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Be of love a little more careful than of anything.
This is the message on an embroidered plaque Dave and I received as a wedding gift. The words are simple but so true and so important. They are particularly important to families because the key way we learn about relationship - ideally healthy, loving relationship - is through our experiences within family. Probably the second most influential way to learn is through the significant communities that surround us. In this way, St. Teresa is a great gift to parishioners because this is a very strong community.
In the Gospel this weekend, from Mark 12: 28b-34, Jesus speaks what can be called the "summary of the law," which is this:
The first and greatest commandment:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The beauty of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is that it is a faith formation journey designed around the developmental stages of the child and founded on this Gospel message.
The youngest children (ages 3-6) are in a sensitive period for relationship. It is the perfect stage to offer the child time and opportunity to fall in love with God through Jesus, the Good Shepherd. All future moral formation is to grow from a foundation of a deep, secure, and loving relationship with the Good Shepherd. The first and greatest commandment is all about being in love.
The 6-9 child develops a strong sense of social justice and fairness and could be said to be in the springtime of moral action. Perhaps you read in the second Level II newsletter this year that the healthy moral life is not to be imposed from without, but kindled from within, arising from loving relationship with God. Level II presentations and works seemingly build a bridge between the first and second commandments. The child is encouraged to remain in Jesus' love (parable of the True Vine), and healthy moral life is compared to the fruit on the vine, springing forth organically from this strong, "pre-existing" relationship.
Level II is also a time to consciously consider God's gift of love and God's abundant gifts of Creation. We are amazed by the vastness and greatness of God's history and begin to contemplate the question, "Who did all this for me?" As the child matures further, from Level II to Level III, we contemplate further, "What is my response?"
The 9-12 child is ready and able to apply moral rules to the child's own actions and choices. But in order to do so in a morally mature manner, it is important for the child to have experienced the earlier periods of development. These earlier proclamations (Good Shepherd and True Vine) turn the child naturally toward God, like a sunflower turns naturally toward light. Thus, the initial love of God with all of one's being is ready to contemplate the key Level III messages centered on the Plan of God:
- A plan has always existed in the mind of God to bring all people, all things, all of creation into the full enjoyment of God in a cosmic communion of love.
- The history of the Kingdom of God has been, and continues to be, written by people all over the world, of all types and all ages. We are each called to contribute to this history.
Indeed, we are each called to contribute to this awesome history by loving God and loving neighbor.
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