As the household’s youngest member, I was assigned to be my grandmother’s escort and helper when I was living with my paternal grandparents. Even though I was living with three older cousins and my aunt in the same household as my grandparents, each person had different duties and responsibilities, and mine was to be of assistance to my grandmother, who was blind. Even though I did not like my assigned duties at times, I loved my grandmother, which made spending time around her more enjoyable. As a young child, I wanted to just enjoy life and do my own things, so having to be my grandmother’s assistant often made me grouchy and irritable. Still, her patience, kindness, and love helped me to better focus on being present to her.
Being blind meant that my grandmother could not freely move by herself. Even though she was comfortable in the house since she remembered every inch of our dwelling, she needed assistance when we went out and about, especially at church. As a young child, I got impatient when I had to stay by her side when she spent time praying at the Marian Grotto before Mass. In Viet Nam‘s hot and humid weather, I was definitely not enticed or wanted to be under the sun, but my grandmother kept me close to her. One of my earliest memories of her teaching me the faith was in front of the Marian grotto when she taught me how to do the Sign of the Cross.
I grew closer to my grandmother because I was often by her side. I sat close to her at the dining table and at our nightly family prayer time with the Rosary. Even though there were times that I only worried about myself as a young child or did not care much when she woke me up when I fell asleep when praying the Rosary, being close to someone who was so devout and faithful helped me in my faith journey, too. She gave me the invaluable gift of faith through her life’s examples and devotion. Even though what she taught me meant nothing in the eyes of the world, it meant everything to her because she experienced in her own life what it took to lose people and everything dear and important to her because of the war. Through her simple but firm trust and unwavering faith in God and His faithfulness, she instilled in me an unwavering commitment to Him no matter what might seem to be the cost! Simply put, she handed me what was sacred, eternal, transcendental, and invaluable for her, the treasure that cannot be robbed or taken away by any governments, organizations, groups, entities, people, or forces.
I think we often get blamed for “imposing” our faith on young children, especially when we baptize our infants as if we somehow forced and took away their freedom to choose and believe. I think that is the wrong way to look at things. It is never about imposing or forcing anything but sharing what is truly personal, invaluable, and dear to us. We are Catholics today because someone loved us enough to choose to give us the gift of faith! Perhaps it was our parents, grandparents, relatives, or someone who loved us enough (and much more than themselves and ourselves) to give us the eternal gift of being children of God through the Sacrament of Baptism.
I think we can answer with confidence that the greatest gift we can give to our children and future generations should be the heartfelt gift of transcendental faith, a spiritual family of the Church, and, of course, eternal life with the One who loves us more than we ever know or could ever love our very own selves. We are Catholics because of the faith given and handed to us by those who had gone before us or loved us enough that they willed that we become children of God. Nonetheless, this faith needs to be personally treasured and enlivened as well. Even though we have been given the faith by those who love us, no matter how imperfect or incomplete it might be, we need to make it personal by how we mature, grow, and deepen it through a life of prayer and worship.
Faith is like a seed planted and watered by others when we were young, but it is important that we enrich our soul, which is the soil, through a life of virtue and continue to water it with His loving grace. If we leave it dormant, it will wither and die slowly. If we do not take care of what has been given to us, strengthening and making the roots deeper, the storms of life will batter and destroy us deep from within. The only way our faith can withstand the trials and challenges is to be strengthened by hope and enriched by charity. While it is very easy to let the messiness of life make us think that God does not care about us or that we are on our own, hence letting despair and hopelessness eat us alive, we are reminded that He gives us sufficient grace to endure the failures, limitations, and even wrongdoings that might be caused by others.
Even though life can be very hard at times, it is worth living because there are beautiful graces, gifts, and blessings of love there, too. We can choose to focus on its messiness and failures, how things do not go our way, or how hard things are at times, but life was never and can never be perfect because we are all imperfect works in progress. That is why faith cannot exist by itself! It needs to be anchored by the real and certain hope in God‘s faithfulness and everlasting love so we can continue to choose to love even though it might seem easier to give up at times. While it is easier to choose to live for ourselves and do whatever is beneficial for us alone, we are called to imitate and reflect the love of God in our very own lives because He has first loved us.
God is love because it is not just an attribute of Him. It is very existence! Within Himself, the Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exists as the pure, selfless, respectful, and unconditional love that totally gives from one Person to another. The Father is the original Lover, the Son is the Beloved, and the Holy Spirit is the unitive and distinctive Love between Father and Son. Nonetheless, even with this analogy, all human words will fall short and fail to describe the relationship and existence of this pure and eternal love between the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. When we put God‘s existence as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit into human words, we are prone to err with theological partialism or modalism because His inner-Trinitarian existence is beyond what our feeble minds can comprehend and understand! We know that God is love, and since love is life-giving, His love overflows and gives life through the acts of creation, redemption, and sanctification.
God is love, and we who are created in His image and likeness are called to love as He does! It will also require us to choose and give ourselves time because we do not always have the natural, sentimental, or emotional incentives to love the other side. When it gets hard, especially when someone hurts, betrays, or abandons us, we are reminded that genuine love wills the good of the other and chooses to give life even when it is challenging. Therefore, let us choose to live the faith handed on to us and live it out each day by how we conform our lives to God‘s self-giving, sacrificial, and never-ending love.
Indeed, love begins at home and with us, so it is important not to forget to choose to love. It will be hard to love those around us, especially those who are hard to love at times, but remember that He has first loved us. We have been given the invaluable gift of being His children, disciples, and instruments of love by virtue of our Baptism. The simplest but greatest way for us to honor and carry on the gift that has been given to us by those who loved or wanted to give us the gift beyond themselves is to internalize and personalize their faith and make it ours through a life of prayer and worship, strengthened by hope and nourished by charity.
I am grateful for my faith and hope you are, too.
I Thirst (John 19:28) with Father Khoi 