PARENTAL ATTACHMENTS

Loyalty and love for the parents is really something admirable and natural.  In fact it is of the basic commandments of God (the 4th commandment): Honor your Father and your Mother.  But as we grow towards maturity in life there are decisions we have to make which mean taking a step when we have to leave our parental attachments—because we are forming a new family or entering a religious vocation which may entail leaving your close family circles, e.g. becoming a priest or nun or whatever other vocation or commitment in life which may require leaving the original family ties.  Anyhow that’s natural as we mature in life.  These new attachments do not mean of course denying the original parenthood, only some adjustments being made to new states in life, as we grow in Maturity.  Surely there is a time when we become less dependent on family ties as we mature, as we grow from childhood to manhood or womanhood.  That’s what we see in most families in our world, the stages of growth from childhood to human maturity as men and women.

The gospels contain some enigmatic expressions which explain how in the lives of many Saints they had to sacrifice close family ties to follow a religious vocation as you can see in the lives of many Catholic Saints who entered the religious life as priests or nuns.  They were just as if forming a religious group or family (congregation) just as a man and a woman leave their original family ties when they get married.  Of course, the religious congregations do not enter into marriage but their numbers live together as a community under the solemn vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, separately of course, the congregations of men and women religious, which are numerous worldwide, and here in Davao Oriental and many other places in the Philippines they take care of most of our Catholic schools and many Churches and parishes.  Celibacy in the lives of priests and religious is certainly an evident mystery since we can see how they extend their love and care to millions and millions of children and people as they continue their mission in schools and parishes, here and the whole world over.