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There’ve been
a lot of recent reports concerning the state of health of our young
people. Surprisingly, the number one health problem among young people
is not the use of drugs and alcohol but childhood and adolescent
obesity. No doubt about it, if left unchecked, obesity will have
devastating health and economic consequences for many people. Linked to
diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary disease and, ultimately, early
death, obesity is one health problem parents can do something about in
many, if not most, instances.
Many factors
contribute to child and adolescent obesity; some are modifiable (like
diet and exercise), while others are not (like genetics). In its recent
report, the American Obesity Association noted that 15.5 percent of
adolescents (ages 12 to 19) and 15.3 percent of children (ages 6 to 11)
are obese. This increase in obesity among American youth over the past
two decades has been dramatic and is almost triple the rate of obesity
when compared to the era when this generation’s parents were themselves
young people.
What’s the number
one culprit in this rapid rise in childhood and adolescent obesity?
The research
indicates that the primary culprit is snacks of choice and, in
particular, fast food and soda. These appear to be the most significant
influences upon weight gain among young people. The research also
indicates that a second culprit—the lack of strenuous, physical
activity—is the consequence of young people watching too much television
and spending too much time sitting in front of a computer screen.
What is interesting
about these data, researchers report, is that parents for the most part
tend to underestimate the health risk of excess weight to their children
as well as the difficulty young people have in achieving and maintaining
the behavioral changes long known to prevent obesity. But, it should be
noted in contrast to what many parents believe, they are critically
important, especially when it comes to creating a more healthy and
active environment for their children.
Obviously, however,
administering the “cure” for this disease won’t be easy, especially for
parents!
For example, we all
know that eating healthier foods and getting more exercise is good for
everybody. So, it only stands to reason that, if parents want to limit
the amount of fast food and soda their children eat, then parents should
also severely limit, if not entirely eliminate fast food and soda from
their own diets. “Teach by your example,” is a sound dictum.
Furthermore, if parents don’t want their children lounging around and
watching television or surfing the Internet for hours on end perched
upon a chair in front of a computer screen, then parents should engage
their children in some form of strenuous, physical exercise, like
playing basketball, bike riding, rollerblading, hiking, golfing, or even
taking family walks after dinner each evening. Think about it.
Despite the grousing, what young person doesn’t enjoy engaging with
one’s parents in physical activity, especially those where there is a
little bit of clean and healthy competition where a child can
“best” a parent?
Besides all of the
health benefits associated with physical activity and how these deal
effectively in combating juvenile obesity as a medical problem, I want
to note one spiritual benefit we oftentimes don’t think about. That is,
as parents and children engage together in strenuous, physical activity,
children learn to appreciate more fully what it means to be a family
member and to overcome what I want to suggest may be at the heart of
childhood and adolescent obesity as a spiritual problem, namely,
being alone and having nothing to do. Especially at this time of year,
it’s the familiar, old complaint that parents hear all too frequently,
“I’m bored. There’s nothing to do.”
As a spiritual
problem, this complaint reveals something very important to parents, a
matter about which they should be very concerned. It’s not simply the
matter of a lack of motivation or imagination; no, its the more
important matter of being incapable of being alone with oneself, of
being quiet and of listening to oneself, and of engaging in healthy
activities—like hobbies and strenuous physical exercise—that stretch
young people beyond their self-imposed limits and test the strength of
their souls. When a young person says, “I’m bored. There’s nothing to
do,” parents should be aware that children and adolescents are really
saying something about the quality of their “soul life,” namely, that
there is a gaping hole in their souls that nothing materialistic is
filling. In fact, by trying to fill that void with things, young people
become addicted to a crude materialism that dupes them into believing
they can fill the gaping hole present in their souls by acquiring more
and more things, experiencing ever greater and more pulsating
sensations, and gorging their mouths with unhealthy food, all the while
avoiding the confrontation with their “soul life,” that is, if young
people are to mature in grace and wisdom before God and man.
Many parents argue,
however, that there’s a big problem if they are to confront childhood
and adolescent obesity as a spiritual problem. If it’s not the problem
of time, it’s the problem of energy. After a full day’s work, parents,
asset, there are so many things that have to be done. If parents don’t
do those things, they won’t get done. And, that’s to say nothing about
energy. After a full day’s work, all that many parents want is some
peace and quiet “Far From the Maddening Crowd,” as Thomas Hardy
entitled his Victorian romance.
But, it must be
asked, “If child and adolescent obesity is a consequence of a spiritual
disease and children and adolescents today are filling the gaping hole
of loneliness and boredom with unhealthy food, if parents don’t have the
time and energy to satisfy the spiritual hunger of their children then
who will?” After all, whose responsibility is this in the first
place?
That’s part of what
today’s gospel is teaching parents, in particular, about what
discipleship requires of them in their role as the first and best
educators of their children. This means providing young people
spiritual direction…even when inconvenient.
Upon hearing the
news of the beheading of John the Baptist, Jesus withdrew from the crowd
to find a quiet place where he could be alone and grieve his cousin’s
death. But, a large crowd was following Jesus and pressing in upon
him. Its members were hungry, not just for food that would satisfy
their physical hunger but, more importantly, for an experience of love
of God and neighbor that would satisfy the spiritual hunger present in
their souls.
Why was the crowd
pressing in upon Jesus when, quite clearly, he was looking for some
“down time” to be alone and recollect himself? In their
experience, these people had discovered the meaning of the phrase from
scripture, “All who are thirsty, let them come to the water.” What the
people in the crowd wanted was this divine water, the water that would
slake not only their physical thirst but more importantly their
spiritual thirst.
Like a weary and
tired parent after a long day’s work, Jesus could have said to his
disciples when they told Jesus concerning the crowd, “Let them take care
of themselves. I need my time alone.” Perhaps we not only could
understand but could also appreciate Jesus saying that. But, he
didn’t. Instead, placing love of God and neighbor ahead of love of
self, Jesus turned his back on what he wanted to do and offered what
little energy he had for God to bless it. Through his generous
self-offering and with God’s blessing, Jesus was able to provide for the
physical and spiritual needs of every person in the crowd to the point
that there was enough left over so that Jesus could then take some
quality time for himself so that the could alone, reflect, relax, and
recoup his energies.
Notice how it didn’t
happen the other way around. Jesus didn’t take time for himself so that
he could recoup his energies and, then, go and minister to the crowd.
No, Jesus generously offered what little he had and ministered to the
crowd. Then, he took refuge in a place where he could recoup his
energies.
That’s what
discipleship requires of parents. When they feel wrung out and devoid
of energy as happens at the end of a long day or at this time of the
summer, the physical and spiritual needs of their children require
parents to contemplate what love of God and neighbor are challenging
parents to do, that is, if their goal is to provide the
“living water” and
“bread of life”
for which the souls of their children are starving.
Few of us will ever
starve and, although we may not eat healthy, most of us eat more than
enough to survive. Perhaps we feast sumptuously, as Herod did at the
birthday party he hosted for himself when he filled his stomach with
food during a hedonistic, bacchanalian feast which only fed jealously
and hatred. However, while we may have satisfied our physical
hungers—even if we did so with food that isn’t healthy—we continue have
spiritual hunger pangs indicating a hunger in our souls that is
difficult to identify and even more difficult to nourish. And young
people today know very well the spiritual hunger present in their souls
and they’ve found that a hedonistic, bacchanalian feast of material
delights isn’t satiating that hunger.
Just as each of us
can choose healthy food and a healthy lifestyle that satisfies our
physical hunger pangs, so each of us can also choose spiritual food and
a spiritual lifestyle that satisfies our spiritual hunger pangs.
Imitating Jesus, all this requires is for parents to offer the little
they possess to God, allowing God to bless and sanctify their little
gift and, then, distributing it generously to their children. In this
way, parents embody Jesus’ perfect generosity and His ability to do more
than to place food into the stomachs of their children.
It is in this sense
that discipleship certainly requires heroism on the part of parents.
But, oftentimes, it’s not the type of heroism we normally associate with
discipleship.
It’s the heroism
associated with not allowing the desire for solitude, peace, and quiet
to become an idol that keeps parents from providing for the physical and
spiritual needs of their children. Parents need to remember that Jesus
didn’t grouse at the disciples, saying “Leave me alone. I’m too tired.
Besides, I just lost my cousin. Can’t you leave me alone to grieve my
loss?”
It’s also the
heroism associated trusting that God can transform the small
contributions parents can offer their children into spiritual food—the
“living
water” and
“bread of life”—that not only nourishes the crowd of children pressing
in upon their parents but also leaves twelve baskets full of leftovers
so that parents can then rightfully sit back and relax for a bit.
In this way, young
people today who are looking for an experience of God’s generosity in
their lives will find it in their parents, who satisfy the spiritual
hunger present in the souls of their children by offering them the
living water
and bread of
their lives given generously in a selfless act that God has blessed and
made holy. And, it is in this way that young people today will see the
face of the living God, not “out there” as if God is far away but in the
face of their parents who are “right here” fulfilling their vocation of
ministry and service to the spiritual hunger of their children. |
HOMILY
