Saturday of Week 25 in Ordinary Time
Ecc 11:9 – 12:8
Lk 9:43-45
Rejoice in your youth, you who are young; let your heart give you joy in your young days. Follow the promptings of your heart, and the desires of your eyes. But this you must know: for all these things God will bring you to judgement.
The book of Ecclesiastes was believed to have been written by King Solomon in his later years, and indeed, these passages do reflect a certain wisdom possibly gained from hindsight and experience. This first reading begins with a warning. It understands what youth is like: impressionable, uninhibited, curious, daring, adventurous. These are traits I see in my own daughters who are still only children, and also traits I recall having when I was a child, a teenager, and a young adult. The warning, of the judgement of God, is apt because young people do also seem to have a penchant for testing boundaries, as well as for going beyond them. Now more than before, boundaries are being pushed, and impressionable people everywhere, not just youth, can easily be swayed.
My children love to read and they borrow books from the library, the school library, as well as e-books on Libby. They are usually given books by our relatives, and I myself often buy books for them too. On occasion, they read the books that my husband and I have at home. They also like to watch videos on social media just for fun. They learn about all sorts of things from their friends in school. My point is that there is a lot of information flowing into their minds, but the question is whether they are able to filter through and analyse all that information — whether they can sort out the good from the bad, whether they even know the good from the bad. And this does not apply only to children and youth. Adults too, can be led astray.
As Christians, we base our lives on the word of God. We strive to live a life according to His truth. Outside of Christianity, there are also objective truths and objective morality that coincide with what we believe even as the details may differ. However, we are increasingly being told to question these objective truths in the name of progress and change. Strangely, proponents and adherents of such questioning hardly seem to question the questioning themselves. Should everything that is old be tossed out simply because it is old, and does not agree with us? Is it alright to create new truths and morality that would better suit our modern needs? This does not only have an impact on faith. This also affects heritage and culture — are we losing it all, as we throw out both baby and bathwater for the sake of modernity?
If we believe that the word of God is true and unerring, it is then our duty to hold fast to it, to teach and impart this truth to our youth. Every single person has this duty, not just parents and catechists and clergy. The way we live our lives stands as testimony for our young to see. We hope that our youth will not waver in their faith; but, they will need both a strong grounding in the faith, as well as a strong witness around them in order to make good decisions for themselves. And the ones providing the grounding and the witness for these youth are the rest of us.
Having a strong foundation in the faith, having witnessed the faith lived out, as well as living out the faith themselves can give the youth a more solid standing as they grow up and go out into a world that does not believe. This is also true for those of us who are older, but who are also struggling and questioning and fighting with unbelief. The key here is to Remember thy Creator. Remember the God of Truth and place Him in the center of our lives. Start by going back to basics, to look at the fundamentals of our faith, and to try and understand where the Church is coming from. Here, it is useful to remember that living a Christian life is not going to be easy because a lot of it involves dying to oneself — self-denial.
How do we hold on fast to our faith? Based on personal experience — firstly, having a faith community helps a lot. The community could be your extended family, a community of friends, or a community of strangers-turned-friends. The community could even be an online one, like this Oxygen community, or simply following a parish social media account, if you prefer not to socialise too much. Communities help by sharing information and experiences. They also provide support and friendship, as well as a lot of fun. Basically, something for everyone.
Secondly, be a domestic church. The family is a little church community which should provide a safe place of love and security, a place of teaching and growing. Ideally, every sacramentally married couple should become a domestic church, whether or not they have children — it is not too late to start! Living a life of faith is a marathon, which is best done with the grace of God and a community around you. Thirdly, prayer is vital. A short little mumbled personal prayer early in the morning is all I can muster on most days. I also consider all the work I have to do as a stay at home parent to be prayers that I can offer to God. We also make time as a family to pray everyday. What we do varies — family rosary, incensing and blessing the house, the Divine Office, bible sharing, set prayers we take turns to lead, and on the day of the Papal Mass that we watched online, we offered one of the worship songs as a prayer.
As we look back on our lives, we look back on the good and bad. We remember our delights and our regrets. We also have to look for where God was in all of that. At which points did we listen to His voice, at which points did we ignore Him? How have these turned out for us? This is not simply an exercise in reflection — these are effectively our vocation stories that can be shared with others. These are stories of our journey of belief and action that we can tell our families and friends, our priests and religious in order to affirm them, and even total strangers on the internet. If you are reading this, this is your sign to share with someone a little something about your younger days and your relationship with God then, be it good or bad. Share with someone your faith journey, how you held onto your faith, or how you lost and found it. Share with them the roller coaster ride. You never know how your story will inspire them so that they may in turn remember their Creator.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Felicia Zou)
Prayer: Dear Lord, we pray for the grace and strength to do your will each and every day. We pray also for the love and courage we need to tell of your Love for all.
Thanksgiving: Dear Lord, we thank You for Your unending love and patience for us, even when we fall so many times.
OXYGEN 
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