Saturday, January 9, 2010

Giving children to God


Homily
Tuesday of the 1st Week of Ordinary Time
Year II

For daily readings, click here

Abraham and Isaac on the mountain. Jesus and Mary at the cross. The scriptures are full of stories of children being given by their parents back to God. Christian parents usually bring their children at the very beginning of their lives to the temple to dedicate them to God. Through baptism, parents give back to God the gift that they have received, wanting God to claim their child as His own, knowing that God alone can take care of their child after all their efforts as parents have been exhausted. In the short term, however, dedicating your child to God, and encouraging your child to seek first the will of God, is quite a risky and dangerous enterprise. Few parents actually try what Hannah prays for in today's first reading. She says that if she is gifted with a child, as the fruit of her marriage to Elkanah, that she will make sure that this son of hers is especially well prepared to do the will of God. Maybe Hannah doesn't really know what she is saying or what she is praying for. Those chosen to be God's prophets are often scorned and rejected. They endure loneliness and persecution. Yet Hannah promises God that she will not stand in the way of the Lord's will for this child He will give her. She will bring him up especially focused on doing the Lord's will.

Simeon tells Mary at the presentation of Jesus that a sword will pierce her heart. This is the risk of parenting, at least parenting in the way that Hannah presents it to us. Hannah begins before she even conceives her child, to promise God that although she would want to possess and protect this boy that might be given Her, that the best gift she can give this boy is to teach him how to hear the Lord's will and how to respond to it, no matter what. Samuel as we know will become a great prophet, which means he will undergo intense suffering, in order to make the word of the Lord known. It would be natural for a parent to want to protect her son from this, or to discourage him from such a vocation, but Hannah does just the opposite. She pleads with God for the opportunity to raise a child who will bear abundant fruit with his life. Hannah teaches us that it is not enough to teach our kids just to do whatever makes them happy. We can do better. Rare indeed is the parent today who is effective in teaching her children to seek and to love the will of God above all things. +m

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