I STILL think fondly of the intimate Mass I celebrated last Saturday with my family on my ailing father’s 80th birthday. It was a moment filled with depth, intimacy, laughter, gratitude, and grace. My younger sister thought that it was “priceless,” especially in seeing her little kids and another practice as altar servers.
For me, it was a moment of honesty with my family. I talked to them about the value of faith, solidarity, forgiveness, and service. Being the priest of the family, I preached to them with authority, by making them feel that I just don’t say pious words, but that I give witness to the Gospel message in my personal life.
To speak with authority to the people we love, not to lord it over them but to express to them our care and convictions for what is best for them in the spirit of the Gospel is an essential task, especially in this age of secularism. We can’t be so timid about our Christian faith and beliefs with our children and youth. We can’t let them get lost in the influences of hedonistic and ungodly values because of our silence. We need to speak to them with authority, one that comes from hard lessons of life and personal witness of God’s love, power, and miracles in our lives.
When we speak with the authority of the Gospel, it is Jesus who speaks. It is Jesus who reaches out to our loved ones with compassion and love – Jesus who told his disciples not to prevent children from coming to him; Jesus who took five loaves and two fishes from a young boy in the Miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand; Jesus who deeply cared for Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.
When we speak to our children with authority in the spirit of the Gospel, we hope that they would not interpret this as a mere way to discipline them. Like Jesus, we want them to have enjoyable and fulfilled lives, not just with material things and good jobs, but with warmth, tenderness, mutual respect and fidelity in marriage and family.
To speak with authority is to act in the traditions of love for God and neighbor, in the name of Jesus who commanded us “to remain in his love” and “to love another.”
* * *
Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas attended St. John Seminary in Camarillo, California and earned his Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. For twenty years, he has been in the parish ministry of large multi-cultural communities. Since 2002, he has been the pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Los Angeles. Please email Fr. Rodel at [email protected].
