{"id":4483,"date":"2013-10-15T20:46:56","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T19:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=4483"},"modified":"2013-10-15T20:46:56","modified_gmt":"2013-10-15T19:46:56","slug":"abandoned-at-the-font","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=4483","title":{"rendered":"Abandoned At The Font"},"content":{"rendered":"

27th Sunday of Ordinary Time (06.10.13)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Abandoned At The Font<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reading \u2018between the lines\u2019 takes practice. Jesus\u2019 teaching in the first part of this Sunday\u2019s Gospel:\u00a0“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,\u2019 and it would obey you.\u201d<\/em>(Luke 17:5-6) may fire up a challenge in a precocious young mind such as; \u201cI\u2019ve tried that and it didn\u2019t work!\u201d<\/p>\n

Young peoples\u2019 challenges to Faith in Jesus may be disguising real questions they are embarrassed to ask. Pushed-for-time parents may unthinkingly brush aside such a challenge thereby losing an important teaching moment.<\/p>\n

Jesus always has time. “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”\u2019 (Jesus\u2019 words in Matt 19:14)<\/p>\n

Making time to expound your personal appreciation of a Truth of Faith to a questioning child, whom you promoted to Baptism, is delivering on the promise you make at the Baptismal font. Here\u2019s a reminder:<\/p>\n

The celebrant asks: \u201cWhat name have you given to your child?\u201d The parents announce the name(s)<\/em><\/p>\n

The celebrant continues: \u201cWhat do you ask of God\u2019s Church for your child?\u201d The parents say clearly: \u201cBaptism\u201d.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Then, the celebrant, speaking on behalf of the Church community, addresses the parents:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have asked to have your child Baptised. In doing so you are accepting the responsibility of training him (her) in the practice of the faith.<\/strong>\u00a0It will be your duty to bring him (her) up to keep God\u2019s commandments as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbour. Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Parents:\u00a0 \u201cWe do.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Some will argue that, for too long, Catholic primary education undermined the parents\u2019 priority role in developing God\u2019s seed of faith to their children. That role remains the most important gift a Baptised, believing parent has to give their child.<\/em>\u00a0Other gifts are time-limited; this one is eternal. Moreover, it\u2019s at the heart of Evangelisation. Telling your child to ask their teacher in school or another adult in the family is the equivalent of saying their challenge\/question isn\u2019t important to you and yet you, as mum or dad, are so important to your child. It would be more honest to say so if you don\u2019t have a clear understanding yourself and then, with your child, find the pathway to that understanding.<\/p>\n

Genuine faith is so much more than Sunday Mass and daily prayer. It\u2019s good to remember that our \u2018morning offering\u2019 consecrates the entire activity of our day as prayer, not just the time spent in actual prayer. Faith is believing without seeing, praying without ceasing and trusting, without proof, that God is \u2013 that Jesus is \u2013 and that the Holy Spirit dwells within. Faith is that deep, strong, blessed restlessness that drives believers so much that they cannot settle down in this world as if there were no hereafter with God. Abraham, our father in faith, went out from the land of his fathers and became a wanderer in the land of promise. He left one thing behind\u00a0 – his earthly understanding – and he took one thing with him \u2013 his faith in God. (Kierkegaard \u2018Provocations\u2019<\/p>\n

Most people lead, cautious, \u2018safety first\u2019 lives. However, we are disciples of Jesus and Abraham\u2019s descendants! We must accept the risk of trusting God fully without complete pre-knowledge of what may come or where we might be called to be. If \u2018faith\u2019 can see every step of the way, then it\u2019s not really \u2018faith\u2019.<\/p>\n

For faith in Jesus to take root its presentation has to be clear, uncompromised and uncluttered. Theological brilliance is not necessary but it does need to be resonant with love – your love for your child and for God, attractively visible to your child in your daily life.<\/p>\n

With the essential collaboration of the Holy Spirit faith is built little by little. It could be compared to a coral reef – delicate and fragile in formation but, when bonded in unity, able to tame the ocean.<\/p>\n

The heading, \u2018Abandoned At The Font\u2019, refers to the countless number of infants baptised into the Catholic Church whose on-going formation through parents and family borders on the non-existent.<\/p>\n

Among the reasons for this might be:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The parent\u2019s school-based religious formation bears little resemblance to the teaching methods used in Catholic schools today.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The parent\u2019s mainly rote \u2018catechism\u2019 learning may not have been taken to heart. Launched into life with such a lack of commitment, many had only tenuous links with \u2018the Church\u2019 through births, marriages and death. These links are more functional than faith revealing.<\/p>\n

When Jesus said:\u00a0“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed …..\u201d\u00a0<\/em>his intention was to embrace even the least well catechised. A dormant seed can be helped to germinate, provided it hasn\u2019t been crushed.<\/p>\n

Imagine the scene at a primary school gate on a sunny June afternoon. As school ended, an infant child came running out clutching an A4 sheet on which, in class, she had drawn her picture of Jesus to be taken home for their mothers. The teacher had praised this infant\u2019s work. Her little face was a picture of sheer happiness as she ran to her mother, who was in conversation with other adults. The child failed to win her mother\u2019s attention, so she tried again. The child was shouted at then and the picture she held out to her mother was waved away. I picked it up later from the gutter. That child\u2019s \u2018world\u2019 had been trashed by the one person who mattered most to the child, her mother. Jesus, too, had been \u2018trashed\u2019. Had the class teacher asked the following day what anyone\u2019s mother had said about their child\u2019s drawing, you can be sure one little pupil\u2019s eyes and head would have been lowered! Even tiny mustard seeds can be crushed.<\/p>\n

Erik Erikson (1902\u20131994), a German-born American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst, was known for his theory on psychosocial development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase \u2018identity crisis\u2019.<\/p>\n

Erikson proposed a lifespan model of development, taking in five stages up to the age of 18 years and three further stages beyond, well into adulthood.\u00a0 He put a great deal of emphasis on the adolescent period, feeling it was a crucial stage for developing a person\u2019s identity. He maintained that personality develops in a predetermined order, and builds upon each previous stage. This is called this the epigenic principle:-<\/p>\n

(1)\u00a0\u00a0 that the human personality, in principle, develops according to steps predetermined in the growing person\u2019s readiness to be driven toward, to be aware of, and to interact with, a widening social radius;<\/p>\n

(2) \u00a0\u00a0that society, in principle, tends to be so constituted as to meet and invite<\/p>\n

this succession of potentialities for interaction and attempts to safeguard<\/p>\n

and encourage the proper rate and the proper sequence of their<\/p>\n

enfolding.<\/p>\n

In \u2018Identity, Youth and Crisis\u2019, Erikson makes the epigenetic principle clearer by saying that, \u201cthis principle states that anything that grows has a ground-plan and that out of this ground plan the parts arise each having its special ascendancy until all parts have risen to form a functioning whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

The optimum outcome of this ‘maturation timetable’ is a wide and integrated set of life skills and abilities that function together within the autonomous individual. Erikson was interested in how children socialise and how this affects their sense of self. A balanced sense of self is essential for developing inter-personal skills including, naturally, their relationship with Jesus.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not qualified to make a professional assessment of Erikson\u2019s theory. His \u2018stages\u2019 do offer a new perspective on –\u00a0“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed…\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Experience shows that if a disruptive relationship impacts in a child\u2019s early years, the effects of the injury or injuries ricochet through subsequent stages.<\/p>\n

The same is true in the spiritual world. If Baptism begins and ends at the font, the emerging Christian remains stunted. A child may claim the \u2018Catholic\u2019 label but have no understanding of how to forge a personal relationship with Jesus Christ or the truths of the Catholic Faith.<\/p>\n

The restored prominence of the \u2018The Catechumentate\u2019 came about as a result of the Second Vatican Council.\u00a0 It is also known as the \u2018RCIA\u2019 (Rite of the Christian Initiation of Adults). Its final stage is called the Mystagogian period. The Catholic local community is called to walk with the newly Baptised, infant and adult, giving encouragement, example, fellowship and a real sense of community. The Mysytagogian period has no time limit as our awareness of God is growing until we surrender our self to Jesus in the moment of our death. The Mysytagogian period is where all the Baptised are, whatever their age, though how many recognise and actively participate in this on-going journey gives cause for concern. The \u2018seed\u2019 of faith each of the Baptised has received requires continuous nurturing, in and through the life of the worshipping community, from birth to re-birth.<\/p>\n

An accompaniment to this Sunday\u2019s Gospel would be Jesus\u2019 parable of \u2018The Sower\u2019 in Matthew 13: 3-9. Parents, Godparents and close family could find much fruit for reflection on the specific vocation to which they committed themselves when they promoted their loved one(s) to Baptism.
\nFootnote:<\/em>
\nErikson\u2019s (1959) theory of psychosocial development has eight distinct stages.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

27th Sunday of Ordinary Time (06.10.13) Abandoned At The Font Reading \u2018between the lines\u2019 takes practice. Jesus\u2019 teaching in the first part of this Sunday\u2019s Gospel:\u00a0“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archdiocese-of-liverpool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4485,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483\/revisions\/4485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}