8th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C.
Readings: Sirach 27:4-7, 1Cor. 15:54-58, and Luke 6:39-45.
“Proper Formation is the Road to Right Speech and Conduct.”
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
1. It is impossible to dissociate us from our backgrounds, from our upbringing. A great deal of whom we are dependent on how we were brought up. Many of the things we learned in the later years simply add up to what we were grounded in as we grew. A great deal of our successes, of our making in life depends on what we had at our disposal that guided us to maturity especially when it comes to religiosity, moral issues, cultivating and building good habits. The right conduct in the young is very much contributed or worked out by the parents, the guardians, the teachers, the friends, the institutions/schools attended and the environment in which one grows or lives. When each of these play the desired role, there is a positive contribution to the beneficiaries and subsequently to the community in which they will live, and vice versa when a failure is recorded from some of the above factors/institutions.
2. The family, headed by the parents, has much to do for the well-being of the children. So much or almost all that we are dependent on the family we came from for the most part. “The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had, so too does one’s speech disclose the bent of one’s mind.” Both the first reading and gospel today offer proverbs and admonitions, several of which center on how a person’s conduct/speech reveals their inner nature. A bad tree does not bear good fruit, nor does a good tree yield bad produce. That is why you should “praise no one before he speaks, for it is then that people are tested.” I once had an experience as a principal in a Secondary and High School, that has never left me. A form 4 student came to my office crying helplessly and it took me a while to console her to stop crying. When I asked what happened that made her cry this much? She told me that another student abused her. ‘Did the said student beat you?’ I inquired but she said ‘no’. Then I asked, what was the abuse that caused so much pain in you?’ She answered: ‘she told me that I lack home-training.’ I attempted to minimize the abuse and to my surprise she added in a frustrating low voice, ‘Father, my parents are divorced.’
3. As parents we orientate the children to meet up with the challenges of life, to help them confidently embrace it and enjoy it at best. It is from home that children are taught to respect their elders (parents/teachers); to show consideration for his/her siblings; to take the sign of the cross and to pray before and after meals; to say the evening and the morning prayer; to say thank you for a favor received; to say ‘I am sorry’ when they offend another person or when they make a mistake; to go to church; to go to school; to say I love you with the right understanding of what it means etc. When parents fail to do this, then they become parents in need of parents. It is sad that parents would fail to be parents to their children. And nowadays, there is a growing need for parents, given that there are many parents who need parents.
4. It holds good for parents as for teachers. The values you uphold as a teacher are very important for consciously or not, you transmit them to the pupils. You must as a teacher watchout for personal convictions that are faulty that you may transmit to the children you are teaching. At times children dispute with their parents about certain moral or religious values because that is what their teacher taught them. This is where the teachers must be careful with the trust accorded them. Many voices claim to offer spiritual leadership, but many of these do not see clearly enough to act as trust worthy guides. It is of course unrealistic to find a human teacher who is without sin or who will always be perfect. But Jesus offers us a parameter for discerning a good teacher: “every tree is known by its fruit.” When we find out that someone’s life and teaching bear good fruit, we can be reasonably confident that their heart is also good – and that God is at work in them.
5. The outcome of the formation we give our children is very important because Jesus tells us in our Gospel text that: “A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit…. A good person out of a store of goodness in his/her heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fulness of the heart the mouth speaks.”
It follows that as parents and teachers our children reflect to a certain degree whom we are. “Every tree can be told by its own fruit.” In as much as it reflects in our children, it shows itself in us through our words and our doings. Our words flow from what we have cultivated and stored in us. We must then work to always have the right words that yield the desired results. Such words that build friendships among people; that give light to the minds - providing the right information based on truth, removing doubts and worries; words that bring comfort to hearts especially those who are suffering to know that they are not abandoned or alone. On the other hand, bad words bring the opposite, they are like the fallen leaves during the Fall/Automn, wind blows them away, and who can bring them back?
6. Dear friends, let us try to be conscious, to understand and to evaluate the quality of our words as to whether they are bad or good words. Say words you will be happy about, that convert and transform; not words you will later regret about or be sorry about. It is better to be silent than to be sorry. And above all, let our children and grandchildren be our pride. To God be the glory and honor forever and ever. Amen.
Fr. Anthoy D. Lawir,
Pastor, St. Agnes and Our Lady of the Snows Parishes, Pittsfield and Dexter.