Honor Thy Father And Thy Mother

…but what if what you feel is right goes against your parents’ wishes?

This is one of the sacred 10 Commandments, so it certainly deserves to be heeded—especially by young children who are under their parents’ guidance and care. In fact, when we are young, this commandment usually translates to having to obey our parents at all times as they do their best to form us into good human beings. But what happens when children get older? Does “honoring” our parents still mean obeying them no matter what? Or are we allowed to grow up and start making decisions of our own—even if these different choices may anger or disappoint our parents?

“There are many ways to silence young people and make them invisible. Many ways to anesthetize them, to make them keep quiet, ask nothing, question nothing. There are many ways to sedate them, to keep them from getting involved, to make their dreams flat and dreary, petty and plaintive.” This might come as a surprise, but it was Pope Francis himself who spoke these words when he addressed the youth in a homily. In the same Mass, he went on to encourage those present by saying, “Dear young people, you have it in you to shout… It is up to you not to keep quiet. Even if others keep quiet, if we older people and leaders, some corrupt, keep quiet, if the whole world keeps quiet and loses its joy, I ask you: Will you cry out?”

Lolo Kiko’s rousing words also bring to mind one of the readings of the Feast of the Holy Family, from Colossians 3:12-21: “Fathers, do not provoke your children, so they may not become discouraged."