I kept thinking about education, teaching, and families, and I thought it might be useful to open a section dedicated to “educating in the faith.”
I think it is interesting because as a Catholic I consider that in education in the faith we parents risk everything.
We do not risk the happiness of our children. Thank God (literally). But something much more important.
I make specific reference to happiness (although it is a word that must be handled with great care) because on some occasion I have heard a priest say that “without faith (or without Jesus), we cannot be happy”, perhaps I have not heard it with those words, but I think the idea is understood, and I have to admit that it makes me uncomfortable.
I explain. I have faith that we have been created by God and for God. And I have faith that, after the gift of life, the most important gift is that of freedom. God has created us to love him, but he has made us free to do so or not. However, if we could only be happy by loving God, we would no longer be free not to do so. Do I explain myself or have I gotten myself involved with so many repeated words?
In other words: I am convinced that we can be as happy knowing and loving God as without knowing him and/or loving him. HUMANLY, just as happy. Completely happy. I insist. If it were not so, we would not be free not to love him.
So what are we at stake? Ah, something much more important: the Peace of Jesus; His peace here on Earth, which God will say in heaven, would not even occur to me to venture what will happen to each one afterwards.
Let me make a little digression/comparison. Can you imagine a priest who said: “Without faith, without Jesus, we cannot eat everything”? It would be absurd. Catholics can eat exactly everything that others eat. There is no food that is exclusive for Catholics, not even for Christians.
We can be just as well fed and nourished with faith (with Jesus) as without Him. Humanly nourished.
Ah! But we Christians do have another food: the word of God: “Man shall not live by Bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew, 4, 4); and furthermore, we Catholics have Christ himself as food: “While they were dining, Jesus took bread and, after saying the blessing, he broke it, gave it to his disciples and said: Take and eat, this is my body” (Matthew, 26, 26).
So HUMANLY, we have the same foods, both those who believe and those who do not; But Catholics also have three other foods: the word of God, his body and his blood. They are not HUMAN foods, but they are DIVINE. And they feed, come on, they do feed! There are many who have experienced how difficult it is to live without eating these foods, even if nutritionally one is fully satiated. Furthermore, without the divine nourishment of God’s word and His body and His blood, I believe it would be very difficult to fast from earthly foods.
In the same way, I am convinced that without faith, without knowing Jesus, or even knowing him, but without loving him, you can be completely happy, HUMANLY speaking. But if you have faith, if you know and love Jesus, ah, then we are talking about something else!, then you can know the Peace of Christ. (Many prefer to also call it happiness).
I think that stating that only through faith can one be fully happy is uncomfortable for me because I fear that it clashes head-on with the life experience of many people, and if so, they may think that the Church’s message is fallacious and alienate them. That makes me uncomfortable.
So why do they say it? Don’t know. But I dare to venture two hypotheses:
First: Once you have known Jesus, and have lived the Peace that He gives, it is easy to think that happiness (human and full) is incomplete, insufficient. Once you have known him, everything earthly, even the most full and complete, may seem little.
Second: I am sure, from what I see around me, that priests frequently have the opportunity to meet people who, despite having everything in life, having what is necessary and unnecessary to be happy (humanly), still lack feel complete, they continue searching, they continue to feel dissatisfied and, simultaneously, they meet people who, even lacking what is (humanly) necessary to lead a minimally comfortable, dignified life, are completely happy people (humanly) because they know the Peace of Christ.
The two hypotheses are complementary.
From faith, I think it makes sense. We have been created by God and for God, so without Him, it is possible that happiness (being full, humanly speaking) can feel insufficient.
So we parents risk that our children know and have the experience of Christ, the One without whom one can become (humanly) happy, but if you know and love Him you can become so Divinely. There is no comparison.
