Furthermore…

This morning my teaching partner and I went to a nearby parish for a gathering of catechists, one of a series held Saturdays at different parishes during the school year.  I believe it must have been assumed at this gathering that we already know the rudiments of teaching, because the subject matter  presented was largely about the contents of our faith and our lives, in a more or less free discussion format.  The presenter would talk for a bit, and then all of us were invited to comment.  I was pleased that no arguing or contention arose: I guess we had so much in common — Catholics, volunteers, teachers, gathered together for enrichment, enjoying refreshments — that agreeableness ruled the day. How different from the the image of teachers I formed back when I used to serve professional teachers at the library where I worked, helping them secure films to show to their classes.  To me they seemed driven, strong willed, outspoken, all business.  These ladies and gentlemen this morning seemed open to listening, accepting , thoughtful, laid back.  But then, maybe the distinction is more geographical than anything else: the first bunch ws in Chicago, and today’s was in Florida.

A couple of us old guys at the men’s prayer breakfast this morning were chatting about New Years resolutions somewhat dismissively before the meeting started.  It sometimes seems that these ‘resolutions, or at least the people making them, pretty much lack ‘resolve’.  After a week, or after a month at  most on the outside, they have gone off into the atmosphere like the flavor of gum after it has been chewed too long.  Self improvement degenerates into self surrender.

I was taken aback later during the meeting when it was suggested that all those present resolve to put Christ first in our lives at all times this year.   I wasn’t thinking along such spiritual lines while we had discussed New Years resolutions earlier.  This  one is a resolution easy to say, hard to do.  It makes me think of the often repeated observation about the Sacrament of Reconciliation that folks return time after time confessing the same besetting sin.  They probably beat their brains out in recrimination, at least at the moment.

Yet some people seem to win the war against habit, human nature and helplessness.  Do they somehow receive a rare spiritual help and infusion of rigor that eludes the rest of us?  Or do they eventually become so ashamed and disgusted with themselves that it is no great struggle to mend their ways?  It reminds me of the sad guy in the bar, eyeing a happy person across the way, saying  “Give me some of what he is drinking!”

Many young lives take a new direction in response to heart-to-heart talks sought out by perplexed individuals wanting to bring clarity to their decision making about how to live their lives.  A young person might seek the advice of an older cousin or neighbor about such questions as whether to be true to the family religion, engage in sex, or carry out an abortion.  It is my guess that most of this advice is a combination of what is ordinary, comfortable, and inoffensive, and not well thought through, far-seeing, or particularly in sync with Church teachings.

So I can see tht here might be great value in collecting generous samples of the kind of advice that  struggling inquirers report was dished out to them so that it can be used to help prepare counter-arguents that would be capable of neutralizing the with good advice the bad coffee clatsch advice that young persons might expect to receive at every hand, which might be some version of  “What they told you in Church is unrealistic and we are practical people like you, and have decided that it is better to …  (fill in the blanks).”

The subject of procrastination came up in connection with one of the blog postings at the Multiply Catholic Friends group.  I think part of procrastination sometimes is avoidance of even thinking or thinking ahead about what needs to be done. IBM used to distribute a sign that read THINK AHEAD but it was funny in that the letters started off so big that last few letters had to progressively be squeezed down in size to fit in before all the space was used up.  It was displayed up front of  some of the classrooms  in which I sat.  And well it should have been: what better admonition to stick up in front to young people, who are (or at least ‘were’ in my day) almost completely preoccupied with the things of the moment,  and hardly at all concerned about what  might develop in their lives years into the future.

This week we discussed the reading for the 1st Sunday of Advent,  cycle C (Jeremiah 33:14-16,  Psalm 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 145, 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2, & Luke 21:25-28, 34-36).   A passage in Jeremiah

 caught my attention, reminding me of another passage, Isaiah 49:15

In both of these, the Lord makes his point by affirming that His faithfulness will persist even beyond the most unlikely eventuality, the disappearance of the orderly arrangement of the heavens, or a mother forgetting her newborn.  I am left wondering,  is there a literary term referring to expressions of this sort, and what is its name?  It occurs in popular love songs too.  I seem to remember one with words to the effect “even though the stars fall from the sky I’ll still remember you” or something similar.  In fact, there are a lot of commonalities between the professions of extreme devotion found in both religious writing and popular love songs. 

I remember when I was in high school in the 50s there was a local radio program called Melody Corner evenings that served as a kind of flirting site.  Lots of teens listened and sent in requests for songs to be played that might send messages to the apples of their eyes.  Before the DJ played a song he (they were only he’s then) would read the names of who the songs were for and from, along the line of “for Betty from Stan, for Stan from Lois, for Lois from Mitch” etc.,  not so crowded with an interlocked chain of the same names as that, of course.  The beauty or appeal of the concept was that the messages of admiration avoided the embarrassment or anxiety associated with face to face proclamation.

Are we embarrassed or anxious about coming up with prayer words telling Jesus or the Father or the Holy Spirit of our admiration?  There are always lots of well-worded and beautiful psalms, hymns and songs well suited to conveying  something embodying what we might awkward- and stumblingly express on our own.  As we hear one, we can always quietly muse, like yesterday’s radio listeners, for God from me.

On EWTN today Fr. Joseph Mary built his homily around B. Miguel Pro who was martyred  by the Mexican government in the 20’s.  One interesting anecdote he offered was  about a time when the anti-religious police raided a house where people were gathered for a clandestine Mass, hoping to arrest the priest.  Bold Fr. Pro opened the door and took the police on a tour of the house, even though it was the first time he was in it.  The police asked him if there was a priest hiding there and he said that if there was, he wanted to know about it, because he would like to go to Mass!  Fr. Pro employed crafty disguises and deception to carry out his priestly duties right under the noses of the hostile government officials.

This is a marvelous example of what is called “hiding in plain sight.”  Some things are so obvious that we don’t see them.  I often look at everything on the front page of a newspaper except the big headline.  Once in a while a person will mention something to me about the story behind the main headline, and I have to say that I don’t remember seeing anything about it.

It reminds me of something from biology class at St. John Fisher College.  Our professor was an expert on beetles, and told us of a certain beetle that sometimes falls into the path of army ants.  The army ants devour everything in their path except other army ants.   The ants walk with a certain rhythmic motion which allows them to recognize their own numbers and attack anything around about moving in a different rhythm.  The beetles, although far larger than the ants, are able to mimic the ant’s rhythm and can march along with them for a distance, but they inevitably tire and fail to keep up the correct rhythm, at which time they are immediately devoured.

Similarly, in an agressively secular society such as that in Mexico in the 20’s or ours today Catholics might be able to mimic the movements of those around them for a while, but will sooner or later be found out and attacked for not being like the others, believing in God and rejecting sin.

I’m an old bachelor of 72.  I figured that since I’m unexpectedly going to be teaching the Catholic faith to 5th graders after Mass on Sundays, it might be good to watch the kid’s TV on EWTN every weekday at 4 PM and get a feeling for ‘the minds of kids’.  Previously in that segment of time I either listened to the radio or just concentrated on computer activities or reading.

It’s funny, because some of the TV seems, as expected, appropriate for kids below the 5th grade while other material strikes me as pretty grown up.  Only a portion is just right for the 5th grade.  I’m charmed by one juvenile program set in a school classroom which has a young teaching nun talking to a bright, eager little puppet-student named Lucy.  Another program seems intriguingly close to regular TV programming, The Knights of St. Michael, which features a contingent of young men and ladies enlisted in a league to further the good and expose the evil in the world.  They mount some faux TV segments which mimic such regular TV fare as news shows and celebrity interviews. 

I kind of suspect that the public school 5th graders I teach don’t watch any of the afternoon EWTN TV I’ve been sampling.  I’m planning to ask if any of them are also charmed by little student Lucy, but I imagine they are too grown up to find her interesting.  They might identify to a degree with the Knights of St. Michael gang, but I imagine their heads are elsewhere.

What have I learned?  I can see that subject matter is best presented in digestible bits in an upbeat and clear manner without a lot of subtlety.  I see that the TV kids pick up what they are taught very efficiently, which I also have noticed during my experience with the kids in my class.