father does worse. "The children will complain of an ungodly father, because for his sake they are in reproach. ” (Eccl. xli. 10.) How is it possible for a son to be moral and religious, when he has had the example of a father who was accustomed to utter blasphemies and obscenities; who spent the entire day in the tavern, in gaming and drunkenness; who was in the habit of frequenting houses of bad fame, and of defrauding his neighbour? Do you expect that your son will go frequently to confession, when you yourself approach the tribunal of penance scarcely once a year? Children are like apes; they do what they see their parents do. It is related in the fables, that a crab-fish one day rebuked its young for walking crookedly. They replied: Father, let us see you walk. The father walked before them more crookedly than they did. This is what happens to the parent who gives bad example. Hence, he has not even courage to correct his children for the sins which he himself commits.
9. But though he should correct them, by words, of what use is his correction when he sets them a bad ex ample by his acts? It has been said in the council of Bishops, that ” men believe the eyes rather than the ears." And St. Ambrose says: ” The eyes convince me of what they see more quickly than the ear can insinuate what is past." (Serm. xxiii., de S. S.) According to St. Thomas, scandalous parents compel, in a certain manner, their children to lead a bad life. ” Eos ad peccatum, quantum in eis fuit obligaverunt" (in Ps. xvi). They are not, says St. Bernard, fathers, but murderers; they kill, not the bodies, but the souls of their children. "Non parentes, sed peremptores." It is useless for them to say: ” My children have been born with bad dispositions." This is not true; for, as Seneca says, ” you err, if you think that vices are born with us; they have been engrafted." (Ep. xciv.) Vices are not born with your children, but have been communicated to them by the bad example of the parents. If you had given good example to your sons, they should not be so vicious as they are. O brethren, frequent the sacraments, assist at sermons, recite the Rosary every day, abstain from all obscene language, from, detraction,
