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Bishop's Corner
The Next Generation:
What
Will They Believe?
by Bishop
Vernon Fougere
Many of our young
people today are worried about their parents: Will Mom and Dad be
together until one of them goes to God? Many of their friends'
parents have separated and divorced. It is a valid question and
a great source of worry for young people. When I was growing up
it never occurred to me that I would come home from school someday
and that Mom and Dad would not be together. We took it for
granted that marriage was permanent. And that is what it is
meant to be. Yet, we know that everything is not perfect in life.
When I counselled people who were experiencing marriage difficulties,
some I had to tell to separate. They were always somewhat
shocked that a priest would encourage them to separate. The
point I was making is that when something is dead you bury it.
For some of the others who wanted to try to work their problems out,
I was able to encourage them to stay together until such time as they
could sincerely say they tried every possible solution in the book
and had exhausted every attempt at counselling.
Where there are
children in marriage, parents also can ask some questions. For
example, do the children contribute to the life of the parents and
with the parents, do they create the domestic Church that we call the family?
As human beings, we are meant for family, that is, to belong to
something greater than ourselves. John Donne said "No man
is an island." By that he meant that we are not meant to
live in isolation.
Modern technology,
with its video games and the internet, makes it more difficult for
both parents and children to live as community. It makes
practising one's religion and faith more difficult and particularly
it makes it more difficult for families and members of families to be
part of the parish family. It is not uncommon that people will
drive their children to religion classes or catechesis, call it what
you will, while they go for a coffee at the local coffee shop, and in
turn, pick up their children to drive them back home, while bypassing
Mass and being a part of the parish celebration of the Eucharist.
Pope John Paul II
in his Agenda for the Third Millennium advised us to put our faith in
Jesus: "I urge you to preserve intact your faith in Jesus the
Saviour, who died and rose again for us. Listen carefully to
his gospel, which the Church continues preaching to you with
unchanging fidelity to what has been taught from the beginning."
With regards to
parents, he says: "Bring up your children to obey the
Commandments, teaching them to ask God for the courage they will need
to defy the dominant opinion when it is in opposition to the gospel.
Do not be afraid to swim against the tide."
In spite of the
difficulties that society deals to us, as families we have to agree
that most parents and children are doing very well. The faith
of the parents is important to the children and the faith of the
children is important to the parents. We cannot live our faith
in isolation, staring at the computer screen. It has to be
lived as community and as family. The faith of one strengthens
that of the other. This becomes obvious when young people
participate in the Teen Encounter weekend. They draw courage
and strength from living in community during that weekend. On
the other hand, they can easily become discouraged when they go back
home and do not find the support at home that they need to live their
faith and to practise it actively by participating in the celebration
of the sacraments in the family of the parish.
May God grant
families, parents, children and grandchildren the courage to follow
Jesus wholly and actively.
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