Last Friday I had the good fortune of being present with the family of Thomas Aquinas, even though the occasion was not a joyful one; it was the funeral of his Dad.
Nonetheless what was evident and a joy for me to witness was the sincere appreciation of the man that Mr Rayappan (Aquinas' father) was. He was the first trained catechist of the Salem diocese. And right till the end he continued being so.
Much more than just doing the work of a catechist, he truly appears to have influenced the lives of people and brought them closer to Christ. The most solid evidence to this fact of his life is the life of his sons! Of the three I know Aquinas well. And I told him as I left the cemetery after the burial, "No surprise, your roots run deep and strong!"
The one thing that kept ringing in my head all along the Mass, especially listening to what several people were sharing and talking, either from the pulpit or all around me, was the impact of parents on the lives of their children! True indeed, from the fruits one knows the quality of the tree!