First reading: Deuteronomy 4:1-2,6-8
Psalm: Ps 15:2-5
Epistle: James 1:17-18,21-22, 27
Gospel: Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23
—Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.—
Wrong-hearted:
Here we are, Youth Sunday, on the verge of a new school year and a new year in our School of Christian Living.
When discussing youth and the Church we often focus on the contents of today’s scripture. We recount the laws of the Lord and the do’s and don’ts which make everything very simple. We warn against the dangers of the world, of the false ethics imposed by the media and government. We hope and certainly pray that the Lord protect our children from danger and from the wrong path. We look at our list of bad stuff and ask that our children avoid:
evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.—¨
I don’t think any of us would want our children to be drawn into any of these. We hope for the best and fear a bit because we have to trust an educational system without a an objective center to help us in our task of raising children. For five days a week that system works against the one morning a week we pray, offer sacrifice, and teach our children in the way of the Lord. Something more is required so that our children avoid wrong-hearted choices; so that they come up in the way of the Lord.
Something more:
What can work miracles, what can make the difference, what is the something other?
That something other starts with us. We can make that miraculous intervention. What that takes is a consistent message. It doesn’t consist of preaching or lectures. Those have their place, but more important is the day-to-day life we lead. We can use the word example but that’s abstract. How about this:
Do we celebrate traditions in our home that center on the liturgical year — such as fasting on Fridays and Wednesdays and Fridays during Lent; that include joyful moments: Hey! you Christians get gifts on St. Nicholas Day? Both the fasts and the joys are teaching moments to be shared by family. What is our language like? Do we pray before every meal or are we too rushed? Do we eat together at a table like Jesus did or in front of the television? Do we hold our children accountable for their actions, the wrongs they may do? Do they apologize to those they may have hurt? Do we sit together and focus on homework or do we send our children off alone to suffer through it? Do we give the Church’s view of current events and the news — not to be judgmental — but to teach that there is an objective standard of behavior, that right and wrong do actually exist? Do we teach the art of charity or is everything on sale in the yard or on Amazon? Do we jump out of bed on Sunday morning in the joy of anticipation or is it obvious that it is drudgery?
Each of those things are the something more we can actually do. These are the practical steps for making a difference. There is also something more…
This school year we have confirmation and first communion classes. The reality — God’s gift of grace makes the biggest difference every week. The Holy Mass, penance, the Word, the Eucharist impart life changing and world changing grace. With those gifts, with true faith and belief in those gifts, and our cooperation with those gifts, our children will stay protected.
It comes from the heart:
Jesus told us: —From within people, from their hearts…— We understand what Jesus meant… that good and evil comes from the heart. The dangers out there, those in our homes, among the members of the Church, in society at large come from the heart. The good, the love Jesus calls us, our families, the Church to, that comes comes from the heart as well. To minister to our youth, to raise up our children and to hold them before the Lord we need to impart hearts that destroy wrong, that eliminate corruption. —¨
Brave heart:
A man I used to work with had a saying: —God hates cowards.— Not theologically or philosophically correct, but with a drop of truth. St. Paul writing to Timothy (2 Timothy 1:7) reminds us that:
God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control.
Timidity has been translated many ways — but essentially meaning that God gives us a spirit of courage, a brave spirit. We need to impart a message of bravery in proclaiming our faith. Our children need to know that they are allowed to be brave in the face of the world, friends, sin. This doesn’t mean that we should teach our youth to be offensive in bravely delivering the message, for every message must be delivered with love, but that they can be confident in its truth.
The spirit we have been given, which we pass on to our children, delivers Christian truth with courage and confidence. As the shirts and advertisements say: No Fear!
Steady heart:
In the second half of Psalm 51:10 we read: put a new and right spirit within me.
Again the translations vary, but essentially that new and right spirit is a steadfast spirit. Isn’t that our hope as well. We want our children to have a steady, steadfast heart.
What does that mean? No less that this: that they have a firm determination for the faith; that they be unshakable in the faith; that their faith convictions are firm; their statements and speech consistent; that they be unbendingly loyal and devoted defenders of Christ and His Holy Polish National Catholic Church.
A brave heart and a steady heart is given through the grace of God and our work.
Clean heart:
Psalm 51:10 also begins: Create in me a clean heart, O God.
While we are born with a clean heart we enter a world corrupted by original sin and our hearts… they take on that corruption. The corruption is alluring, is easy, is offered on a silver platter and we and they will fall over and over. Our children need to know that there is a way to freedom, to a clean heart. They do not need an expectation of perfection but an expectation of forgiveness.
Create in me a clean heart, O God begins in our desire to escape sin. It begins in an accountability to He who created us as calls us to everlasting life in the perfection of goodness.
Our children need to know that. We may be offering them a message of unattainable perfection – perfect grades, great relationships, alluring careers. We want all that for them and unfortunately we may build up just enough pressure so that they seek a surer way to get there, that is by the road of sin and failure. That sure road isn’t so sure and taking it… they may end up in abject failure. What then?
That is when they need to know that faced with human frailty, faced with the hurts they have imposed and the sins they have committed, there is a way out. They need to know that they can cry out: Create in me a clean heart, O God and that it will happen. They need to see us going to confession, need to see us asking for forgiveness and admitting wrong — not just to feel good or keep the peace — but to attain true reconciliation. Seeing us they will know its true.
True heart:
A brave, steady and clean heart combine in creating a true heart. This is what Jesus calls us, calls our children to. He is calling us to do all that is necessary, not just for our salvation but for our children’s and our grandchildren’s. Those gifts of the heart are what God offers, and what we are charged with delivering. The heart gifts counter the five-day-a-week regimen of the world. The heart gifts come in the regeneration of baptism, are supported by the sacraments which impart beautiful gifts of grace and continues in all we say and do to build their brave, steady and clean hearts. Amen.
