THE LAMB IN ME

            During the season of Lent, one word that we never hear enough of or are constantly reminded of is, “Sacrifice” – to give-up, to forgo, to abstain or to do for others and so forth. And with that, the image of a lamb comes quickly to mind - more specifically a lamb being prepared for slaughter – the lamb being a symbol or image closely associated with sacrifice.

            In scripture, the title ‘Lamb of God’ appears in the Gospel of John, with the proclamation by John the Baptist saying, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29) when he sees Jesus approaching him, a day after he had baptized Jesus.

            Although ‘Lamb of God’ refers to Jesus in his role of the perfect sacrificial offering and who died for the sins of others, yet, Jesus is our shepherd too: “I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own knows me” (John 10:14)

            If you think about it, as parents, we are often required to be both shepherd and lamb to our children. Indeed, because we love our children, we are responsible for guiding, caring and protecting them as shepherds. Yet, more than readily we also become lambs, making many sacrifices for them, mainly with our time and money, and at times, guilty of even becoming over-indulgent. But the truth remains that because we love our children, parenting becomes self-giving, sacrificing of self for our children.

            On the flipside, as adults, we might look at how we should also become both shepherd and lamb to our elderly parents. In this fast-paced world, have we been much support and help to ease them into the age of technology found in the day to day? Have we demonstrated patience with them? Are we honestly approaching them with the same self-giving attitude and sacrifice as we do for our children? Or have we been less patient and less forgiving with them than we have been with our own children?

            Just as God, our Father loves us and because of his great love for us, sacrificed his only son for us – this is indeed the greatest of all love, because true love requires sacrifice.  

            Perhaps reflecting that as Jesus, was given up, sacrificed, for us in the Eucharist, may we partake of this Lamb of God and learn to be more giving, more ‘Lamb’ than ‘Lion’ to our elders this Lent. 

Psst... LET'S BE HONEST!

Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”. If Jesus is truth, then it is clear as day that lying will separate us from God and not following in the footsteps of His son, whom He has sent will be disastrous!

As parents, we work hard at teaching our children to be honest, yes? You know, how we sometimes readily call out the phrase, “Honesty is the best policy”- encouraging our children to tell the truth and to let us know what’s on their minds.

Honesty is a virtue that can be taught to our children. Yet, it is not something they finish learning at a specific age or skill level, such as learning to walk at about one year old or learning to tie shoe laces at five or six and so forth. Teaching honesty to children begins very young and will take different forms and approaches to suit their age and level of understanding and is continually nurtured along with their level of maturity.

Just like any virtue or values, teaching honesty by example is the most effective. Young children copy or mimic their parents and therefore, a “do as I do” approach is always more successful than a “do as I say, not as I do” approach. We cannot deceive them, as children grow up they will begin to question these discrepancies.

Perhaps sometimes we are the bigger culprit of dishonesty ourselves! Maybe at that moment being honest can sometimes mean acknowledging or accepting failures and we all know how hard it is to accept our own failures. Other times it may be an attempt to protect our own child’s feelings, or to soften the blow for our child’s disappointment, we as parents keep the truth from them or even tell a white lie to others to protect them from feeling shame. But honestly, this does not help make situations any better. What lessons are we teaching our children if we do not accept failures or face realities? Are we, to begin with, guilty of demanding or imposing nothing but perfection from them, where quite often, we ourselves are unable to attain?

I recall an awkward experience with a parent whose response completely mismatched her child’s pure and honest reply to his unsuccessful placement in the school of his choice then. That incident brought embarrassment to the child and he was dumbfounded. Sadly, a quote from author, Krista Delle Femine, had its moment of reality right there, when “children lose their innocence the very moment they are forced to make excuses for their parents’ bad behavior.”

We need our children to learn that “honesty” is very important in life, as it leads to others seeing us as being “trustworthy” and friends will know that they can rely on us. There are many verses in the Bible that teaches us about honesty. To help us “grow” in honesty together with our children, in Luke 16: 10, we learn that “whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”