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Faith grows by giving

By Cecilia Lopez
Catechist Tips

Did your year of religious education end with liturgy and ice cream? It’s a fine way to celebrate, especially for those of us not involved with sacramental preparation. Summer is a good time to think about all the practical bits: classroom management, whether or not a film worked well, and all the other nuts and bolts of preparation. Summer is also a good time to ask ourselves what else happened. Did teaching build your faith?

It’s an important question. In his public ministry, Jesus was very concerned about how much faith he found in his audience. He was dismayed to find so little in his hometown and so much in unlikely places – in a Roman centurion, in a gentile woman, in a Samaritan village. In John’s gospel, it’s the faith of his disciples he prays for and strengthens for five whole chapters (13-17). So we are not navel-gazing or straying from Christ’s own concern if we give a little attention to how our teaching service affects our own faith.

I don’t mean understanding the content of the Catholic Faith. It’s important, and should grow and deepen as a consequence of your preparation. Here I mean faith in the sense of “Faith, Hope, and Love”, our interior consent to the truth revealed by God about who God is and who humans are. Was your own faith renewed by sharing it with your students?

A great working definition of a religious educator is, “someone who talks about the Catholic Faith as though it’s true!” It’s true and it’s fabulous. Do you finish the year with that sense?

Catechesis works by giving not only your time and attention, but your conviction itself. Some weeks need more preparation than others, but you need your whole faith every week. It’s perfectly appropriate to plan certain big lessons during the year, but you can’t hold back your conviction or your passion until the big lesson in two weeks. The students need to see passion and conviction every week about who God is and who humans are.

If you take your whole faith with you and speak from your faith every week, you find there’s more than you started with. It seems to happen very much like the multiplication of bread and dried fish described in the gospels. Giving everything does not mean running out, it means abundance running over. When we give our faith, we find there’s always more.

We only find that if we stop to look. At this time of year, when we’re between school years and perhaps reconsidering our commitment for the fall, it’s a good time to pay attention to how God has interiorly blessed us through our work. Maybe it turns up in a deeper appreciation of God’s presence in scripture. Maybe an increase in faith shows up in how we pray Mass. Maybe we understand a point better than we did before. When we give, God gives.

And maybe he wants to give you more. A retreat may be an excellent opportunity to receive what God wants to give. How many parents send their kids to Totus Tuus or Vacation Bible School, but won’t make that time commitment for themselves? Nearby, there are wonderful retreats at Broom Tree Retreat Center in South Dakota. A retreat isn’t a low-tech vacation or Vacation Bible School for grown ups. A retreat is time and attention we give to God so God can give generously to us. It’s a lot better than an ice cream party.

Cecilia Lopez is a parish catechist in Sioux City.