By Fr. Glenn Jones:

It’s you parents’ lot to worry about your kids—who they hang around with, what they are exposed to, what models for life will they emulate, etc. Will they be good persons? Will they have common sense, grasp onto their educational opportunities, avoid those pitfalls of life which are foreseeable and most often avoidable? No doubt almost every parent will rue some of his kids’ choices at one time or another, but you also know they have to learn the consequences of going down a foolish path … hopefully learning them prior to serious damage to themselves or to others.

So, whom should they model themselves after? Hopefully the parents are good models of virtue and reasonableness, because like it or not parents are the first teachers, and likely greatest influencers, of their children—the hands that rock the cradle, as the saying goes. But most would likely agree that social media is certainly not a substitute for parenting—so many very fringe ideas trumpeted with the same (or greater) earnestness as the traditional tested virtues such as charity, humility, kindness, graciousness, etc. In today’s culture such old-fashioned things are labeled as “booorrrringgg!”

Now, we tend to live, or at least try to live, our values. Thus the question: what values do we really value?

I was musing over this while reviewing this weekend’s Mass readings, one of which (there’s always four on Sundays) was the account of the barely averted sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham (Genesis 22). In short, to test Abraham’s faith, God commanded him to kill his son Isaac in sacrifice. But, just as the knife was raised to strike, God stays Abraham’s hand.

Now in our day we think: “How horrible! How could God ask such a thing?!”

But human sacrifice was not so uncommon in Abraham’s day, and of course now we understand that God abhors human sacrifice. But Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice even his prized child to God—in total faith, total obedience, total devotion—redounds to Abraham’s everlasting glory … a totality of devotion for which he is now called by Jews and Christians (and Muslims, too, I think) “our father in faith”.

Abraham knew God as the supreme being and source of all good, and so he was willing to sacrifice even his favored son despite the inevitable pain—trusting and faithful without understanding, because he knew that God was far beyond his understanding. Abraham recognized what Isaiah would prophesy centuries later: “[God says] … as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9), and as St. Paul would write centuries later still: “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! … For from him and through him and to him are all things.” (Romans 11:33-36)

Now, I saw a fleeting quote on X the other day (by George Orwell?) claiming that people desire to be virtuous…but not too often, and not too much. We see examples of such all the time in common life: “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”, or people urging “Loosen up!”, or normally virtuous people protesting: “Hey…I can be bad, too!”  Such are the passions and the childlike desire to be “in with the cool kids.”

A certain scripture which seems quite applicable is: “[The ungodly say:] ‘Let none … fail to share in our revelry, … Let us oppress the righteous poor man… Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training…He became to us a reproof of our thoughts; the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others … he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father…Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance.’” (Wisdom 2:10-17,19) Sound familiar in our lives’ experience?

You’d think by the time that people become adults that they would understand that those who do bad things want camaraderie in their actions, and thus pressure and ridicule those who don’t do them. And yet, like our pals in grade school who fled and denied when we ourselves were caught, so do adults do the same. “Not my fault! He knew what he was doing!!”

But another reading for this weekend’s Mass is the account of the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-10), in which the inner circle of Jesus’ disciples—Peter, James and John—were graced with a glimpse of Jesus’ divine glory. And from the cloud which descended upon them was heard the divine voice: “This is my beloved son. Listen to Him.”

So, O Christian, having that divine command of God, do we try to “transfigure” ourselves increasingly into a reflection of Jesus? Listen to the world, or listen to Him? Jesus certainly wasn’t worried about being one of the world’s “cool kids”; in fact He assured us that He (and thus His disciples) would be hated and despised in the world. Do we not see some of that going on today … as it has for 2000 years in various shapes and forms?

Discipleship in Christ will win no popularity contests, but it does lead to eternal life with God. We need remember Abraham, and how he was willing to sacrifice all in faith. Thus should we be ready to sacrifice even a little popularity and world’s acceptance to reject the bad and more quickly choose the good. All the time. Every time.

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The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure.  I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter…” (Matthew 12:35)

Editor’s note: Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.