Day Nine: God the Spirit and Love, Part One

“When have you been surprised?”  I ask the students to consider this question for a few moments. It can be any kind of surprise. I am just asking them to activate prior knowledge of what it means to be surprised in some way. It is a simple practice; we start the class with a question, and, to be honest, I do not want them to respond with any theological response. I just want them to begin the class thinking about something that is burned into their brain. My job, as the teacher, is to make some sort of connection between their prior knowledge and the new information I will be giving them. This particular question, as it turns out, will connect nicely with the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit is what makes God a God of surprises.

My classroom before all the students start to show up. That is mostly their work on the walls. (Photo Credit: P. Smith)

I had a professor in graduate school tell us once that the meaning to life is learning how to say “thank you” better. A life well-lived, to use a classical expression, is a life lived in thanksgiving for everything. As we pray in class, I remind my students that a life lived in thanksgiving is a life much more fruitful and fulfilling. I challenge students to consider what it would be like if they thought more in terms of thanksgiving and less in terms of want and desire. In Catholic theology we teach that all we have in this world is gift. The Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity who transfers Grace to us in whatever way He knows we need it, and if we can begin to see everything around us as gift, we can more easily live a life of thanksgiving. In this way, we begin to develop a more fruitful and fulfilling relationship with God.

“What are the times when you were surprised in a good way?” I ask my students. I call on them and listen to their stories. At first, their responses are relatively tame. Usually they talk about a party or a random gift they got. But they begin to share more as their classmates open up. I have heard them talk about the first time they knew they were going to have a new baby brother or sister. They talk about times when they learned they got into their school of choice and it was a relative surprise. They share stories about the health or good fortune of a family member or friend. They start expanding this understanding of “surprise”.

The trick to teaching is using whatever students already have in their memory and building a bridge between what is already there and what you want them to know at the end of the lesson. It’s called scaffolding. On this lesson, students will begin thinking about the Holy Spirit as person of the Trinity who seeks to “surprise” us with gift after gift, all for the purpose of inviting us into relationship with God. I want students to complete the lesson having addressed the following two objectives:

“Students will be able to explain why the Holy Spirit is necessary for us to develop a relationship with God.”

“Students will be able to describe how the Holy Spirit has always been working to help humanity grow closer in relationship with God.”

Bl. Rupert Mayer Chapel, Regis Jesuit High School. The Dove, symbolizing the Holy Spirit, descends upon the Crucifixion. (Photo Credit: P. Smith)

It is near impossible to teach anything unless there is already some prior knowledge onto which the student can attach the new knowledge. The “surprise” question activates that prior knowledge so the objectives can more easily be achieved. During the lesson, I return to what students have shared, often using exact details shared by students in order to keep them engaged. I remind them that they know God is Trinity, and they know the Father is the Lover, the one who creates and has mercy. This lesson explains who the Spirit is and how the Spirit “surprises” us constantly with Grace. (I have an entire unit on who Jesus is, so I hold off on talking about Jesus).

Day Eight: God the Father and Lover, Part Three

God the Father is the Lover within the Trinity, as Augustine explains. The Son is the Beloved, and the Spirit is the Love between the Father and the Son. I get to the Son and the Spirit later. I simplify the Lover aspect of the Trinity for my students.

To create is an act of Love. God the Father is the one who Creates us because He desires us to experience what Authentic Love is. It is the same when we create in our life, I tell my students. In a simple way, when we create a work of art or a song or a cookie, we desire that creation to provide pleasure and Joy for someone else, or for ourselves if we are particularly selfish that day. When we create life, we Hopefully do so with the desire that we can share Love with our children. As a parent, God the Father Creates simply so we can encounter what Love is.

Simon of Cyrene Takes the Cross of Christ, Bl. Rupert Mayer Chapel, Regis Jesuit High School (Photo Credit: P. Smith)

But I go a bit further with my students. A True Lover also shows Mercy. That is, she or he Loves even when that Love is rejected. When talking about the Creative aspect of the Lover, I could easily read from Genesis and note how the first mention of humanity is before we are created. God desires to create us in His “image and likeness.” It is much more interesting, I think, to look for the subtle signs of God’s Mercy in the story of the Fall. And I am not talking about the so-called proto evangelium, the foreshadowing of Jesus defeating the Satan.

I am referring to the Mercy God has for Adam and Eve as they are leaving the Garden. As I wrote in the last blog, as they leave, God freely gives them garments made of leather. An act of Mercy. But there is more. When God calls to Adam and Eve and asks “Where are you?” obviously He is not ignorant of where they are, physically; He is God, after all. Indeed, here we see God offering Adam and Eve and opportunity to “confess”. To reorient themselves to God in humility. God preserves the free will of Adam and Eve, even though they have disobeyed Him. This question is a sign of Mercy.

Stations of the Cross, St. Joseph Lake, Notre Dame, Indiana (Photo Credit: P. Smith)

But my favorite sign of Mercy in the Garden is the tiny detail of when they sinned against God. It was the “breezy part of the day”. I ask my students if they understand when this means. Most do not know because they likely have never had to work an entire day outside. In the South, where I am from, we could do yard work or some sort of labor during the hot, humid summers, but around four o’clock as the sun is getting a little bit lower, the wind would start to pick up and we could get a few seconds of comfort from the heat. In Genesis, this detail shows itself as Adam and Eve are starting to hide from God In the bushes. In hiding from God in the bushes, they also shield themselves from the cool comfort of that breeze. It is almost as if there was Mercy built into the Garden in the form of the “breezy part of the day”, yet Adam and Eve hide from that Mercy.

I ask my students the rhetorical question: “How often do we hide from Mercy and forgiveness because of our own pride or ego?” It is a good reflection question. God constantly offers us Mercy, especially in the form Confession or any number of Sacraments. But our ego and pride causes us to leap into those bushes, away from His cooling breeze. The good news is that God also promises Adam and Eve that they will return to the dust from which they came. There is Hope.

Day Eight: God the Father and Lover, Part Two

I want my student to understand that God, the Father, is the epitome, on a transcendent level, of what it means to be a Lover. The first objective of this class period is “Students will be able to define Original Sin and Holiness”, but we begin where our relationship with God began…Genesis. God, the Trinity, experiences Love within Himself. The Father Loves the Son, the Son Loves the Spirit, the Spirit Loves the Father, and so forth. That Love is so great in overabundance that the natural result is Creation. Because God is Love, He actually creates humankind so they can experience that same Love. God, as Father, is the One who creates us.

In Genesis God Creates and shows Mercy. He Creates humankind in His image and likeness, which is, He creates us to Love and to be Loved as He Loves and is Loved within the Trinity. This is our most Authentic Self. But He also creates us with Free Will. That is, in order to Love and to be Loved, we must have the Freedom to choose that Love. And when Adam and Eve place their will over the will of God (I tell students that, effectively, when we sin we replicate that same action) they separate themselves from God and each other. But God is Lover. A Lover does not just create and leave. A Lover creates and shows Mercy if His Creation rejects Him. I mention my favorite image from Genesis; as Adam and Eve are leaving the Garden, God gives them new clothes. He gives them garments of leather, much sturdier than the leafy clothes they had fashioned for themselves. Mercy.

(Simon of Cyrene Takes the Cross of Jesus, Bl. Rupert Mayer Chapel, Regis Jesuit High School. Photo credit: P. Smith).

I introduce the ideas of sin, original sin, and concupiscence to my students here, but the important concept I try to impress on them is the ideas that God Loves, and we experience that Love in Creation and in Mercy. God, the Lover, the Father, is a God of Creation and Mercy. Despite our sin and our weakness, God continues to Love us. In the next part of the class, I expand on some images in Genesis that reveal His ever-present Love in Creation and in Mercy.

Day Seven: God the Father and Lover, Part One

               “What is something you have created?” I ask my students this at the beginning of this lesson. Again, Bellwork is not meant to be a theological lesson at first. In fact, I have to admit, I chastise, Lovingly, my students who read into things too theologically or religiously. To be honest, I want them to start identifying their material desires and thoughts, and, later, I show them how their thoughts and desires are, in fact, signs pointing to a deeper desire….a desire for God and the Truth of who they are. I give them a minute to think about this question.

                This lesson flows from the attribute of God as Trinity, specifically the Father. It can be difficult teaching about the Persons of the Trinity. The danger is that we separate the Persons too much and we lose a sense of the Oneness of the Trinity. I am intentional about how I talk about each Person of the Trinity. I want my students to always remember that God is both Three and One.

                I start with the Father and how the Father is Creator and the Father is merciful, For prayer I show a cartoon video of the story of Creation and the Fall. It doesn’t matter what cartoon. I just want my students to get it in their mind the concept that God creates but also, we reject Him. I’ll come back to that later.

After we finish praying, I call on student to share their Bellwork. Like usual, the responses vary. Usually they talk about an art project they did for class or a song they may have written. I push them to expand their concept of “creation”. Creation is an act of Love, I tell them. To create is an act of vulnerability. If we do not create, we are not at risk of being rejected, and what is Love if not some form of vulnerability? If my students ever have children, I tell them, they are automatically vulnerable because when their kids are teenagers, they will reject their parents. My students laugh and nod in agreement. This is the act of a Lover…one who Loves. At the same time, one creates so others may benefit. I tie this back to the prayer and suggest the lesson for the day: When God creates He wants us to experience the Beauty of existence and creation, but He also risks being rejected by us. We are beginning to better understand what God “looks like” and what we should strive to be.

                A quick review prepares them for the first objective about how God Loves so much that He creates us.

•       Christianity is a relationship with God.

•       By developing this relationship we know God better and learn that God is Love (Lover, Beloved, and Love…Trinity).

•       If the human race is made in the image and likeness of God, then our purpose on life is to become more Loving and more Beloved as a community because that is what God “looks like).

(Just another morning at the park)

Day Six: Attributes of God, Part Three

For the last part of Day Six, I give my students a list of what the philosophy of religion has determined to be the general attributes of God. Anyone who studies religion, especially monotheistic religions, will come across a list like this. They are concepts that seem to be consistent about monotheistic (and some polytheistic) beliefs about God and who God is. This is really an introduction to these concepts so the students can see what most belief systems say God is.

Students will be able to list the “Attributes of God”.

•       1) God is Unique (There is no other being or things like God).

•       2) God is Infinite and Omnipotent (God is everywhere and all-powerful).

•       3) God is Eternal (There is no beginning or end to God; He is outside and inside time).

•       4) God is Immense (There is no limit to God; He is outside and inside space).

•       5) God Contains All Things (There is nothing outside of God’s power; but it is God’s nature of Love to not force us to do anything).

•       6) God is Immutable (God does not change).

•       7) God is Utterly Simple-A Pure Spirit (There is no division in God).

•       8) God is Personal (God seeks for us to experience Love; this is only possible if we have a personal relationship with Him).

•       9) God is Holy or Omnibenevolent (God Loves and is Loved perfectly).

I have to admit, I do not require my students to memorize these concepts. Much of the time, focus on memorization distracts us from the important concept at hand: God is real and God Loves us. I do not require students to be able to recall any of these ideas, yet we will come back to most of them throughout the course. Sometimes teachers get caught up in the nuances and the minutiae of a lesson or a concept and they lose sight of the purpose. I could take an entire class period and train my students to memorize and recall all of these attributes perfectly. They could give me perfect definitions of each of these concepts, but if they are focused on just the material information at hand, they forget what we are really talking about: this is a God who, more than anything us, desires us to be happy with Him and will do whatever He can to invite us into a relationship with Him. At the end of the lesson, I simply want my students to know that they are Loved by a God who has no reason or need to Love them except it is His nature.

Every lesson ends with an “Assignment”. They synthesize what they have learned in class and they write a description. This is how I measure if they have grasped the concepts at hand. I never have them take a quiz or list any of the concepts. I encourage them to use their notes to “practice” writing this. As they practice, the knowledge becomes more familiar, and when we review the following class period, they have read, reflected, quizzed, taken notes, and written an Assignment all about one topic. It is learning in multiple dimensions. It works for many students. The following class, we will begin to discuss what it means hen we call God “Father”.

(Perfect)

Day Six: Attributes of God, Part Two

It takes me over a week to get to the root of what I believe to be the most fundamental and important aspect of Catholic Theology: The Holy Trinity. Almost all aspects of what I teach my students and what I understand to be Catholic Theology rests on our understanding of who God is, or rather, who God are.

“If God is Love, who was He Loving before He created us?” a professor of mine once posed. I ask the same question to my students. My sharper students remark, “What do you mean before, Mr. Smith? God is outside of time and space.” I acknowledge their superior intelligence and ask the question again. When I was their age I would never have come up with a decent response, but I seem to have several students who logically deduce that if God is Love then before He created us, He must have Loved Himself. I push the conversation: “But doesn’t Love necessitate at least two unique individuals for it to be authentic?” They start to understand that God must be more than one “person” in order for this to be True. This is a basic premise of the Trinity. This is how we begin our conversation about the Trinitarian attribute or aspect of God.

The objective is: “Students will be able to describe the three Persons of the Trinity.” I continue with the question “What is the Trinity?” Some of my students have a good background in their Catholic or Christian Faith, so they share what they know. Ultimately, I describe to them that the Trinity is the central dogma (belief) of the Christian Faith. That dogma states that there are three Divine Persons in the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) in one God. But I go further. I use St. Augustine’s theology for this.

Who is the Father? When Jesus prays He calls God “Abba”. “Abba” means “daddy”. God the Father is  God as “Lover”, the one who Loves. He is God who Loves perfectly.

Who is the Son? Jesus is the Son. The Son is the Beloved. The Son becomes the Incarnation (God made flesh); He is God who is Beloved perfectly.

Who is the Holy Spirit? The Spirit is the Love between the Father and the Son. The Spirit inspires Scripture and Tradition, but (and this gets tricky, but I am laying groundwork here) the Love between the Father and the Son is so profoundly perfect that it is a unique Person, separate but eternally in communion with the Father and the Son. The Spirit drives the Church and helps keep Her moving in the direction of God. For our benefit, the Spirit delivers Grace (spiritual gifts) to us.

The Lover, the Beloved, and the Love between are so united in Will that they are One God. This takes a little thinking, but I use the idea that the more two people Love each other, the more they can sort of read each other’s thoughts and feelings. The deeper the connection, the more perfect the relationship. They seem to grow into one person. I suggest to the students that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are so perfect in their Love, that they remain separate and unique Persons, but are transcendently unified in a single God.

As I get to later, I remind the students that if we are made in the image and likeness of God, then we are made to “look like” the Trinity; we are made to be Lover, Beloved, the Love Between, AND we are made to be One in communion with each other and with God. Our Authentic Self, effectively, is Trinity.

(He's watching a rainbow; I am, well, taking a selfie.)

Day Six: Attributes of God, Part One

Students start the class with this question: What is something that you HAD to share with your friends? (news, gift, etc…). They have thirty seconds to jot down a response. Nothing fancy. I don’t normally collect bellworks, especially if I have students who really do think about these things.  When they are done, we do a quick prayer, starting with intentions. Some days the prayer is more elaborate or nuanced. Other days, we may say a simple Our Father or just take a few moments to share intentions. As long as I instill in them a routine of prayer and reflection, the standard is set. Too often we, as teachers, are fixated on the material we have to cover that day and we forget that even just a few moments of prayer, in any form, habituates the students into, at the very least, thinking about God regularly. If they can think about God on a semi-regular basis, then God can work with that.

“What is something that you HAD to share with your friends?” I ask them. The normal responses range from topics like relationships to school to sports…whatever interests students. I shift the conversation and ask them why they want to share this news. The goal of this sort of discussion is to develop some metacognition or reflection techniques. “Why do you want to share this news with others? Why do you desire this?” I give my students credit; when challenged to do so, they are thoughtful. Their responses are deep. “Because by sharing news that is important to us, we can grow closer to our friends and family”. “Because we sometimes need someone to cry or celebrate with to make us feel better.” “Because we want our friends to be happy, too.” We desire to share news, both good and bad, so we can grow in relationship with someone other than ourselves. This is a concept in theological anthropology that I actually teach to students later, but for right now I shift, once again, to the theme of the day. I tell them, “One of the key attributes of God is that He desires to share His “Good News”…His Gospel…with us. And He will do whatever He can to make that happen. He will call us to help share that “Good News” just like you will ask your friends to retweet or forward a message of good news to people who you think should hear it.” Most of the students start to understand.

Before we go into the objectives for the day, we review briefly. This is the routine, and routine gives students a sense of ownership in the classroom. When the class is predictable and consistent, students know what is happening and it can give them a sense of control and comfort. I often remind students that I will use the review portions of the lesson plans to write my tests because I know that we have covered the review material at least three or four times over two or three lessons. So, they often take notes on the review section. It is an easy method they can use to begin studying for any upcoming test, and it helps them to be prepared for any new knowledge coming their way that class period. I show them the following concepts and sometimes call on students to explain what these ideas mean:

•       Christianity is a relationship with God.

•       God is Trinity; God is relationship.

•       By developing a relationship with God, we learn to Love and to be Loved more perfectly.

•       All parts of Christianity should help us to develop a relationship with God.

•       God uses signs and symbols to communicate to us (Scripture and Tradition) because He is transcendent and beyond human comprehension.

I already told them that God’s desire to share His Good News is a key attribute. The rest of the class will explore more of His attributes. If we know what His attributes are, we can know Him a little better.

(After a long day of playing at the park, he snuggles like this on my arm.)

Day Five: Revelation, Tradition, and Scripture, Part Three

With the knowledge that we cannot know anything about our Authentic Self or Authentic Love without the help of a transcendent being, God, we can now start talking about what the Catholic Church teaches about how God “reveals” or “unveils” that Truth to His Creation.

Students will be able to define and explain Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture as Revelation from God.

The Church teaches that God reveals Himself to us, primarily, in two ways: Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture. I briefly mention that God does, in fact, reveal His Truths to us in other ways, namely, trough Creation, people, dreams, etc…. but these other forms of Revelation tend to be “personal” and really deal with the individual at a particular point in their Faith Journey. Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture are essential for all people at any time.  By definition, they help the entire human race “look like” God, who is eternal Trinity. I give them basic definitions:

•       Sacred Tradition is “the living transmission of the Church’s Gospel message found in the Church’s teaching, life, and worship. It is faithfully preserved, handed on, and interpreted by the Church’s Magisterium”.

•       In case they don’t know the word “Gospel”…“Gospel” means “Good News”. Specifically, the Good News that we are called to Love and to be Loved. This “Lover/”Beloved” concept will be one that is repeated throughout the course.

•       “Magisterium” means the “teaching authority of the Church”. Later, when we discuss ecclesiology (the study of the Church) I go into more detail about where this authority comes from.

•       Sacred Scripture or the Bible is “the inspired Word of God; the written record of Revelation.”

•       “Word” is capitalized to emphasize that Scripture is not just symbolic of God; it is an example of His Love.

•       Sacred Scripture records the various Covenants (Sacred Contract) in which God continuously promises to Love us…to teach us how to Love and how to be Loved. Later in the course I will discuss Covenant Relationship and how that factors into Catholic teaching.

It is easy enough for most students these days to learn definitions. Education in America has focused so much on surface learning and basic understanding that this form of learning by memorization has become the default mode in the classroom for many students, and, sadly, many teachers. Of course, we are talking about a “relationship with God” in Catholic theology, and as anyone who has ever been in Love knows, your knowledge of that relationship involves so much more than simple surface knowledge of your Beloved. Knowledge of God, then, also requires so much more than just memorizing attributes or Scripture or prayers. In order for us to know Him, He must come to us and show us…”unveil” Himself to us… who He really is and what we are really made to be. Catholic theology teaches that Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture actually contain the active presence of God. They are the Holy Spirit inspiring humans to “hand on” Traditions or to compose Scriptures. Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture are Divinely Inspired.

I end the class with a discussion of the question: “Which comes first: Sacred Tradition or Sacred Scripture?” Because most of American culture is more familiar with Sacred Scripture, the students tend to answer that the Bible came first. Of course, they may be thinking of the Torah or even the entirety of Israel’s Scriptures before Jesus. Some students logically deduce, based partly on their understanding of how things get written down, that the stories of Scripture had to have been told orally before they were written down, which means that Oral Tradition had to come first. I give them this simple analogy: when I proposed to my wife, we did not write a long letter or email to our parents; we called them and told them directly. Anytime we have “Good News” we want to share it in as personal a way as possible. In theology, in order for that Good News to be transmitted properly and fully before it as written down, the Holy Spirit must have been present in the Apostles and the disciples of Jesus. This makes that Tradition equal to the Sacred Scriptures that would come some thirty to seventy years after Jesus.

I give the students their homework, which is the basically summarize what we had discussed that day. The next class will discuss the “Attributes of God”.

(The Drawbacks to Being So Smart)