d) CHRISTIAN EDUCATION AND RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION

"Educating means drawing out what is within"

The term educate contains something we ought to examine.  The term derives from Latin and means drawing out what is within, opening and unfolding what is inside in embryo.  Now, applying this term to human beings, we say that education is the means to unwrap the seeds sown in the human heart and bring to light what is hidden in those seeds.  This manner of speaking presupposes that God has placed in the human heart a seed of sorts from which the tender and fragrant flower will come forth.

And indeed it is so!  Strictly speaking, the educator does not put anything from the outside into the heart of a child.  Rather, with diligent and loving effort, he unfolds and unwraps what is, so to speak, wrapped in the depths of the heart and makes the seeds and germs of the natural virtues come to bloom, together with those blessed germs and seeds of supernatural virtues that had been placed in our souls at baptism.

This is what true and solid education comes down to.  This, mothers and fathers, teachers, educators, priests, pastors, all of you who have been called in some way to this most noble and divine task of educating the youth, this is what your work comes down to.

However, we must not forget that, next to the seeds of good, we also find the seeds of evil in the human heart.  In the depths of his being, every child carries the seeds of a criminal or of a saint.

Dearly beloved, your work must aim at smothering the bad seed early on, so the good seed may sprout and grow exuberantly.  You must crush the instincts of sensuality and pride showing up since infancy.  See to it that the child does not follow the onset of passion but the impulse of virtue, that he gets used to doing things for the beauty of virtue shining in the mind rather than for the fascination with pleasure that beguiles and corrupts the senses.

But, you will say, how shall we achieve this?  By grafting onto his

soul, from his tender years, the holy fear of God; because, remember it well, dearly beloved, true education is not possible without religion.  Educating children means putting into their minds the truth, the whole truth, from the simplest truth to the deepest one.  It means opening their hearts to the noblest sentiments, to those of the most delicate purity and of the purest chastity.  It means making their hearts throb with emotion at the words: God, country, freedom, equality, and fraternity, which the Gospel itself has consecrated.³⁸

"No, the Gospel does not represent a process of mummification nor the stone age"

In what does real education consist?  Perhaps in learning well a trade or a profession?  Or in being able to present oneself to the world with grace?  This could be the veneer or the varnish of education, I dare say, but it is not education.

Nor must we confuse education with instruction, as many do who identify education with instruction.  Instruction has to do with the intellect, education with the will.  Instruction makes people learned, education makes people virtuous.  Instruction is concerned with knowledge, education with conscience.  Instruction is a means, education the end.  Education then transcends instruction and knowledge, just as the good transcends the true and virtue transcends talent.

And yet, in our day, people keep talking about enlightening the mind.  Instruction, they shout everywhere, instruction!  I am all for it.  As followers of the God who loves to call himself the God of the sciences, we too love higher studies.  We salute those who dedicate time and energy to these studies and specialize in them.  We very much want all, rich or poor, patrician or plebeian, according to their social standing, to acquire the knowledge that is necessary and useful to their condition.  In fact, I am among the first to consider as a conquest everything that helps make us advance even one step on the way of civil progress, and we salute with joy the rebirth of our country which adorns itself with new glories.

But that fanatical clinging to old things, that cleaving like barnacles to the ancient, that castigating of anything that seems to have a touch of novelty even in the empirical field, that crucifying of those who will not bow to a mentality of mummification or of the stone age, no, this is not the Gospel; this is not religion; it is a symptom of ignorance and

pigheadedness rather than of wisdom and honesty.³⁹

Yes, let them pursue the arts and sciences, as long, of course, as they do not overstep their natural boundaries.  May the light of instruction spread far and wide.  But we must never forget that instruction must go hand in hand with education.

"Spare no effort to bring up your children as Christians"

Mothers and fathers, you too should stay alert and guard your house because our times are ungodly indeed and the enemy of all good goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour among your children.  Their souls cost Jesus his blood and he will ask an account of them at the price of blood.  Oh, please, spare no effort to bring up your children as Christians and to train them to be God-fearing people if you want them to be docile, respectful, and loving.  Keep an eye on the places they go to, the friends they have, the books they read.  But, above all, give them good example, so that in you they have a school of all Christian virtues, a school that never closes.

Employers and factory supervisors and all of you who have authority over others, see to it that the racket of the work place turns to silence on Sundays and holy days and that all the voices of industry become silent so that, on the day sacred to God, only the voice of the priest and of religion may be heard.

Teachers, tutors and educators of young people, whom I esteem in a special way, let me address a word also to you.  The future is in your hands.  Many ask whether things will finally get better: they do not know the answer.  Yes, I answer without fear of error, things will get better if your efforts are worthy of the noble mission entrusted to you, if you see to it "that not only your teaching method is reasonable and serious but that, even more importantly, your teaching itself is wholesome and conforms fully with the Catholic faith, in the arts as well as the sciences."  This is how you will form excellent citizens.  In hushed silence, religion and country, heaven and earth, God and the world watch your work: the hour is decisive, the outcome momentous.⁴⁰

"Religious instruction: this is the great secret of Christian education"

Education and religion are two inseparable things, but religion must be the foundation of education.  It is necessary then to make the light of those truths shine with splendor before the eyes of children so that these truths may shape their thinking and behaving.  It is necessary to teach them all their obligations in a clear, easy, authoritative, consistent, and convincing way.  It is necessary to take these young creatures from their cribs and gently lead them to their ultimate goal, which is to know, love, and serve their Creator and one day enjoy him in eternity.  In other words, it is necessary to instruct children, but to do so in a Christian way.

Religious instruction is the great secret of Christian education, the supreme need of our age.  This, I repeat, dear parents, is your supreme duty... "Do you have children?" the Lord asks in the Book of Ecclesiastes: "train them and bend them to goodness from the time of their infancy."

Who can doubt that this is a very definite obligation of yours?  Tell me: what is this creature that came to increase the number of the living through you?  This creature is a human being.  Let me quote an illustrious writer: in this creature, so lovely yet so fragile, there dwells a soul that has a heavenly origin, a breath of God, as it were, and a ray of his immortal beauty; a soul redeemed by Jesus Christ at the price of his Blood, a soul purified by the waters of holy baptism, a soul on which the Holy Spirit sheds his purest graces and in whom he finds his sheerest delight.

Fathers and mothers, greet this heavenly stranger, who has come to sit next to you.  Bow before this divine guest, who flew down to live with you under the ever blessed title of son or daughter of yours.  This little body that you see and that so fascinates you is just the covering, the sanctuary of a most noble spirit which you do not see but which comes from God and must go back to God.  Remember this well: God has associated you to himself in giving physical life to this being and wants to use you to nourish his spiritual life so that this child will fulfill his mission on earth and achieve his destiny in heaven.⁴¹

"The inalienable right of parents to have a wholesome and life-giving instruction imparted to their children"

The measure providing for religious instruction only for the children whose parents explicitly request it is a sham.  It is hard to understand how the authors of this unfortunate measure could not see the awful impression it makes on children when they notice that religious teaching is treated so differently from all the other subjects.  To apply himself diligently, a child needs to know the importance and necessity of what is being taught him.  What effort, then, can you expect a child to put into that instruction toward which school authorities are cold or hostile and which they barely tolerate? (...).

Unfortunately, the promotion of secular schools in the name of freedom and learning simply aims at tearing the young away from religion and family and co-opting them, body and soul, to the principles of Freemasonry.  So far, the so-called modern reformers have tried to hide their ultimate goal with uncanny craftiness.  Now, however, they have thrown off their mask.  It is with grief and anguish ‑- in view of the terrible and irreparable harm that will accrue to Church and country, the two supreme loves of my heart ‑- that I say it is no longer in order to form strong nations, as they claim, or just to limit the Church's power that they want young people to be at the mercy of secular authority.  Rather it is in order to tear out all sentiments of faith, all thoughts of God from the hearts of these young people.  They admit this openly, for all to see.

In the beginning, parents, especially, did not split hairs.  But now they are waking up to the fact that they have been betrayed and are rising up to assert their inalienable right to have a wholesome and life-giving instruction imparted to their children, such as that imparted in the name of God in the Church.⁴²

"First impressions are powerful and generally decisive"

First impressions are powerful and generally decisive for the rest of one's life.  This thought should fill our hearts with loving concern!  For it is in a child's earliest years that the lessons of faith and morals are impressed more easily on his or her memory, that Christian truths move the human spirit more intensely, that the gentle teachings of religion touch the heart more forcefully.  On soft wax the

image of God can be more easily impressed, while it takes a chisel and much time and effort to engrave it on marble.  When one does not have prejudices to erase nor evil habits to correct, the soul is more easily molded to one's holy obligations.  When does a wise farmer put a support on a sapling to keep it from bending out of shape?  Does he not do this when it is young?  He knows that later on it is too late.  You must do the same thing, dearly beloved.

The seed of faith and religion that you sow in the virgin soil of a child will soon become his support.  A Christian attitude will then take deep root in the child and develop into a strong tree.  The winds of passion may at times buffet the tree, shake off some fruit, or even break some branches; but the trunk thus stripped will still stand and, with the arrival of the first sun of spring, will sprout new branches and produce abundant fruit.⁴³

"Infuse into their hearts the knowledge of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament"

Children and young people must have first place in your apostolic zeal.  You know that they are Christ's favorites: "Let the children come to me and do not prevent them."  That is to say:, respect the attraction they feel for me and encourage them.  Teach them that they can possess Christ by believing in him and that they will draw him to themselves by imitating him.

Urge mothers to take possession of Christ in this sacrament and to present him to their children, teaching them in good time, from their earliest years, after the example of St. Monica.  Tell mothers what the Apostle Paul says: "The woman will be saved through motherhood provided she perseveres in faith" (1 Tim 2:15).  Convince mothers that they cannot properly train and educate their children if they do not care to infuse into their hearts the knowledge of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.  Our priests must also invite fathers to receive Christ and to draw him to themselves.  From the Lord Jesus in this sacrament fathers should learn a sense of solicitude and vigilance over their families.

I would like pastors to convince parents to have three or four Masses celebrated each year for the spiritual and temporal welfare of their children.  They should recall the example of Job: "Job would send for his children and sanctify them, rising early and offering holocausts for

every one of them" (Jb 1:5).  So, you should inculcate this beautiful practice, knowing that a good number of them will accept your advice, with great benefit to their families.⁴⁴

"When we educate for the faith, we educate also for true freedom"

Christian parents, the future of your families and your country is in your hands, You must choose whether you want to entrust your children ‑- who should be the sweet comfort and desired protection of your old age ‑- to the loving care of Jesus Christ, the divine teacher of truth and of all legitimate progress, or to condemn them to the hateful and inhuman discipline of people who teach rebellion of all sorts.

When I educate for the faith, I educate also for true freedom.  For those who call me an unreliable friend of freedom because I cordially detest that vile licentiousness that claims not only the term "freedom" but also the right to do what it pleases, whether lawful or not, I have just one answer: I love freedom with a passion and am always ready to fight bravely for it as a sacred right granted me by the Savior to help me exercise my ministry of peace.  As my bounden duty, I claim this right for all the Christians entrusted to me.  For me, however, this freedom means that I can think, talk, and act free of unjust constraints; that, with all my respect for human laws, I am first and foremost committed to God's rule alone.  Regarding the other kind of freedom, which amounts to the mischievous right to bother everybody else to please oneself, I reject with disdain the term as well as the substance.  Those who want and claim freedom only for themselves desecrate a sacred term when they refer to themselves as being free: they deserve to be slaves.⁴⁵