Loving Discipline

A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, August 24th, 2025:
Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Hebrews
12.5-7, 11-13

Brothers and sisters: You have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children — “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; for the Lord disciplines the one whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he accepts.”

Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom a father does not discipline?

Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

Recently on a lunchtime walkabout I passed one of my favourite gift shops. I noticed a young boy standing outside the door. His mother had just walked out. As I passed, I heard him say to his mother: “Was it an impulse buy?” I smiled to myself, and giggled a little when I was out of earshot. Then I also thought: “How does that kid know what an impulse buy is??” 

Really though, the sooner one learns discipline the better off one is. By discipline I mean a measure of self-control.  As a keen shopper I practice discipline—most of the time—to avoid the “impulse” purchase.

But another meaning of discipline is training oneself to obey the rules. It is this second meaning that the writer of the letter to the Hebrews is bringing forward. 

God wants nothing more for us, His chosen people,  than our good, because He is good. And thus God disciplines us. However, the Old Testament of the Bible tells many stories of God’s discipline and you know as well as I do that it’s not always pretty. Often it is painful. 

Many have grown up with this image of an authoritarian God who doles out harsh punishments as his preferred method of discipline. Yet there is a cost to doing things, choosing actions, that ultimately hurt the relationship that God offers. But even though there is a cost, God doesn’t walk away from the relationship. God never ends the relationship. 

And in the New Testament we see a fuller picture of God: He is a loving, fatherly God that offers us a way to right our relationship with him; namely through the birth, death, and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ.  And in both the Old and New Testament it is the exact same God. 

It blows my mind that no matter how many times I fail, I fall, I lack the discipline to fully live the life God calls me to, God never walks away from me. He may discipline me out His love for me but He will never walk away. I often thought my parents were strict. Certain memories come to mind of times I disobeyed them—sometimes knowingly. That disobedience had a cost, and I paid it. Yet not once did they stop loving me. Often in the moment of being disciplined they would make two things clear: the reason why I was being punished and second that they still loved me and always would. It was my action or choice that they did not love; that caused them pain. As I look back at it now, they mirrored to me God’s loving discipline. 

Discipline is necessary for a disciple. It is all too easy to be swayed by impulse, and not just of the shopping kind. As a disciple I need discipline for my own self-control but also for ongoing training in my journey towards lifelong discipleship. Thank you Lord for your loving discipline!




Aurea Sadi

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