Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Recently I have had several conversations with people about their grown children. Most often they describe their children as well adjusted and successful adults who have families and contribute to the good of society. These parents have also expressed their ongoing concern about their children not practicing their faith. My own children are not practicing the faith they were raised in. For many parents this is not only a concern but a source of deep pain. It can also be a source of conflict and tension when, with good intention, parents try and convince their adult children to return to the practice of faith. Today’s Gospel led me to reflect on this issue and consider what pressuring our grown children may say about our own faith.
The passage from the Gospel of John relates the story of the royal official who journeyed to Cana to find Jesus. His young son was near death and, having heard of the miracles Jesus had done, he went to Jesus and asked him to heal his child. Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.” What I found striking was the next part of the passage: “The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.” On the face of it we may see this as a physical healing and indeed it was. But I ask myself, in all the times we go to Jesus imploring him on behalf of our children, do we find our faith is strong enough to truly believe what He says? The royal official did everything in his power to save his child just as we surely do. But at some point, like the royal official, we must come to the realization that we are limited and have done everything in our power. Then we must take the journey to Jesus in faith. We must place the salvation of our children in the hands of the Savior.
I have no doubt our kids know we would like them to practice their faith. They know our hearts are in the right place and we want salvation as much for them as we do for ourselves. But pressuring them or dropping hints to them rarely brings them any closer to choosing to returning to the Church.
I think we must go to Jesus…really take that journey to Jesus. I think we can ask him heal our children and then we must believe in him. We may not even know what it is our adult children truly need; we may just know they need Jesus. What we know or do not know does not matter because it is Jesus we are approaching; it is the Savior we journeying to. This Savior that we go to is much bigger than we can imagine. He holds our children even if they (or we!) do not realize it…just as he has always held us when we were not aware of it. May our trust in him grow this day. And may this trust be expressed in our acceptance of our children exactly where they are.
Holy Father God, We bring our children before you this day.
Grant us the faith we need to trust in your Son.
Help us to realize that we are not the ones who save our children…
Help us to truly place their salvation exactly where it belongs—
in the hands of the one and only Savior,
In Jesus’ name. Amen
--Gail Lyman