To be frank, I hated religion class all through elementary and high school. Not because I was closed to God’s existence or even the Catholic Christian faith, but because the curriculum seemed so bland.
Photo by Mathew T. Rader from Unsplash.com
Learning the same thing every year: the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Fruits of the Holy Spirit and stories of Jesus helping the less fortunate. By grade 11 I became numb to religion class and I couldn’t wait to learn to about anything, but Christianity. This was the beginning of my journey away from Christianity and towards embracing secular philosophies, specifically founded on Marxism and various post-modern thought.
Is Jesus all about Social Justice?
To be clear, the Ten Commandment, the Beatitudes and other items I listed above are important and lay at the heart of Christianity, but teaching without the greater context of history, the Church and foundational philosophy gives the impression that Christianity is just about being a nice person following the example of Jesus.
Or as contemporary culture would say, Jesus was a “social justice warrior.”
The greatest logical consequence about the above assumption is that if Jesus is just another wise and just teacher then there is nothing to separate him from other great religious, or even, political leaders. Most prominent religious leaders of the past and today believe in a variation of the Golden Rule: Treat others as you’d like to be treated.
Jesus was SENT for THIS PURPOSE
But here’s the major point that Catholic Education by in large fails to focus on: Jesus Christ is God. He proved it by dying and resurrecting from the dead.
In addition, while Jesus healed many, including St. Peter’s mother-in-law (see Luke 4), his primary vocation was to teach the Good News (the Gospel) that he is God among his people.
After healing Peter’s mother-in-law along with several inflicted people that came to her home, Jesus was preparing to leave.
But people kept coming to Jesus, preventing him from leaving. Jesus responded: “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose” (Luke 4:43).
“I was sent for this purpose.” Christ’s purpose was not be a nice person, but to show us that he is God in the flesh amongst his people. Jesus wanted to show us that God loves us and understands our suffering so much that he is willing to endure humiliation and death and then conquer it. This gives us hope that suffering, evil and death DO NOT get the final word.
This message ought to be the foundation and starting point of Catholic Education.