CARD 1: DIGNITY

P. Sergio G. Román

Family is the place of upbringing where you learn to experience the great life values; it is the institution created by God to educate the human being; the place where we are formed to become persons; the place where we learn to love and be loved; to be generous, faithful, honest and responsible.

It is because of this that the weekly magazine “From the faith” publishes a series of collectible cards to promote values inside the family. We release this new section under the protection of the Holly Family: Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

Memories of my childhood
When we were children, we used to be always eager for our father, and not because our parents were divorced but due to his job, dad traveled a lot. He compensated his absence by taking us with him to his trips during vacation time; that’s how I got to know most of the country, learning not only geography and history but practical principles for every-day life emanated from my father’s wisdom.

I remember this one occasion when we arrived to a little town at lunch time. My father immediately located a restaurant and, as we were parking the car, he received help from a man that had some kind of mental handicap or paralysis that obviously made him ugly to our eyes. But my dad treated him really well and gave him a tip. I think we earned the affection of the man because soon after we had entered the restaurant, he caught up with us and with a gentile smile, he offered my brothers and me some bubblegum. Our first reaction was to reject the present, but my dad, accurately, asked us to accept it. So we did and then thanked the man. He was really happy.
Then, my father taught us a lesson: “never reject the gift of poor people, learn to receive and be thankful”. That lesson remains in my memory.

Every person is worthy of respect. It is so difficult to raise an only child! Even more complicated if the mom is single. Only children lack of that magnificent school provided by brothers. They teach us how to take care of others, to share, to become responsible, team work; they encourage us not to be too delicate, and also how to defend ourselves. Growing up with brothers helps us to deal with others with dignity in the most effective way: following the mandates of familiar love.
When they have an only child, parents must be careful helping him relating with other children and also worrying about them, otherwise the child would grow in an environment of self-satisfaction and egoism. He will be the center of the universe and everyone else would be forced to serve him and please him.

Family life is the great opportunity for parents to teach respect for other people’s dignity as well as respect for the children’s own dignity.

Children imitate, therefore, if parents talk respectfully with the teacher, the kids will recognize him as a figure of authority. I know homes where the domestic workers are treated as another member of the family, with great respect. Home is where the attitudes towards life are learned and also our vocation is shaped.

One of the signs of moral crisis in our Mexican families is the high numbers of students that get degrees on careers related with business instead of looking for professions related with social services.

If we, as parents, give too much importance to easy money, earned without hard work; we cut the wings to the children interested in humanism or worried about society. It is in the humblest extracts of society where we can frequently find children that abandon their studies because they rather make money. For instance, they take jobs at moving markets, or worse, in illegal businesses.

The school of home
It is natural to recognize the immense dignity in a human being, born of humanity itself. All human beings deserve the same respect: man or woman; child, teenager, adult or elderly; poor or rich; countryman or foreigner; healthy or sick; no matter the color; no matter if it is your friend or your enemy!

As we acknowledge the dignity of others, our own dignity grows, we become more human. Christians have even one more advantage: our beliefs teach us that all human beings are made at the image of God, and besides, every human being is our brother in the great brotherhood created by God who became a man through Jesus Christ

The disciples of Jesus know, because he told us so, that everything we do for a brother that is in a deeper need than us, we make it for Christ himself. The proper treat to others, founded on love that God feels for us and the love we feel towards him as well, is called charity, which is not -as we sometimes tend to misunderstand- the money we give to the poor people. Charity is the love that we give to all human beings because they are our brothers, sons of the same Father we all love.

It is at home where you learn dignity as long as the parents treat each other with respect, give their children the proper importance and treat all people with kindness and respect. At the end of the day “education is sucked, not acquired”.