A guide through the storms of life

At the Catechetical Congress last Saturday, our speaker said that most adults (“grown-ups”) can point to 4 or 5 adults that made an impact on them in their formative years. Often enough, one of those persons is their teacher of religion. I don’t even remember his name or what he said exactly, but I remember my junior-high R.E. teacher at St. Mary’s Church in Longview, Texas, where I grew up. He was a lay man, a volunteer, who wasn’t really involved in the parish in any other way except teaching us hoodlums.  He would give a short lesson and then we would discuss it as a class. No books, no papers, no films. I was a typical adolescent – I would come to class sometimes lonely, often confused, usually hurt by someone, maybe ecstatic and excited, and always vulnerable. Every high was really high and every low was really low. But this man was gentle and clear about the love of his faith. That really impressed me.  If you think about it, the R.E. class is the only formal place in a young person’s week where they are free to ask questions of faith, to hear stories of God’s love for us, to pray and learn to pray, to be dis-engaged from a world that is so electronic and manufactured. “Love, then, consists in this: not that we have loved God, but that he has loved us.” (1 Jn. 4:10) Adolescence is a delicate ride through some bumpy storms. It is so nice to have a guide who can help direct our path. - - - Fr. Jim