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Passing on the faith: what really matters?
Dear Friends,
My daughter emailed me last night to say she has finished the last of her university exams. Assuming she passes this last set of exams she will at long last have her undergraduate degree. As the eldest of my children she was the first to start, and last to finish. She tried a number of disciplines at a number of universities but seems to have finally found her niche in the realms of community development and in working with young people — particularly young people from what we call "troubled backgrounds". For a number of years she's been working with Anglicare helping staff nightshelters for homeless kids — the sort Harvey Norman is reported as saying in this morning's paper it isn't worth spending money on.
In a quiet sort of way I have to say I am proud of each of my children. That's one part of my life I would not want to change again if I had my time over to "correct any mistakes". As I've been "chippin' away" at my woodwork in recent days it's been good mulling on a lot of this stuff —including what Graham English has been writing about in what we are trying to "pass on" of our faith.
Catholicism to me is NOT a book of rules. Nor is it a book of rituals, particular prayers or liturgical practices. At its base heart it is essentially "a Way of thinking and acting" modelled on a "Way" given to us by Jesus Christ. It is NOT some game of social conformism but in fact the very opposite of that. True Catholicism I think is found not in all the conformists who taught us but in all the rebels and non-conformists: the likes of Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, John Henry Newman, Joan of Arc, Thomas More, Puerre Teilhard de Chardin, Mary MacKillop, Paul Collins, Michael Morwood, Joan Chittester, Mary Magdalene, and Jesus himself. To be a "true Catholic" you almost have to earn your stripes by at some stage being excommunicated for NOT following the party line. It is NOT rebellion though simply for the sake of rebellion or "trying to be different". It is rebellion because very often it is only through rebellion that we actually can source "the truths that really matter".
To me "passing on the faith" is NOT some game of manufacturing a couple of billion "Catholic clones" — a whole paradeground of kids all uniformly dressed, all with their hair parted the right way, all their socks pulled up to a uniform level, all saying "Good morning, Your Holiness" in some mimicked, uniform chant. "Passing on the Faith" is an endeavour about "bringing out the true and unique potentials in each individual human being". It's about teaching them how to think and act like Jesus and God's Godself. Jesus is the model we have been given through which to learn to think and act like God's Godself.
People, we need to "storm the gates" and rescue Catholicism from these Philistines and Social Confirmists who have taken over the institution and who have been making it irrelevant to the world at large, and to young people in particular. Enjoy the second part of Dr Graham English's lesson plan for today. <Link to Part 2 of Graham English's commentary>
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