Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow.’ But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King…Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’”
Keep Your Promises. I read somewhere that parents are the first to teach their children how to lie. They do so every time they break their promises. I never thought of it like that, but I believe it’s true! So we need to think things through very carefully before making any promises or taking any vows. We shouldn’t rush into it; for we know that they are never easy to keep; and people, even the people we love the most, can get easily bruised when they are broken, at least much more so than when they are kept.
Life is not easy, but I can honestly tell you it doesn’t get any easier when we break our promises. Life is not always funny, but I can honestly tell you it doesn’t get any funnier when we get ourselves into ‘funny’ businesses.
We thought we were so smart when we were young. We thought we could use people like we use our words. How foolish we were! How naïve of us! Oh my goodness. I thought I was so smart. But now I know: it takes so much virtue and a ton of maturity to let my ‘yes’ mean ‘yes,’ and my ‘no’ mean ‘no!’
I know many families right now that are struggling with their ‘adult’ children. But the real problem with so many kids today isn’t that they want to be all grown up. On the contrary, the problem is that they really don’t want to grow up. They don’t want to take sound advice. They don’t want to hear another person’s opinion. They don’t want to admit their mistakes. What can we do? They think they are so smart!
Are you? If so, then teach them well.
History is history and time tells, and we should know all of this by now. We should have learned our lessons long ago and taught them well to our children. What lessons? That it wasn’t so smart to demand a TV or computer for your room. It isn’t so smart to drop out of college. It isn’t so smart to start dating (seriously) or drinking (occasionally) in High School. It isn’t so smart to not save your money. It isn’t so smart to get married to someone who doesn’t share the same faith or core values as you do. It isn’t so smart to rush into anything or everything.
BFF’s. Well, let’s learn from the best, from our bff (best friend forever): Jesus Christ. He is the incarnation of the Word. The word became flesh. He is the living, breathing and walking Word of God. In Him there is no falsehood. Everything He says is the Truth. Everything He is is Reality. When He says something He actually means it. His Word is His Life. His Word is His very Essence.
Why is lying so bad? Because it leads people on and leads them nowhere. And let’s not even bring up those hypothetical occasions in our lives when lying would be “appropriate.” For example, when we need to lie to a murderer or a thief or a Nazi. Very few of us will ever have to do such a thing, and it reminds me of those who use incest and rape as a way of defending the over one million abortions committed in the United States alone each year.
Lying leads people on. So let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no’ so that you may lead your loved ones closer to Christ
I learned very early on, as a parent, that children are incredibly observant! All they know to do is imitate the ones they live with….. brothers, sisters, parents. “Whatever Mom and Dad do is just the way you do it. I don’t know why, how, when or where… just do what they do.”
ReplyDeleteMany moons ago, my 2 year old was in “time-out” (… actually he lived there between the ages of 2 and 5). But my 4 year old had a couple of years on him and wanted to share a bit of his of wisdom. The 4 year old sat down in time-out by the 2 year old. After they both cried together for several minutes, my 4 year old consoled my 2 year old. …. IN FRONT OF ME….. “Listen, if you really want something, you don’t have to disobey, you just have to cry until you get it.”
It was an epiphany!!!! Yes, in the way I changed my parenting, but even more! in the way that I observed how other adults around me lived! My 4 year old was just sharing (in words) how you’ve got to live in order to go the easy way around things. We are not aware of how God is asking us to live; we just do what others are doing and call it “life”…. “that’s just the way we do things here on earth.”
It’s like you said, we just do what others around us do…. Impatience, expectations or whatever! We have to wake up and smell the roses!
And let’s not even bring up those hypothetical occasions in our lives when lying would be “appropriate.” For example, when we need to lie to a murderer or a thief or a Nazi. Very few of us will ever have to do such a thing
ReplyDelete-------
How about those of us who have needed to lie to protect a friend from an abusive spouse? Not exactly a hypothetical situation there. And I wish fewer people neede to do such a thing.
How does lying help that friend?
ReplyDelete