BLOG

About how our fathers lived their Christian faith, we refer to today as the good old days; how I wish our children will not call today their good old days. This may sound like not wishing our children well, but it’s far from it. It is certainly not an invocation of doom on our children’s tomorrow but a challenge to us to hand the faith of our fathers to them, and not the highly diluted and secularized faith of today.

Civilization is an amazing growth every sane human being must appreciate, but when it insists on diluting and changing our true identity in God in the name of freedom, thereby ‘pushing’ God to the background, it becomes dangerous. Watching and listening to many kids talk about their Christian faith, especially in the western part of the world today, reveals the eroding effects of civilization/secularism on the faith of our fathers. In as much as I do really appreciate the greater awareness of human freedom, how far man has conquered the earth through science and technology and all other forms of civilization; the Church and the faith of our fathers, however, must not be allowed to be threatened by these. The family must go back to the days of our fathers where it was the first place the seed of our faith was nurtured. Such collaborative ministry with the universal Church will aid in no small measure to conserve the faith of our fathers from the corroding power of modernism.

It was a heartbreaking experience to encounter kids who were to receive their first Holy Communion and confirmation in few days but have absolutely no idea of what they were going into, though I appreciate the very few who at least made the sign of the cross properly. While I am certainly not out to apportion blames for this ugly situation, it should, however, be a source of concern to both the clergy and every parent. I cannot deny my responsibility as a catechist, but the family must play a vital role in the catechesis of our little ones; it is our Christian responsibility to do that.

The good old days are indeed good, better than the kind of Christianity we see today. If we let what we see today become the good old days for our children, then we have failed as a generation.