What do you do when your child rejects the faith of the Church? Perhaps you cry. Perhaps you pray. Perhaps you appeal to your child of the goodness of the faith. Perhaps you remain faithful and continue to love your child no matter what. Perhaps you do all of these. You would be in good company.
St. Monica’s son rejected the faith that he was raised in. He wasn’t baptized as an infant and so did not have the sacramental grace that goes with baptism. Nonetheless, St. Monica persevered through tears, prayer, appeals, and love. “She implored the local bishop for help in winning him over, and he counseled her to be patient, saying, ‘God's time will come.’ Monica persisted in importuning him, and the bishop uttered the words which have often been quoted: ‘Go now, I beg you; it is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish.’” When her son left home for his career, she followed him, even though he tricked her as to when he was leaving so she couldn’t go with him. Eventually she found him in his new city where she spoke to the bishop. Her son? St. Augustine. The bishop? St. Ambrose.
In America today, the largest religious group are Catholics. If organized as a group, former Catholics would be the second largest. The Catholic Church is losing her youth. We need to remember that raising our children Catholic is a responsibility we agreed to at their baptism. We also need to remember that our society is against our teachings in many ways. Our children are being seduced by a false understanding of autonomy, truth, and rights. We must follow in St. Monica’s footsteps by praying and living our faith.
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