Relationships
A homily at DuBois Central Catholic
Editor’s Note: This is a summary of a homily that Fr. Ben Daghir preached at DuBois Central Catholic to elementary students.
Today, I want to talk to you about relationships because they are extremely important on our journey toward Heaven. Each of us has many relationships, just like Jesus did throughout the four Gospels.
Think about the people around you at school: your classmates, teachers, coaches, staff, older students, and younger ones. Outside of school, we also have our families, friends, and even the wider community. These relationships help us grow and become the people God wants us to be.
We grow through relationships.
In a school system like ours, we have many different relationships, each teaching us valuable lessons. For example, we learn from our teachers who guide us and help us grow in knowledge. Our coaches teach us teamwork and perseverance. Our friends help us learn to be kind, supportive, and forgiving.
Even the older students, who set examples for us, and the younger students, who we can help and guide, all play essential roles in our lives. And, of course, our families—parents, siblings, and extended family members—give us love, care, and hope.
Now, let’s think about Jesus. In the Gospels, we see that Jesus had many relationships, too. Jesus didn’t just stay with one group. Jesus traveled to various towns and villages. Jesus spent time with the sick and the injured, especially those suffering. He spent time with people ignored by others, like the poor and those on the margins of society.
Jesus had a remarkably close relationship with the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. Jesus also spent substantial time with His twelve apostles. Jesus even talked with people who didn’t understand Him, like the Pharisees, the scribes, and even those who mocked Him, like the Roman soldiers. Jesus’s life was filled with different relationships—just like us!
But here’s something crucial to understand: one relationship was far more important for Jesus than all the others. Jesus talked to this person far more than anyone else.
He spoke and prayed to this person throughout the day and night. Jesus talked to this person while He walked the shores of Galilee and carried His cross up Mount Calvary. Do you know which relationship it is?
It was Jesus’s relationship with God the Father.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “I have come not to do my will but the will of the Father who sent me” (John 6:38). This shows us that Jesus always listened to and followed God the Father’s plan. Jesus spent a lot of time talking to God the Father through prayer. Jesus was always going to quiet places to pray, talk to God, and listen to Him.
Do you remember when the disciples asked Jesus, “Master, teach us how to pray?” Jesus then said to them, “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name” (Luke 11:1-4). You know the prayer very well.
Notice who Jesus is praying to - God the Father.
Jesus knew that His relationship with God was the most important part of His life because it helped Him stay strong and focused.
Do you remember when Jesus was on the cross, and the Roman guards were hurting Him and mocking Him? What did Jesus do? Jesus prayed to God the Father and said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
So, what does this mean for us?
Like Jesus, we must remember that our relationship with God the Father is extremely important. We must direct our lives toward God.
If we want to love others well—our friends, classmates, teachers, and even people we don’t know—we must ensure that we spend time with God first. Our relationship with God helps us put all our other relationships in the proper order and keeps them healthy.
We can do this by praying daily and talking to God about what is joyful and what is difficult, what is going exceptionally well and what is stressful, what is happy and what is sad. Everything can be brought to God. God wants to hear from us.
And we love to hear from Him.
I encourage each of you today to think about your relationships: with your classmates, your teachers, your family, and with others.
Allow for your relationship with God to be of utmost importance. The more we grow in our relationship with God, the more we’ll be able to love others in the way Jesus loves us.
*For more artwork of Jesus from James Tissot, see below.
Fr. Ben Daghir
