How can you say such a thing???
Have you ever read the New Testament? Jesus does not say that we should “honor our father and mother” to the point of neglecting the truth. Look at the words of Jesus:
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35For I have come to turn
“‘a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
36a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
Matthew 10:34-36
Timothy please seek the truth and yes you should read the Bible. You are certainly old enough to make decisions for yourself.
Yea, you could say that I have read the New Testament a bit.
Please understand that the passage about Christ coming to turn a man against his father was spoken by Christ specifically to his “Twelve disciples” (cf Matthew 10:1) as he was about to send them out to establish his kingdom. Christ was not talking to “The crowd” or his followers in general, but specifically to those whom he had hand picked to be the leaders of his Church, to be leaders in his new kingdom on earth, and (with the exception of John) to become martyrs, to give up their lives for him.
Christ is telling his apostles what would happen to
them specifically. He was not commanding ordinary people to deliberately disobey their pareents. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus has previously said…
***Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. *
(Matthew 5:17)
The fourth commandment to honor your father and mother had not been repealed. Not only is the fourth commandment still in force today, but it has been surpassed and completed by Jesus’ command simply to love each other.
He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. l The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
Love contains all the commandments. And the love with which we are to love one another is not as the world would have us understand love, but agape love, the love of Christ on the cross who gave his life for us. We are called to love each other with total, self-sacrificing love, even to the point of dying for each other, with Christ on the cross as our model.
Disobeying one’s parents in violation of the 4th commandment is not loving God with your whole heart, mind, and strength? Disobying one’s parents is not unconditional, self-sacrificing, agape love. His parents are not asking him to sin, merely to respect their wishes that the Christian Bible not be brought into the house. That’s not too much to ask, for the time being. The young man is not neglecting the truth. The first Christians learned enough to get them into heaven before the Bible was ever written. Abraham is likely in heaven, and he lived long before the first chapter of Genesis was written. All I am doing is urging the OP to do is to respect his mother’s wish that a book counter to her faith not be brought into her house.
I would urge you to look at the video of St. Josemaria Escriva, who was asked an almost identical question by a 13 year old Jewish girl who’s parents would not let her become Catholic. St. Josemaria speaks of learning, and of prayer, and not speaking harshly to her parents, and of the peace of Christ coming over the houshold, and that same peace quietly moving her parents.
As you enter a house, wish it peace. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you (Matthew 10:12-13)
See if you can get through that video without getting a little choked up. It’s why St. Josemaria is a saint. It’s why we arn’t saints.
youtube.com/watch?v=xSTvG_PUE9E
-Tim-
