Catholic education in the Year of Faith

How can Catholic education help open the Doors of Faith to school bodies that are, on average, only 27% Catholic. PAUL FALLER discusses the nature of faith, and how these insights offer an answer.

Pope Benedict XVI began his apostolic letter Porta Fidei, which announced the current Year of Faith, with the following words:

The door of faith (Acts 14:27) is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into his Church. It is possible to cross that threshold when the word of God is proclaimed and the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming grace.

To enter through that door is to set out on a journey that lasts a lifetime. It begins with baptism (see Rom 6:4), through which we can address God as Father, and it ends with the passage through death to eternal life, fruit of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, whose will it was, by the gift of the Holy Spirit , to draw those who believe in him into his own glory (see Jn 17:22).While the Year of Faith is an initiative of the Catholic Church, and a call to all its members, the invitation to enter the door of faith can be extended to all people of good will.

This is an important consideration for Catholic schools, because they are a microcosm of our multicultural and multireligious society.

Indeed, on average, only 27% of our learners belong to the Catholic Church, and some learners would not identify with any religious community. So, while making the Year of Faith a focus in our schools, how do we live and celebrate it in such a way that all the school community staff, parents, learners can respond in freedom to the invitation?

By combing the web, or contacting your local Catholic Schools Office, you will find many suggestions as to how you might mark the Year of Faith. In this short article, rather than offer more suggestions, I would like to answer the question I posed in the previous paragraph in a more general way.

What is faith?

Let us begin by looking at faith itself. What is faith? It is, essentially, an ability we have to go beyond ourselves, to put ourselves in the hands of another. It is therefore closely allied to trust.

When we go on a journey we leave our home behind. We do have a destination, but we have to trust others to show us the way.

The same is true of a faith journey. This is not an outward journey, but an inward one, and, seen from a religious perspective, one that leaves the self behind to find the self in the hands of God at the centre of our being. Remember, Jesus said: Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Mt 10:39).

Some understand faith as a leap in the dark. In a sense this is true: an act of faith includes some risk and uncertainty, but what is important is why one is leaping, from where, and where to. Faith is not a foolish, devil-may-care act, but a reasonable risk in response to an inner voice, calling one home.

Benedictine Father Laurence Freeman puts it this way: The meaning of faith is the inextinguishable and insatiable longing of the human heart for union with that power of love, both creative and healing, that it finds is being poured into itself a power with which it falls in love over and over again but will never fully understand and that, each time, it sees for the first time.

So faith is a journey in relationship with the other with God for the religious person. It is also a way of seeing.

Fr Freeman describes faith as the capacity to see again for the first time. This is how children see and, again, we should take note of the words of Jesus: Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt 18:3).

How we see is one thing; what we see is another. The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes faith as first of all a personal adherence to God, as we have reflected on above, but also a free assent to the truth that God has revealed. So faith enables us to see things which are beyond our immediate horizons.

In other words, we can see from Gods perspective. We get a glimpse, at least, of the things Paul refers to: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor 2:9).

Of course free assent can sometimes be problematical. How do we know whether what we hear is the Word of God?

There are many people and religious traditions who claim to speak in the name of God and these voices when heard together can be confusing and sometimes contradictory. And so our experience of faith has a shadow side element of healthy doubt or reserve.

This is because our language always falls short of the reality we experience. Thus Paul reminds us that now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known (1 Cor 13:12).

The Gift of Faith

What does all this mean in practice? Is faith a gift that only religious people enjoy?

It is helpful at this point to distinguish between faith on the one hand, and belief on the other. When we try to express our faith in words, we enter the realm of belief. And we know too well that beliefs tend to divide people.

Faith, on the other hand, is a fundamental gift that all human beings possess, and so faith has the potential to unite if we see it as a personal response in obedience to the truth we hear.

Psychologist Dr James Fowlers research into faith development supports this understanding.

Br Michael Burke in 1996 summed up Dr Fowlers findings in this way:

Fowler sees faith as a dimension of everyones life. Explicitly religious for some, not at all for others, faith in Fowlers view is a basic part of ones equipment as a human being, namely ones inner resources for making sense of the world and coping with life.

And so, during the Year of Faith, we can invite all our staff, all our learners to embark on or continue their journey by stepping through the Door of Faith.

And where is the Door of Faith in a Catholic school?

I suggest it is the religious education curriculum which seeks, in an educative way, to engage all learners with the religious dimension of life regardless of their inherited or chosen path.

Paul Faller is the Catholic Institute of Educations coordinator for religious education.