Some young children in a Catholic school (not ours, thankfully!) were given an exam on the Old and New Testaments. Here are some of their answers:

St. Paul cavorted to Christianity. He preached holy acrimony, which is another name for marriage.

And finally:

Christians have only one spouse. This is called monotony.

There are at least two possible reasons for those answers: One is that the children didn’t pay attention to their teachers (which, I would say, is the most plausible explanation); another is that the teachers imparted the wrong information to the students (that’s possible, but much less likely).

Obviously an hour of religion every day in a Catholic school setting is not enough. But that’s okay, because it’s not supposed to be enough!

In fact, whatever children receive during a religion class in a Catholic school—or in CCD—is only supposed to supplement what they’re already learning on a daily basis in their families! The Church has said many times that parents are the primary religious educators of their children, which means that the family is supposed to the "first school of faith" for a young person.

Of course, all too often these days it’s anything but that.

Several weeks ago, for example, a young girl came to see me—my guess is that she was in the fifth or sixth grade. She seemed like a sweet kid—that’s the best way I can describe her—and I’m convinced that in the right environment she would really blossom as a person, but only by a miracle will that happen in her present home situation. She began to speak to me at one point about some of the things currently going on in her family, and my heart broke. Her parents are recently divorced, which is not even the worst of it. The real problem is that she and her siblings are being treated like pawns in a very sick game—a power struggle of the worst kind. Without getting into details, suffice it to say that there is a lot of emotional abuse going on here, and that needs to change. This child deserves better; every child deserves better.

When I say the family is supposed to be the first school of faith for a young person, that means the family is supposed to be above all else a place where children learn virtue, forgiveness, love, patience, self-sacrifice, prayer and truth. For this little girl, unfortunately, the situation is just the opposite at the present time: her family is currently a school of vice, unforgiveness, hatred, impatience, selfishness, godlessness and lies! I wonder what she will think when she hears today’s second reading at Mass. (Presuming, of course, that one of her parents will even bring her to Mass!) St. Paul was not explicitly writing about families in this text from Colossians 3, but the Church chooses this passage for us because it has a direct application to family life: "Brothers and sisters: Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body."

Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. In Luke 2: 52 it says that Jesus [in his human nature] "advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man." That should not surprise us, given the "school of faith" he grew up in! In that text we just heard from Colossians 3 St. Paul speaks of—among other things—compassion, humility and patience. We know our Blessed Mother possessed those virtues in abundance, since she was without sin; but her husband Joseph also possessed them. Think of Joseph’s compassion, which he demonstrated by his refusal to expose Mary to the severity of the Jewish law; think of his humility—the humility which motivated him to obey his God and serve his family without any concern for his own glory. We never hear Joseph ask the question, "What’s in this for me?; and think of his patience—the patience he showed trying to find a place to stay in Bethlehem; the patience he showed on the long journey to Egypt; and the patience he showed while he was there waiting until it was safe to take his family home.

Jesus was God (which is the ultimate reason for his perfection), but Jesus also grew up surrounded by great human role models.

You parents will not be held accountable on Judgment Day for failing to achieve the holiness of Joseph and Mary—but you will be held accountable if you don’t try to attain that holiness. And you young people have every right to challenge your parents to be good, holy examples for you.

Now, lest you think that all the burden is on the adults here, think again!

If parents are responsible to teach their children by word and example in the first school of faith (the family), then young people are responsible to learn the lessons they are taught, and to obey their parents as Jesus did!

Oh no, Fr. Ray.

Oh yes, young people.

And believe me, when you think you’ve got it bad, think of Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, who had it a lot tougher than any of you do. After all, you didn’t create your parents, but he did create his! Think about that for a moment. What an incredible act of humility it must have been for him to submit to people he had made! And to do that for 30 years!

If Jesus humbly obeyed his earthly mother and foster father in that way, then you must submit to your parents—as long as they’re not asking you to do something which is contrary to God’s law.