8th Day of Simbang Gabi 2013

Oedipus was born to King Laius and Queen Jocasta. In the most well-known version of the myth, Laius wished to thwart a prophecy saying that his child would grow up to murder his father and marry his mother. Thus, he fastened the infant's feet together with a large pin and left him to die on a mountainside. The baby was found on Kithairon by shepherds and raised by King Polybus and Queen Merope in the city of Corinth. Oedipus learned from the oracle at Delphi of the prophecy, but believing he was fated to murder Polybus and marry Merope, he left Corinth. Heading to Thebes, Oedipus met an older man in a chariot coming the other way on a narrow road. The two quarreled over who should give way, which resulted in Oedipus killing the stranger and continuing on to Thebes. He found that the king of the city (Laius) had been recently killed and that the city was at the mercy of the Sphinx. Oedipus answered the monster's riddle correctly, defeating it and winning the throne of the dead king and the hand in marriage of the king's widow, his mother, Jocasta. Oedipus and Jocasta had two sons (Eteocles and Polynices) and two daughters (Antigone and Ismene). In his search to determine who killed Laius (and thus end a plague on Thebes), Oedipus discovered it was he who had killed the late king: his father. Jocasta also soon realized that she had married her own son and Laius's murderer, and she hanged herself. Oedipus seized two pins from her dress and blinded himself with them. Oedipus was driven into exile, accompanied by Antigone and Ismene. After years of wandering, he arrived in Athens, where he found refuge in a grove of trees called Colonus. By this time, warring factions in Thebes wished him to return to that city, believing that his body would bring it luck. However, Oedipus died at Colonus, and the presence of his grave there was said to bring good fortune to Athens. My dear friends, every child carries with him/her all possibilities of becoming. Their parents have to face their crucial role in their children's formation years. Some parents would name their children "junior" so that the latter would follow the former's footsteps. In our Gospel, Luke 1:57-66, we are taught how to deal with children to forego a better path. In the words used by Luke -“What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him," we can find the wisdom of instilling to a child the fear of the Lord. If the child is God-fearing, then he would always seek what is good before God's eyes. His/her parents are blessed because they surely grow old but their children will be their worthy companions. Hopefully, people would learn that the best parenting technique is to let the children live in the holy fear of the Lord. Amen.