, sick or even dying, they become like little children and function in life on a much simpler level. That is what happened to the prodigal son when he looked upon the pods the pigs were eating and realized his father fed his hired hands better than he was fed. His father was the only good thing he had ever really known in life, but it took this catastrophe to finally make him realize it.
A comforting thought for family members and friends who know someone who has left the faith, can also be found in today’s gospel though. There were seventy two disciples that Christ sent into the world, who returned to him telling of the awesome power he had given them to defeat Satan. Many demons were subject to them because of the power Jesus gave them. Sometimes the fate of our loved ones and friends are not in our own hands, but in the Lord’s. We should allow him to do his work on earth, and sometimes that will be through other people who love him too. We have a saying in the US that “it takes a village to raise a child” and that is true in the Catholic community as well. Let us try then, to be family to one another wherever we are, and be kind to all of the ex-Catholics we know, gently reminding them of the faith they abandoned, most especially by our own good example. The ex-Catholics we know are someone else’s son or daughter and we can be extended family to them, by talking about our faith with them, whenever they are open to do so.
Daily Mass Readings:
Bar 4: 5-12 / Ps 69: 33-37 / Lk 10: 17-24
