Whenever we celebrate Mass for a deceased parent, we are honoring their memory.

• First, we remember all the love, giving, forgiving, and sacrifices
• Second, we remember all the shared memories of the good times and the difficult times
• Third, we remember the life lessons learned

A testimony that these have indeed bore fruit is that peace is further in the family.

Peace is a very important theme in Gospel readings because we are told: If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. Certainly, deep down in the heart of any parent is that family members continue to be one.

Hence, three things a family can do to maintain peace especially as it grows bigger and the years go by:

1. Faith. The late Fr. Patrick Peyton said it most accurately: “The family that prays together, stays together.” If there is anything else that unifies the family aside from God, that would be fleeting and passing. Whatever that is, when it is gone, so is the unity of the family. On the other hand, “No one ever trusted God and was put to shame.”
2. Avoid Comparisons. Different people have different callings according to the plan of God. Certainly, we are blessed differently. Hence, never compare our life with others as this would be the start of envy, discontentment, and ingratitude.
3. What cannot break us will only make us stronger. A family goes through different seasons in life: sunny and stormy, quiet and restless, times of plenty, and times of scarcity. In all these may they stick it out together.

In this Mass, as we remember our parents, we also remember that a peaceful world starts with peace in the family.