If you find yourself catechizing middle schoolers this year (either as a teacher, parish catechist, homeschooler, or parent) here are some helpful tips to help you in this important work.
Don’t Water Down the Faith
The Gospel is attractive. You don’t need to water it down or try to make it more exciting. In fact, if you water it down and make it boring, you will inevitably lose your students’ interest. Middle schoolers are not dumb. My middle schoolers have been learning about things that I didn’t learn about until I was in college theology classes (due to my own watered down religion classes as a child) – and they have eaten it up. So far, we have had discussions about the two natures of Christ, why Christological distinctions matter for who we are (i.e. if we don’t believe that Christ is human and divine, then we are saying that we can’t experience the kind of union with God made possible by the Incarnation). They have had boundless questions and concerns about heaven, purgatory, and eschatology – from understanding that we become saints (not angels) when we die, to making sense of where purgatory fits into the story, and accepting that pets do not go to heaven (although we can have hope that God may choose to re-create them when he makes the New Creation at the end of time). We’ve learned about Trinitarian theology (so that I no longer need to correct them when they refer to “God and Jesus,” because a classmate will pipe up, “ You mean God the Father and God the Son.”). We’ve had an introduction to the theology around the angels, creation (including making sense of how science does not contradict the Bible), and even learned a little bit about icons.
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Make Disciples
Disciple and discipline have the same Latin root, which means “to teach.” A disciple is one who learns and emulates the teacher. Discipline is the process of learning how something is to be done. Unfortunately, our society tends to think of discipline in terms of punishment, not teaching. Does discipline sometimes involve unpleasant consequences? Yes. But does the teacher implement the consequences in order to control the behavior of the student? No. Rather, discipline (especially when forming disciples for Christ) should be done with a focus on teaching what behavior is acceptable and why it matters.
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The Importance of Loving Relationship
Finally, all catechesis must be done from a place of loving relationship. Before a student can come to believe the faith, they have to trust the messenger. Middle schoolers are especially attuned to this. If their catechist is annoyed by them and doesn’t seem to want them around, they quickly lose interest or become discouraged. If the catechist can slow down, take deep breaths, pray lots, and truly seek to see Christ in each child – the students will respond accordingly. That relationship – and the lived example of faith given by the catechist – is paramount. Religion class should be challenging and rigorous from an academic perspective – but ultimately, the academics aren’t meant to just be mindless memorizing. In religion and theology, the subject matter is meant to change hearts. The facts learned are meant to be learned about the Beloved – Jesus who is not only worthy of their love, but who deeply loves them.
Textbooks and educational standards are important, but they are meaningless if they are not underpinned with the true purpose of catechesis – to come to know the love of Christ and grow in relationship with him.
Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
