Sunday Readings for Nov. 5th.

“Do as I say and not as I do?” Have you ever heard that from a parent? Have you ever said it as a parent? As a child of the 80’s, the anti-drug commercials from my elementary school days are permanently burned into my memory. There is one where a dad finds his son’s stash of illegal drugs and while asking his son where he learned to take “this stuff,” the son yells back, “From you, alright! I learned by watching you.” The idea behind the commercial is that even if you tell your kids not to do something, if you do it, they will likely pick it up.

In the gospel Jesus tells the crowds to act in the way that the Pharisees say to act but don’t follow their example. In other words, do as they say, not how they do. The thing is, that never really works does it?

As Christians, as Catholics, we don’t just do what Jesus says. We are called not just to follow his teaching, but to conform our lives to his life. If we are serious about being Christian Disciples, we have to live like Jesus. We have to model our behaviors off of how Jesus would have behaved.

As Catholics we also have the blessing of a whole host of Saints whom we can also model our lives off of. We can look to Saints great and small and try and live like they would in the way that they followed Jesus. We do this because we know and can trust that they modeled their lives off of Christ.

As parents, the reality is that the way we practice our faith forms our children’s ideas of how to practice their faith. The Church teaches that parents are “first teachers” of the faith. Sometimes we thinks this means that we “should” be teaching our kids the faith. But the reality is that the Church is saying that no matter what you are currently doing, that is what you “are” teaching your kids.

Faith is caught, not taught.

If your relationships with Jesus is the most important thing in your life and your daily actions reflect that, your kids will see that. If Mass, and the union with God that occurs during it, is the most important event of your weekend, your kids will see that. If you make financial and schedule decisions based on your faith, your kids will see that. My prayer for you and for me is that when I ask my kids why they are such strong disciples of Jesus, they will answers, “From you and mom, alright! I learned it from you.”

Live It: Take just 5 minutes and examine how you are currently practicing your faith (prayer, sacraments, daily life, etc.). Does it look like Jesus?