Simplicity is the Key to Faith

A long time ago, Sister Enza asked me to teach CCD.  I told her I didn’t know anything about teaching, and what I knew about the Catechism of the Catholic Church was limited to what I was getting at Mass. (I have since corrected that oversight!) “Don’t worry,” Sister said, “You’ll be teaching 1^st graders who know less than you do!  And I have a feeling you know more than you think!”

 

I remember the first lesson was the story of creation.  I got to the part about “God created the Heavens and the Earth and saw that it was good” and the questions started.  “Did He make Mommy and Daddy?”  Yes.  (Hey they were first-graders and I was not supposed to be teaching biology!) “Did He make the trees?”  Yes.  “Did He make this desk?”  “Well, sort of.  He created the trees and the men who cut the trees into wood and the men who assembled the desk.”  “Did He make my dolly?”  “Did He make the ocean?”  The questions kept coming in rapid-fire speed.   I went to Sister Enza and told her I didn’t think I was a very good teacher.  She said she thought I would be fine.  I guess I did OK, because several of the parents would tell me later that their children would come home excited to share what they learned from “Mister Steve”.  (I didn’t want to confuse them by making them pronounce my last name).  Little did I know that the experience would teach me a lot more than anything I could ever teach those children.

   

The first and most important thing I got out of it was that in their simplicity of thought, the kids were like sponges.  They soaked up everything I taught them while using the lesson planners provided to me each week by Sister Enza.  I spent the whole year trying to introduce them to God as a loving Creator whose sole purpose in creating us is to spend eternity with Him in Heaven.

When we are full of ourselves there is no room for anything else.  When we claim to know the truths of the faith and the secrets of God, what room is there for God to tell us about Himself?

What God desires is our simplicity -- our childlike wonder and awe at how wonderful things are.  Take a moment -- look at your hand. Think about how it can move. Think about all of the things that make it possible -- the muscles, the bones, the blood vessels, how they are all put together. Something as simple and everyday as your hand is full of wonder if you take a moment to consider it.

Going back to the children, that's what God wants of us, to see Him in all that is, because everything around us is a wonder. Everything! We ourselves are miracles from conception to death. It is this childlike awe that opens us up to see the magnificence that is the Loving Father.

Spend a few minutes and contemplate the beauty of all that is, the wonder of God Himself. And in those moments, let God speak to you. He will. He will use your openness and visit with you and reveal more and more of Himself.

As I tried to teach those first-graders, that’s the way God works.