I couldn't quite believe it when I read that there is a campaign in the UK to ban parents from piercing their baby daughters' ears, claiming it is a form of child abuse. Huh?
Coming from a traditional Asian family, pierced ears are a cultural norm and when I first learned that baby girls had their ears pierced a few days after birth in Indonesia (I was about nine then) I thought to myself how practical and wonderful a practice for it certainly would have saved me the remembered pain of getting mine pierced at the age of six. Although I did not cry, I was nervous. And although I liked that my grandmother asked me and I chose, I could have done without the pain, minimal as it was.
There are many things that constitute child abuse: feeding your children high caloric, processed foods until they resemble butterballs, instilling a lifelong love for sugar and junk food; keeping your toddlers quiet by exposing them to technology, setting them up to be techno junkies; and how about your unborn children, getting rid of them before they have had a chance to breathe on their own just because they were inconvenient, unwanted accidents with no voice or legal standing?
The list is long and we can pick causes that speak to us, however, legislating ear piercing is treating parents like morons (admittedly some are) and trying to control them (so much for freedom), as well as being culturally insensitive. I am no parent but I know ridiculous when I see it.
The parable of the mustard seed in Mark 4:26-34 just Sunday past challenges us to a supernatural faith that allows each of us to grow spiritually. As Monsignor Vaz shared, this growth comes from the sincere desire to seek and know God. We cooperate with God in allowing Him to shape us. Growth for growth's sake implies a certain lack of maturity, so we should make like trees with deep roots (in God), and grow wide, shady, fruitful boughs that give shelter and feed those around us.
Life-giving tree hospitality speaks of patience, gentleness, compassion, wisdom, and a listening heart to comfort and soothe hurting or weary souls, and to lift spirits, dispelling loneliness. This requires us to cultivate the appropriate attitude of humility and openness that recognizes the supremacy of God.
Even if we are driven to make the world a better place, we must know when to fight and when to give in, if not, we are no better than terrorists: the ones with the most virulent voice win.
Unity, not disharmony, should be our goal. We should build up and bind, not tear down and fracture. As Saint Paul reminds us in the second reading, 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, we need to walk by faith and not by sight, and whatever we do, we must be intent on being pleasing to Christ in word, deed and action.
Ecologically trees are responsible for life on earth, contributing oxygen, controlling climate and providing food and shelter to many, amongst many other benefits. Likewise we can become valuable sources of life when we ourselves are fed by the sun, wind and rain of the Trinity and we remember, it is the Lord who speaks in our lives, who stunts tall trees and makes the low ones grow, who withers green trees and makes the withered green. Ezekiel 17:24
Coming from a traditional Asian family, pierced ears are a cultural norm and when I first learned that baby girls had their ears pierced a few days after birth in Indonesia (I was about nine then) I thought to myself how practical and wonderful a practice for it certainly would have saved me the remembered pain of getting mine pierced at the age of six. Although I did not cry, I was nervous. And although I liked that my grandmother asked me and I chose, I could have done without the pain, minimal as it was.
There are many things that constitute child abuse: feeding your children high caloric, processed foods until they resemble butterballs, instilling a lifelong love for sugar and junk food; keeping your toddlers quiet by exposing them to technology, setting them up to be techno junkies; and how about your unborn children, getting rid of them before they have had a chance to breathe on their own just because they were inconvenient, unwanted accidents with no voice or legal standing?
The list is long and we can pick causes that speak to us, however, legislating ear piercing is treating parents like morons (admittedly some are) and trying to control them (so much for freedom), as well as being culturally insensitive. I am no parent but I know ridiculous when I see it.
The parable of the mustard seed in Mark 4:26-34 just Sunday past challenges us to a supernatural faith that allows each of us to grow spiritually. As Monsignor Vaz shared, this growth comes from the sincere desire to seek and know God. We cooperate with God in allowing Him to shape us. Growth for growth's sake implies a certain lack of maturity, so we should make like trees with deep roots (in God), and grow wide, shady, fruitful boughs that give shelter and feed those around us.
Life-giving tree hospitality speaks of patience, gentleness, compassion, wisdom, and a listening heart to comfort and soothe hurting or weary souls, and to lift spirits, dispelling loneliness. This requires us to cultivate the appropriate attitude of humility and openness that recognizes the supremacy of God.
Even if we are driven to make the world a better place, we must know when to fight and when to give in, if not, we are no better than terrorists: the ones with the most virulent voice win.
Unity, not disharmony, should be our goal. We should build up and bind, not tear down and fracture. As Saint Paul reminds us in the second reading, 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, we need to walk by faith and not by sight, and whatever we do, we must be intent on being pleasing to Christ in word, deed and action.
Ecologically trees are responsible for life on earth, contributing oxygen, controlling climate and providing food and shelter to many, amongst many other benefits. Likewise we can become valuable sources of life when we ourselves are fed by the sun, wind and rain of the Trinity and we remember, it is the Lord who speaks in our lives, who stunts tall trees and makes the low ones grow, who withers green trees and makes the withered green. Ezekiel 17:24
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