FAITH education has been acknowledged as one of the top priorities of Synod 2003 in Brisbane archdiocese.
However, before we begin to devise ways to educate in the faith we must first define what we mean by the word.
Faith is truth. It is not something that can be kept abreast of the times, brought up to date, subjected to constant change nor left to our own reason to decide whether or not it is true.
Our Catholic faith is what we believe and is built on fixed and certain truths revealed to us by God and taught by the Magisterium of the Church. We call these truths dogmas.
We tend today to make light of, or even to ignore, dogma and doctrine, yet barely half a century ago eminent Catholic writers were telling us that without dogma Christianity was built on shifting sands; but that with dogma it was built on rock ‘ the rock of certainty; and that without doctrine there is no morality and without morality there is no doctrine. Were they right or wrong?
The chief dogmas of our faith are the existence of God, the Blessed Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, the Redemption and the existence of an immortal destiny. It is around these definite teachings that faith education must be built if it is to be positive.
We need not fear that children will accept these truths, for Faith is the first of the three theological virtues given to them in baptism.
It is only if we (parents, teachers and preachers), consciously or unconsciously, neglect to teach and develop the Church’s teachings that that faith gifted to us by God will wither and sadly die.
God also gave us the gift of reason and before He gave the gift of faith. Divine faith, however, is over and above natural reason. It transcends it, is more comprehensive, widens our field of knowledge and makes us aware of vast, unexplored regions.
Faith is given other meanings. It is our trust in God, our hope of complete and eternal happiness. This is, in fact, the second theological virtue of hope.
Faith also refers to the way we express our beliefs through our love of God and our neighbour ‘ the third theological virtue of Charity. It is vitally important that the first motive of Christian charity (love) is supernatural for mere philanthropy is but a poor and distant cousin.
This then is the faith that must be taught. The faith that involves not one, not two, but the three theological virtues.
John Thomas (CL 25/5/03) outlines faith education activities in today’s Catholic schools and looks to the future with hope. These programs, however, differ little from those used to teach hundreds of today’s young adults who no longer walk with God at Sunday Mass through the reception of the sacraments and the observance of all Catholic moral teachings.
Perhaps the concentration has been too much on the second half of the third theological virtue ‘ ourselves and our neighbour and preserving our earthly home’.
Christianity is above all devotedness and complete dedication to a person ‘ Jesus Christ, God and Man, who takes us to the Father and sends the Holy Spirit.
Are we presenting the real Christ or a caricature of Him for the Christ who was gentle and humble could also be strong and condemnatory of evil? Have we brought out the depths of his great love, dying for us on the cross and yet remaining with us in his Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament?
Are the songs sung at liturgies today too devoid of theological substance? Do they speak to God, or too much to and about ourselves?
We are the Mystical Body of Christ (the Church) but Christ is head of that body. The head, not the body, is the principle of growth. It is from the head that the body builds itself up.
Unless faith is centred on Christ, prayer will become unreal, meaningless, insincere and unmeant and religious practices boring formalism to be put aside at the first opportunity.
Our children’s faith is untried and untested until they enter university life, the workforce or the ranks of the unemployed.
Then, without a true knowledge of Christ and his teachings, it may be difficult to substitute the God of our true Catholic faith for the God of the classroom.
Catholics need the Catholic ‘point of view’ in order to make right choices, form true friendships, have political opinions, choose good literature and entertainment and modest dress, embrace their vocations, overcome difficulties and persevere to the end. These can be gleaned from holy Scripture, the lives of the saints and other writings that explain, rather than condemn, Catholic beliefs.
As Jesus Christ told us, let us build on solid rock not shifting sand.
N. MACKENZIE
Taigum, Qld
