How do we treat our mothers, especially in their old ages? Are we treating our parents with love, care and affection when they grow old and frail? Well, if you visit some of the old-age homes, it’s crystal clear that many of us mistreat our parents and show a lack of respect and consideration for the elderly and their dignity.
This is abominable and a mortal sin. It's also a crime in many countries.
Even then, when it comes to mistreatment of parents, developed and developing countries are all in the same boat. In developing countries like India, sons and daughters dump their parents in some old age home. This mostly happens after the sons and daughters get a good job, house and a decent bank balance. They consider old and sick parents as liabilities. In developed nations like the US and Europe, elders are abandoned by their kids, forcing them to fend for themselves. Children don’t show love, care and affection to their parents. Beware, hell is waiting for such sons who mistreat their parents.
When
we think about our father and mother, Mother Mary’s image flashes through one’s
mind. On September 8, Christians (especially Syrian, Coptic an Ethiopian
Orthodox churches) celebrate the Nativity
of Mary, or Birth of the Virgin
Mary. Just hours before His death on the cross in Calvary, Jesus called John and entrusted Mother Mary
to his care, saying “this is your mother.” Our Lord didn't abandon His mother. Jesus then told Mother Mary: "this is your son." There's a message here.
The Church says it's a mortal sin to abandon the parents. “It’s is a mortal sin to discard our elderly. If we do not learn to look after and to respect our elderly, we will be treated in the same way. A society where the elderly are discarded carries within it the virus of death,” Pope Francis recently said. The biblical commandment that requires us to honour our parents, understood broadly, reminds us of the honour we must show to all elderly people. God associates a double promise with this commandment: “that you may have a long life” (Ex 20:12) and, the other, “that you might prosper” (Dt 5:16). In short, if you respect your parents and take care of them, you will live for a longer time. That’s a promise from God.
Pope Francis says the Bible reserves a severe warning for those who neglect or mistreat their parents (cf. Ex 21:17; Lv 20:9). The same judgement applies today when parents, having become older and less useful, are marginalized to the point of abandonment. And there are so many examples. “Even educated people from wealthy families abandon their elderly parents. This happens even in Christian families,” says Rev Fr Biju Kollamkunnel, a Mumbai-based priest.
If you pay a visit to the old age homes in your country, you will see many elderly people from well-to-do families. It’s not that they don’t have children and houses. They have been dumped in old-age homes by their own children. The Church says this is a mortal sin. A person who commits a mortal sin is one who knows that their sin is wrong, but still deliberately commits the sin anyway. This means that mortal sins are "premeditated" by the sinner and thus are truly a rejection of God’s law and love. He’s then willfully cutting off God’s grace.
This is like playing into the hands of devil. One day you will also grow old. Then the same fate may start haunting you. Your own children will then abandon you. History will repeat. So act wisely. Take care of your parents and elderly people. And assure a place in heaven... not hell.
