Sunday Reflection: Children, value your parents for they are God's gift to you
(December 29, 2024) Today's First Reading during the Sunday Mass emphasizes family relationships. In paricular, the reading narrates how a child should treat his/her parents (father and mother) especially when they have become old and ill. Every son and daughter must read this Bible reading and reflect on how one has treated or been treating one's parent/s. While we may find in the reading a more reference to the father (Jewish culture in the Old Testament narratives was paternalistic so the emphasis on treatment with the father), the respect and honor must be to both parents, father and mother. God sees everything. One cannot hide from God how one treats one's mother and/or father. And God LISTENS to their prayers. Treat your parents well more than anyone else. We may say that we are not obligated to do so, as the modern more materialistic generations of today would argue; still, our parents deserve all the love, attention, care, and respect that we can give. The priest du...