Apparently, a child up to the age of six has little notion of time. I learned this while undertaking an orientation of Grace’s Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program. Jennifer Bell, our catechist guide for the day said that it takes at least two hours, and ideally three, for the young ones to “do the work” cycle of Catechesis, which includes “entering (the Atrium and everything it offers), settling, choosing work, engaging and concluding”. They start the process outside the classroom and sometimes process around the balcony that runs above the Newton Room. They have an innate sense of when to be devout and serious, and when to play and wander. Everything is learning. Of course, at the end of the session, they prepare to come into the Big Atrium which is the sanctuary at Grace. There they have already been prepared to engage the Eucharistic Presence of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, through the telling of story.
Central to the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is, as you might guess, the statement of Jesus that He is the Good Shepherd. That story is told through figurines coming in and out of a sheep pen, as the children follow the figure of the Good Shepherd who is carrying a lamb across his shoulders. One of the big proclamations for the children to notice is that “he calls each by name”. Once the story is complete and the sheep are “safely back in the fold”, including I assume the lost sheep though that might be a different story to tell, the catechist shifts to another scene.
On a similar circular base, a square or rectangular shaped wooden box is placed. The sheep follow the Good Shepherd to the box, and He stands on it as the sheep come around it. Then the Good Shepherd figurine is replaced by a loaf of bread and a cup of wine, and the sheep figures are individually substituted for figures of people. The last sheep to be changed is for a figurine of a priest (closely resembling Amy, I must say)! Something shifted in my perspective of what is going on in Church when our young children return to their place with their families. They are ready for Jesus! Just, as we shall see in this Sunday’s Gospel, He is ready for them!
To use a Catechesis phrase: I wonder how ready we adults are for Jesus in our worship?
This was the second spiritual aha moment of the week for me related to our young people. The first happened on Sunday evening. We were only a few in numbers this week, but the Spirit of God showed up among us. Our topic was huge! “Who is God to you, and what does it mean to be in God’s image?” We read Scripture from Genesis to set the scene; engaged in the work of depicting our thoughts about God; and reflected and meditated on the results. Quite independent of each other we all were drawn to creating collages and drawings centering on eyes. For we tended to focus on knowing God as consciousness, though with that was a sense of divine expression that comes from our eyes, and in our smiles and open arms, and the emotions we connect with our heart. Finally, we meditated on a phrase by Thomas Aquinas that Sarah had left for us. “Because we cannot know what God is, but only what God is not, we cannot consider how He is but only truly how He is not”.
As I was grappling with that, the youngest of us volunteered firmly: “I agree with that! Really God is Mystery.” And said another person: “And to be made in God’s image as a human being is likewise to be a mystery. And we should approach each other as such”. I thought I could have been listening to Archbishop Desmond Tutu describing the human being as a holy icon worthy of sacred honoring. Together we noted that this is why all racism and othering of fellow humans is such an anathema to God. And so, the evening concluded.
“Where two or three are gathering together in my name, there I am in the midst of you”. Amen, come Lord Jesus! And as you would expect, there He is among children and young people. Where have you become aware of the holy One this week?
— Bishop Alan
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