The Faith Page - October
Thy Will Be Done On Earth As it Is In Heaven
NO! You cannot have ice cream for breakfast, it has no nutritional value. NO! You cannot skip football practice; your team depends on you. NO! You cannot be late for curfew, I am responsible for your safety. Add up how many times you have said no to your children today. You’re so mean, right? As parents it is up to us to set boundaries for our children that teach them right from wrong, good from bad. It is also just as important to teach our children holy from unholy. We want our children to be happy and safe, this security requires boundaries. Sometimes no feels like it is not the right thing because it would be easier to just give in to the crying and whining.
This month our students are focusing on “blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Jesus wants us to inherit the earth, the land. God promised His chosen people the promised land. He only asked for their meekness, their obedience to his will. Jesus is asking us to be obedient to God’s will. Meek here does not mean weak. If anything it is overcoming weakness to sin, to the things of this world that keep us from our inheritance. This beatitude coincides with “thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” God has a plan for us that is just as important as the plan He had for each of the Israelites as they approached the promised land. Yet on the way to the promised land the Israelites were like children, crying and whining, instead of following the rules. How do we follow God’s will as Catholic parents?
As children we could not wait to become the parent. “I’m going to let my children do whatever they want.” In fact, my children have had ice cream for breakfast. I was the cool parent that day. However, it made it more difficult the next day when it came time to eat a healthy breakfast again. Not cool. The Catholic Church gives us the boundaries or guidelines that we need to follow God’s will on earth. These boundaries help us to understand why it is in our best interest to attain His will, “as it is in Heaven”. Eating ice cream one morning may not be that bad, but if we eat it every morning we may start to see it is affecting our health. The same goes for us if we are choosing our will over God’s will. There may not seem to be anything wrong with it today, but over time we may find it has been affecting our spiritual health. If there is a teaching of the Church that you don’t understand, pick up a Catechism and study it. Pray for God to help you understand His will. We are all stewards of the gifts God has given us, and one day we will render an account of what we did with these gifts. Then we will inherit our just reward. So, just as we as parents expect our children’s obedience, for their own good, God expects our obedience as His children. This too is for our own good. Learn something new about your Catholic faith today and you will find it has lasting, maybe everlasting, benefits!
- J Ebberwein
October, 2010
