Thirtieth Wednesday in Ordinary Time

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise, that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life on earth.

God calls us to obey our parents and to honor our fathers and mothers. This is sometime difficult to do, especially since our parents are all imperfect. Just like us, they are sinners, too. They have their blind spots and their blemishes and sometimes it can be hard to love them. They aren't always the best influences, either. However, we should always strive to honor them in the sense of loving them unconditionally and doing our best to obey them when it doesn't lead us into sin. Our relationship with our parents mirrors the relationship between God and us. Sometimes we are difficult to love. Sometimes we are sinners. Sometimes we are blind and blemished. Sometime we are not the best influences on others. Still, God loves us and so we should love our parents, too, in spite of their imperfections. For if we love them, then we will be better able to obey our Heavenly Father and Mother so our lives might go well and we might live forever and ever with God in Heaven.

Do we obey and honor our earthly fathers and mothers? What about our Heavenly Father and Mother? How can we become better children of both?

O Lord, we seek to obey and honor you, our Heavenly Mother, Mary, and the parents you've given us in this life.

Amen.