Faith is the response to the Father’s invitation to communion with God which, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, people make to the revelation of the Word embodied in the Church’s teaching and practice. It involves a free and conscious assent of both intellect and will to the persons of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and to the truths contained in Scripture and Tradition. As such, faith is not only a personal act, but also a community (or ecclesial) act since “the Church’s faith precedes, engenders, supports and nourishes” [i] individual faith.
Catholic Christian faith can be understood in its two aspects:
– as fides qua – the faith by which one believes, an adherence to God who reveals himself;
– as fides quae – the faith which one believes [ii], the content of Revelation and of the Gospel message.
In all endeavours to promote faith development, the Church takes appropriate cognisance of these two aspects: namely, the subjective process of coming to, growing and living in faith, and the objective content of the faith, expressed in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition as “a single sacred deposit of the Word of God”[iii] whose authentic interpretation lies with the Magisterium (teaching authority) of the Church.
The communication of the faith through religious education in a Catholic school is understood to be an event of grace, realised in the encounter of the Word of God with the experience of the person. It receives from Jesus Christ, who is the living and perfect relationship of God with man and of man with God, “the law of fidelity to God and of fidelity to the person in a single, loving attitude”. [iv]
fidelity to God
In showing fidelity to God, religious education places stress on the following aspects of Catholic Christian faith:
- the mystery of the Trinity – God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit
- the person of Jesus, the Son of God and the ideal human being whom Christians aim to follow
- the revelation of God as expressed in Sacred Scripture and Tradition
- the mystery of the risen Christ’s dynamic presence in the Church as the pilgrim people of God
- the Church’s liturgy and sacraments celebrating the continuing activity of Christ in our world
- the importance of prayer in sustaining a growing personal relationship with God
- the moral life as the expression and consequence of our relationship with God
- the witness to Christian values given by members of the people of God
- the universality of God’s loving presence in creation and in all human searching.
fidelity to the human person
In showing fidelity to the person, religious education of young people takes cognisance of:
- their religious and spiritual situations
- their stage of development in searching for meaning in their lives
- the speed and direction possible for them in their spiritual and religious development
- the respect due to their own incipient consciences and convictions
- their individual characters and personalities
- their own language, symbols, experiences and subcultures
- the questions and issues that arise in their concrete lives.
journeying in faith
The way in which a person increasingly matures in faith is not a simple progression towards intellectual consent, but is a much more holistic and complex process. It is a journey of unfolding encounter with God which takes place within the context of a person’s total experience of life. This process of gradual appreciation can be seen to be well exemplified in St Luke’s description of the two disciples’ journey to Emmaus in the company of the Risen Jesus whom they initially fail to recognise (Lk 24: 13-55).
One of the functions of religious education in the Catholic school is to provide learners with structured opportunities to experience this kind of encounter so that they become increasingly able to make an informed mature response to God in faith. These opportunities for interpreted experiences should be constructed around the key facets of Catholic faith which are expressed in the Strands of Faith outlined elsewhere in ‘This Is Our Faith’.
Fidelity to God will always mean being faithful to the fullness of Divine Revelation in Jesus Christ, handed on by the Apostles and safeguarded by the Magisterium of the Church. At the same time, fidelity to the person will require that religious education be presented in ways which enable young people to recognise Divine Revelation as Good News precisely because, by resonating with their own deepest yearnings and desires, it offers authentic meaning to the experiences of their lives. Since we are, in fact, proclaiming the Person of Jesus Christ, Our Way and Truth and Life, these essentially existential and relational dimensions of religious education must never be overlooked.
[i] Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), Pope John Paul II, 1992, No. 181
[ii] GDC, No. 92
[iii] Dei Verbum (DV), Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, 1980, No. 10
[iv] GDC, No. 145