Julia chewed on these words for a moment and then she said, "Mommy, I know. __________ told me that she doesn't believe in God. She told me her mommy told her God was a monkey."
"Julia, that's too bad, isn't it? We know there is a God and He is no monkey!" responded my daughter.
"I know that!" Julia retorted. "He's a Lamb!"
While this story shows us that Julia has given attention to the Agnus Dei we pray at Mass, and has obviouly given attention, too, to the stained glass window in our Church depicting the Lamb of God, none of this innoculates her against the winds of heresy that blow all too liberally in our culture today.
It also points out the false ideologies many of our children's playmates and classmates are being taught in their homes. One can only wonder at the world they will experience in their adult years.
What are we to do? I think my daughter gives us good example. Make certain our children know the truth. Continue to use every opportunity to tell them the truth (Rom. 10:17). Reinforce that truth. Make them present to the truth by participation in the Faith. Exemplify the truth in your own life. Finally, but preeminently, entrust them to the One Who is the Truth -- and the Way and the Life as well.
If we are willing to do so, deep roots will grow and truth will flourish in our children's hearts. I know this to be true. Those words of advice my daughter gave to her daughter were the very words her father had given her throughout the 26 years of her life that he had lived. Apparently, they had sunk in and were being passed on to the next generation. As Proverbs reminds us, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).
A monkey. Really? Even a monkey would be shocked.
