DAILY HOMILIES #catechism

Children who grow up without any idea of God end up becoming spiritually deficient. Let your children come to God. Take them to Sunday School. Let them participate in the catechism class. For many of us, those things we learnt in catechism as children sustain our Christian faith to this day. Those who say: “I don’t want to indoctrinate my child. I want the child to grow up and decide for himself whether or not to believe in God or follow religion”, always end up having social media carry out negative indoctrination for them.

A parent once asked a priest: “At what age do I start teaching my child how to pray?” In return, the priest asked, “How old is your child now.” She replied: “He will be four years in two months.” “Then you are four years late already,” said the priest. We do our children a great disservice when we do not allow them to attend catechism classes, but we want them to receive the sacraments.

You may spend huge sums of money educating your children but if you fail to nourish them spiritually or fail to teach them how to pray, you could end up deforming them. It is sad to note that some parents go as far as offering bribes just so that their children can receive baptism and other sacraments without going through the rigors of catechism class. Whether we like it or not, a bulk of our problems in Africa arise as a result of the absence of morality among our populace. We have lost a sense of what is right and wrong. Our leaders do not think is it wrong to steal or divert funds meant for development. People are respected today not according to their contribution to society but according to the size of their pockets.