We noted that four proximate aims govern the teaching of religion. understanding, appreciating, remembering and practicing the faith. These all lead to the ultimate aim, forming Christ in the baptized soul. We have seen that unity is needed for understanding and we have attempted to suggest ways by which this unity can be achieved (1) among the three branches of religions knowledge from which catechetical content is drawn, (2) among the several factors of procedure and organization in the religion curriculum, and (3) by centering all things in a biblical-liturgical framework.
It would seem that there was a time when catechists were convinced that a certain knowledge of the content of faith, or at least an ability to recite word-for-word what was found in a catechism text, was itself the spark that set off Christian living Where this notion prevailed, the fundamental laws of learning) and especially the important consideration that the will must be adequately motivated, were somehow ignored It appeared to be enough to present a religious truth in the form of question-and-answer in order to have the child come not only to know his religion hut to appreciate and love it as well.
That this procedure was false on both counts -- intellectual and volitional -- is realized by all who are familiar with sound pedagogy. It is in keeping with the nature of the will to act or not to act upon that which the intellect presents to it as desirable or good. Many factors influence the will. the quality of training given to the child at home and in school; his environment; his emotions; hereditary factors. But for our purpose as teachers this must be kept in mind no amount of religions knowledge can automatically cause the will to exercise its proper function which is to love. The catechism was once taught as if this were the case.
The will is free it can accept or reject whatever the intellect offers. It can even reject the final and ultimate end for which man has been made, the Supreme Good, God Himself. Despite all of our natural desire and love for the good -- that is, for God and communion with God -- something within us restrains our moving toward Him. St. Paul describes this mysterious situation, "I am delighted with the law of God according to the inner man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and making me prisoner to the law of sin" (Born. 7:23). while man is liberated somewhat from the pull of concupiscence by baptism, he nevertheless will always (in this life at least) bear with him the dynamic force that causes him to look for evil contrary to his very will. He is constantly required in the moral life to beware of his choices. Every truly human act involves the free exercise of the will, and in the moral order all merit or guilt resides in the choice of the will.
Hence the importance of will training in religious education. The will must be moved by reason to act: a motive is a reason for acting. while the act proper to the will is the act of love, the will must in every case he moved to love. It was a false pedagogical principle to attempt to develop the response of love as an automatic effect of knowledge of God. Regardless of the extent of the intellect's knowledge, or the child's ability to reproduce catechetical formulas by the page, the will still has the option of forbidding the intellect to dwell upon that knowledge, appreciate its meaning, and be moved to love.
"The modern catechetical movement originated chiefly as a much-needed reaction against the intellectualism which, toward the end of the nineteenth century, was severely endangering the teaching of religion. While the importance of religions knowledge was over-emphasized, religious formation and religious living were unintentionally neglected. Teachers ah too often were content to have their students merely memorize the catechism, sacrificing true understanding to mechanical drill. But even when true understanding was the aim, and an aim which was achieved to a high degree, the heart and its education wore still neglected. In contrast, the catechetical movement has emphasized what is the true educational function of our catechetical activity: we not only have to give our students a thorough knowledge of their faith, but we must also form true Christians who truly live their Christianity. Religions knowledge in itself is not the real goal of our teaching, it is only a means. The goal of religious instruction is religious living."
One result of the modern revival of interest in teaching religion is that in re-examining the nature of the Christian message of salvation, we are forced at times to re-examine the problems involved in teaching that content. One of these is the problem of helping the child to appreciate his religion, realize the meaning of the Incarnation and Redemption, recognize that he is called to share divine life -- and then encourage him to respond! The problem of appreciation is intimately associated with motivation: we must strive to give children sufficiently powerful reasons to elicit from them, of their own free will, acts of love for God. Understanding leads to appreciation and appreciation to love.
It is the mystery of Christ which gives unity to our religions knowledge. It is this same mystery which gives unity to our religions acts of love. Only in so far as our teaching is Christ-centered will we be able to unify what we know and what we love as Christians, We have spoken thus far of unity in terms of the intellect's need for understanding. But religious knowledge is not the end of religious education. Our teaching must be directed to encouraging the child to make an act of the will; it is to result in religious living based upon knowledge. We aim to help our children appreciate what God has done for them, that in turn they may express their gratitude in acts of love that unite them with Him as He wills. We appreciate our religion when we recognize its value. St. Paul evaluates what God has done for us thus, "Do you not know that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit . . ? For you have been bought at a great price" (1 Cor. 6:19-20). Christ's redemptive life and death is the price of our salvation. Can the human soul remain indifferent to divine love once this is made clear to it? Appreciation of the meaning of Christianity, then, should lead to love of God.
What we are teaching in the Good News is precisely what the Christian has been trying to tell the world from the very beginning: God loves us! The religion teacher must be prepared to present God's salvific plan as one of love, indicating how at every step of the way, as the child studies his religion, the God of love is seen acting to win men's love in return:
The central notion to be developed in every lesson is that which is likewise in keeping with the child's natural need for love. It is this: God loves us. In the reverent but relaxed atmosphere of love should all the basic doctrines be exposed. Even sin and hell should be explained to the child in terms of love. Sin is a refusal to return to God our love for His love, which is greater than we can find words to express. Sin is the absence of love; it cannot be understood except in terms of a positive counterpart. That is, we cannot understand the ingratitude and malice of sin until we have understood love, any more than we can understand betrayal until we have understood loyalty.
Sin is a denial of God's love, It is to prefer one of His creatures to Him. Hell is the ultimate consequence of that denial. It is an existence without love. Now love is a total giving of oneself, God is love.' He has given Himself to us in Christ. But hell is self-imprisonment. There is no self-giving there, and no love. The man who loves and wants God shall have heaven; he who wants self alone, shall have hell.
Purgatory is a state of love. ft is the healing process that divine love has reserved for us in order that we may be strengthened and cleansed and brought pure before the vision of eternal love. Every soul in Purgatory is there wishing to be purified so that it may be worthy to gaze upon a loving God and be united forever with him.
All of these doctrines, in fact all of the particular doctrines that comprise the message of salvation, are directed to leading the children to love of God and Christ. Of all God's gifts to them -- life, parents, a good home, good health, the life of grace -- Christ is the most perfect gift of the Father's love. "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that those who believe in him . . . may have life everlasting" (John 3:16). Christ is the final end to which we are moving in this life, inasmuch as He is God and is united to the Father, "land the Father are one" (John 10:30). He is also the means to the Father, "I am the way" (John 14:6). Without Christ as the only way that we can get to the Father and to our true home which is heaven, the Christian religion is meaningless. It is through Him that men will have everlasting life.
Thus all the divine love came to its full fruition in the great mystery of God's search for us, "when we had gone astray." That God should have created us out of love, that He should have called us to share in His own divine life out of love, is indeed a tremendous mystery. But that He should have gone to such lengths with His erring children who rejected His love is incredible. The old saying "Credo qnia impossible" (I believe because it is impossible) comes to mind at once. "Christ Jesus3 who though he was by nature God, did not consider being equal to God a thing to be clung to, but emptied himself, taking the nature of a slave and being made like unto men" (Phil. 2:5-7).
In teaching religion, we must always keep in our minds and those of our charges, the central message which is the Person and the Mystery of Christ. To him we return again and again to understand our faith and to be moved to love God.
When we center all of our teaching in Christ we are following the teaching method of the Apostles and of the great catechists throughout the centuries. We are in fact following God's own way, for He has summed up all things in Christ. Our children must be led to appreciate that the joy of Christianity is precisely this: God has given us Christ. Their natural need to be united with someone is satisfied in their contact with Christ, for God so applied His love that He found a new mode of unity with human nature and a new manner of joining Himself with man. "Let the little children be, and do not hinder them from coming to me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 19:14). "'Amen I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God as a little child will not enter into it.' And he put his arms about them, and laying his hands upon them, he began to bless them" (Mark 10:14-16).
A great psychological factor in teaching religion to children revolves about their need for love, and their capacity to make a response of love when they are properly motivated. It is therefore of greatest importance to have them appreciate as far as possible this first truth: God loves them be/ore they are asked to love Him. They need this concept of God's love now and they will need it more and more as their lives go on. They may outgrow (let us hope so) some of the insecurities of childhood and the uncertainties of adolescence, but they will never outgrow the need for love.
From the very first, the child is a product of love, human and divine. By nature he needs love: to be loved and to love in return. This need takes on several different aspects during a lifetime. In infancy, beyond the comfort and security of his mother's womb where he was safe and his needs were satisfied, he comes into a world to which he is not yet adapted. He needs to be fondled, reassured, cared for, made warm and safe. Gradually he needs to be weaned and disciplined, for his uncertainty and insecurity make him dependent upon others throughout his infancy and childhood. He strikes out at first blindly for independence and must be quieted and guided. As he becomes more aware of people other than himself, he must learn self-sacrifice; otherwise he will never understand love, which is a giving of oneself. In childhood he must progressively adapt to being himself, an individual with self-dependent capacities, but an individual among others, and so he must be taught respect for others as well as his responsibility to others, As he matures he must pay more and more attention to the exterior world and become part of it, offering himself to it, so to speak. Throughout infancy, childhood, adolescence (indeed for the rest of his life), he feels the need for companionship understanding, and sympathy. All of these things are manifestations of the human being's need for love. Because this need is basic to his nature it is a need which influences him throughout his lifetime.
The hallmarks of childhood (and in instances of adolescence) are insecurity and uncertainty. Love satisfies the need which these characteristics create. Thus from the very first the child seeks security and certainty in the love of his parents, in cherished objects such as his toys, later in his friends. When he does not find in them the measure of security and certainty that he needs, he may look back to fasten his affection upon the comforting things of an earlier period in his life.
As he grows older the child is often disillusioned with those to whom he has given his love, but he is never really discouraged. He has an insatiable thirst for love and an unlimited capacity for happiness. Love brings happiness. Ultimately we must help him to appreciate the fact that despite the many disappointments and sadnesses that will beset him in this life, God can fully satisfy his craving for love and happiness. In Him alone will all insecurity and uncertainty be dissolved: "Thou hast made us for Thyself, 0 Lord, and our hearts shall not rest until they rest in Thee" (St. Augustine).
The need for unity in religious education is not confined to the area of the intellect alone. Man's soul is not a two-chambered compartment of intellect and will, each operating independently of the other. flow does the notion of unity affect the will? In this way. There is within each man a dynamic drive toward relationship with other men, toward the establishment of a tangible communion with other people. John Donne states it so well when he says, "No man is an Island, entire of itself." 'This is in keeping with his nature as a social being. In so far as man is made in God's image, we look first to God to understand further this human tendency to be united to others.
The Blessed Trinity is the perfect communion of God in Himself. He is, as it were, a community of Persons. The mutual eternal love of the Father and the Son breathes forth the Person of Love, the Holy Sprit Human nature is made in God's likeness. It strives for union with God. As the intellect seeks to unify its knowledge, the will seeks to unify its relations with God as with others, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and thy neighbor" (Luke 10:27).
Men long to be united with other men. Examples are too numerous to mention but families, clubs, governments, and the like are evidence enough of this fact.
The natural longing for unity among men affects each as an individual. It also affects him as a member of a community. The ideal for man is that he progressively feel not the need of others (as he does in infancy and childhood), but the need to be with others. Religious education must help him to realize that this need to be with someone other than himself is preeminently satisfied when he willingly unites himself to God by acts of faith, trust, and love. It must help him to realize further that be is a member of the community of the saved, the people of God, Christ's Mystical Body the Church, and together with Christ and his fellow members is on the march to salvation.
The will does not seek to be united with some abstract Good, some idea of Good. Abstract Good does not exist. But goodness exists in the living God and in the Person of the God-Man, Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is union with God through Christ that the will seeks. Out of love, God has made this union possible. Such a realization is important if the child is expected to make the response of free and personal love. At some time between the ages of two and four, the child must learn to choose between his "I" and the "I" of others. Thus he acquires a certain frame of mind which will be influential when he must prefer the great Other to himself. He must be assured that he is loved before he will give himself to that Other, He must be assured that the object of his love is real and concrete, The real living Christ should be made the true object of his love.
As teachers of religion we must take great care to present Christ God's gift of love to man, so that He will be the supreme motive for drawing each child's will to Him in an act of love. Just as the things we know become part of us as knowers3 in a deeper and more vital way there is a union between the lover and his beloved. This need for personal union with that which he loves is natural for man. God supplies for that natural need by taking the initiative, loving us first, and uniting us to Himself by grace in Christ.
Once the child has understood God's plan for him -- to unite him to Himself by life and love -- then we must help him in every way to appreciate every aspect of that plan, and by developing his sense of appreciation encourage him to love God who so loves him. We must help him to realize, according to his nature, that he is saved not only as an individual but as a member of the community of the saved. Hence his communal life is with Christ; that is, his liturgical life must be presented to him as an external and practical way of expressing Iris interior love for the God of salvation. Under the influence of God's grace, we must develop in children, as far as it is hurnanly possible, those potentialities which are the infused theological virtues.
It is up to the teacher so to present the message of love, which is the Good News, that the child will be anxious to offer his own love to God. What Father Babin says of teaching religion to the adolescent is generally true of all religious training, "Our courses of instruction should lead [the student] to feel uneasy and without option when confronted with the 'mode of happiness' proposed by Jesus Christ." It is for the catechist to show the child that everything that God has done, He has done with man in mind, and out of love. This calls for skill as well as zeal on the catechist's part. It calls especially for his own appreciation of the truth that he proclaims. "A profound education is far more the result of the personality of the educator and of the surrounding atmosphere, than of the teacher's knowledge, though it certainly does not exclude knowledge, but situates it."
In all of his teaching, the catechist will be certain to make clear that everything good comes from the love of God, which love impelled Him to give us His only-begotten Son. God is love. This formula is the perfect expression of the revelation of the New Testament. It is no abstract definition, but is based upon the real Person of the God-Man Christ. As a matter of fact from the very beginning God made a gift of Himself to man out of love. The entire history of salvation is a manifestation of God's love, culminating in Christ, for as God gave Himself by way of revelation in the Old Testament, He gives Himself to man in Christ in the New Testament. The revelation of Himself is made perfectly in Christ, incarnate God.
The child must be brought to appreciate the fact that it is not man who undertakes to advance toward God. it is God who takes the initiative to make Himself known to man through His Son. God seeks us out because He loves us. He knows us each from eternity. He calls each by name, He loves each infinitely. So anxious is He to be united with each of His children -- for love always seeks a personal union -- that He willingly shares His life with us through Christ.
Each lesson must be taught in the atmosphere of love if the meaning of Christ is to shine through. Still, we do not mean to say that the word love itself must be drilled at children all day long. It must he apparent to them, however, that we who teach them are caught up in an act of love and that the very message which we proclaim to them is such that it calls forth love from them. We cannot force them to love; we must move them to love. This is why the viva voce of the teacher is indispensable to successfully proclaiming the Good News.
Unless our presentation of the message of salvation begins and ends with primacy of God's love for us permeating each lesson, little can be hoped for by way of eliciting the child's free response of love for God. And this is why we insist that the two-fold division of our religion program be based upon the idea of love: God's love for us (Faith-Sacraments); our response of love (Commandrnents).
In the past, the teaching of religion, where it has been concerned with love (and unfortunately this has been all too infrequent and too undeveloped), has occupied itself primarily with the concept of our love for God. This, of course, is an extraordinarily important truth and should be considered in its place. However, God's love for us, which is a more basic dogmatic concept, has been allowed to pass unnoticed. Present to the child God's love for us. It is much more important than the concept of our love for God. On the level of psychology, it is their knowledge of God's love for them that will tend to produce the reaction of love in them.
Herein lies the great division of the content of our catechetical course: on one side we have the truths relating to God's love for us; on the other we have the truths relating to our love or our proposed love for God, and therefore our participation in the mystery of Christ. Our teaching is centered upon the return of love for love.
Now to apply this two-fold aspect of love to the actual teaching of religion we can see how understanding, in the true sense of the term, can and must he achieved by centering our teaching in Christ. We use the term "understanding" in its fullest sense, implying a correlation with that other gift of the Holy Sprit -- wisdom. It is not just an intellectual penetration, it is the deep abiding possession of these truths which are more than theoretical statements; they are dynamic life-producing principles.
In every grade and at every stage of life) the young need to be led to choose to do this or that out of a recognition of the need of deliberate action to protect or to implement their values. They must be guided to realize what is truly valuable in Christianity, so that like the men of Israel they will of themselves be moved to ask, "What shall we do?" (Acts 2:37). That is why the notion of God's love for them expressed in the truths of faith and in the life of grace, when presented first and always as gifts, better suits the psychology of the child who will perform acts of love through the Commandments out of gratitude and appreciation, rather than out of strict obligation.
In this regard, the teacher must be alert carefully to point out to the child that where the Commandments are concerned, the negative or obligatory aspect is part of the whole picture of responding to God's love. The child must be encouraged to want to do what God directs him to do. And he wants to do it because he does net want to lose God's wonderful gift of me, because he loves the gift of God to Him, Christ and the divine life shared through Him. The negative aspect of the Commandments may at times loom large upon the child's horizon for Christianity is not easy. But it is so valuable that it is worth any price demanded for its possession. our Lord states the psychological principle for us, "A woman about to give birth has sorrow, because her hour has come, But when she has brought forth the child, she no longer remembers the anguish for her joy that a man is born into the world" (John 16:21).
At various stages of his development the child must adapt willingly to doing things which are more and more difficult, or else he will forever remain a child. If he is to do difficult things willingly for the sake of temporary values, then we must develop his potentiality for doing things in the supernatural sphere, performing acts of love of God. And all because God loves him first, before he is expected to return that love.
This is another reason why psychologically to begin the catechism with the statement "God made me to know, love, and serve Him" sets up a certain difficulty. So much better to begin with the concept, "God made us to show forth His goodness," and then to develop the theme of God's love for us. After all of the realities of this love are made evident, the child's will is better situated to make a free response, an act of love out of a sense of values and not only out of a sense of obligation. If he is taught likewise to return God's love not only as an individual hut together with Christ and his fellow members in the Church, then whatever may appear to him difficult will be seen distributed over the whole Church, a lighter burden, born by the strength of Christ, the Head of the Church.
The arrangement of content by the twofold division (1) Faith-Sacraments) (2) Commandments, indicates a value structure in the Christian religion. Appreciation is concerned first of all with values. Once the child perceives that what he must do by way of the Commandments is in the light of what God has given him by sharing His divine life with him, then the Commandments become means, and not ends in themselves. Grace is given, he will see, not so that he may keep the Commandments; the Commandments are there to show him bow to keep the tremendous gift of grace. It is the life in him that matters: the Law is to protect the life; the Law shows him how to live this life more fully and effectively.
The notion of having to act in a certain way in the light of one's sense of values is always present to children, consciously or otherwise. The child who values an old rag doll, cries out when that doll is misplaced. He acts out of fear that what he loves is lost to him Another child resists having his warn bottle taken away from him at night, and so he hides it or clings to it. He values the comfort and security that this object gives him. In each case, the rag doll and the bottle, something of himself is involved in the object of his love. This is after all the tendency of love: to establish a personal union. when his values are threatened, he reacts in a certain way.
As a child grows older his values change and multiply. He is soon willing (although not always without difficulty) to do certain things which he considers "hard" at the time, in order to have or protect something that he holds dear. An act of obedience pleases his mother. He cherishes her evident satisfaction. A series of acts of kindness wins a trip to the circus with dad. He values that reward. when he is given an alternative of action, he learns very early in life that sometimes he must "give in" on this particular course, in order to have that upon which lie places more value. If he does not learn that he cannot always have his cake and eat it, his sense of values will soon be lost or distorted. The spoiled child is never taught this necessary behavior; all that he ever wants is given to him. He is confused later on and may even rebel when what he asks of God in prayer is not evidently supplied upon demand. He finds it difficult to realize that God answers every prayer -- but sometimes the answer is "No."
Gradually the child learns to give himself to others in a community, and with this giving comes the need for sharing. There comes also the necessity of doing things which protect (or gain for him) something to which he attaches great value He becomes concerned as well to protect the values of the group to which he is allied. He may be motivated to keep his room neat and clean by the promise of a silver arrow at his den meeting. The promise of a class reward in school oftentimes stumulates study and achievement. That which would in itself be difficult to do is somehow relieved by the value to which it leads or which it represents.
As he becomes more conscious of self, his values move him to perform any number of acts that might in themselves be difficult, A boy stops smoking in high school or gets to bed unusually early to '"make" the track team; a girl gives up sweets to have a clear complexion or a trim figure. Any number of values motivate teenagers, not that they are all worthwhile values, but this is not the point. The point is that for every value which the child or youth holds dear, he must learn very early in life the need of performing certain and positive acts, personally) willfully, in order to attain or protect what he esteems or appreciates. If he is trained to see the true values in life -- material and spiritual -- and that these are good for him he will deliberately act, even when his feelings incline him otherwise, out of appreciation for these values. If his acts are to be willing and free, then resolutions, courses of action, while certainly suggested by his teacher, can in no way be forced upon him or demanded of him.
The arrangement of a catechetical course in terms of love places the incomparable values of the Christian religion immediately before the student. The content of the course takes on the semblance of the Good News of God's love, to which we are to respond by a life of love on our part. It is a value-structure that will draw the child to participate in the Christian life. Our foremost task is to awaken and develop in the children the full life of faith in Christ. Acts of faith are not isolated affairs, but truly Christian prayer. The commandments are no mere list of obligations or prohibitions; they are directions whereby the child can learn to do "by doing." While we can point out to the student what it means to live in and with Christ, the child must eventually learn from his own experience that life in Christ is the most valuable thing he possesses. With proper guidance his life of grace will grow in the strength of the values we have presented to him.