Episode 3: Priest, Prophet and King

After Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1979, she was asked what could be done to promote world peace. Her reply: “Go home and love your family.”

That simple, yet profound statement shows precisely how important and foundational our role as parents is. In fact, as Catholic parents, we speak that language of the body, that language of love expressed in and through our bodies, in a special way, through the triple role that we have been given as baptised Christians – as priest, prophet and king.

As priest, we lead the family in right praise and worship of God Almighty, and in so doing, lead our spouse and children to Heaven, where we continue this right praise and worship for all eternity.

As Prophet, we proclaim the Good News, the truth about who God is, first and foremost in our family, through our words, through our deeds – in other words, through our bodies.

And as King, we go on the march with Christ our King, and for Him. We do this not with physical means such as swords or guns or firepower, but with love. We build His Kingdom of love here on earth, first and foremost, in and through our family.

This is precisely the foundational basis that, as St Teresa of Calcutta said, is the building block for bringing about peace, and love, in the world.

 

A Model of Prayer

Allow me to share the example of my mother.

Mum taught us to pray simple prayers when we were young. She would also get us to pray the family rosary often.

Now, as a young boy, I was quite a rascal. I remember trying to evade family prayer or make her forget to gather us round, but she didn’t. Guess what was my favourite part of the rosary? The Hail Holy Queen. Because that meant we were finishing soon!

During the rosary, I would gradually increase the tempo of the prayers, to speed things up a bit, so we could finish the prayers sooner rather than later.

You can probably guess what my favourite part of the Mass was, when I was a kid. Yes, it was when the priest said, “Go, the Mass is ended.” To which I replied with a resounding, “Thanks be to God!”

Thank God, through His Grace, and thanks to my mum for her guidance and example, I have come to appreciate the Mass and the rosary a whole lot more, and these have now become a beautiful and indispensable part of my life today. Thank God!

Mum did not have any formal education at all. Reading and writing were a challenge, but she compensated for this by attending Bible and catechism classes when she had the time, and she never failed to teach us the elements of our faith whenever she could.

 

Quality Time

I was the youngest of eleven children, or twelve if you include my eldest sister who passed away as a young child long before I was born. As you can well imagine, the housework seemed never-ending – washing, cooking, ironing…

Despite this, Mum still made time for us, to bond with us, to love us, to show us she cared. My father did too, in his own quiet way. Sure, there were times when things were tense at home, and I remember being sternly disciplined on a few occasions, but that is another story for another episode.

I brought up the example of my mum here for this main reason:

To share with you that no matter where we are in life, no matter what background we come from, no matter what our education level may be, no matter what life throws at us, through the grace of God, we can speak the language of the body, to love as God loves, as priest, prophet and king.

 

Our Baptismal Call

In summary, once again, we exercise our baptismal call to be priest, prophet and king, in a special way, as Catholic parents, in our families. How?

As priest, we lead the family in right praise and worship of God Almighty.

As Prophet, we proclaim the truth about who God is, first and foremost in our family.

And as King, we build God’s Kingdom of love here on earth, first and foremost, in and through our family.

To do this, we need to lay the important foundation for our entire mission, which we will discuss in the next session.

In the meantime, perhaps we could ponder the following –
“How can I reveal God to my children? And how can I lead my children to Him?”