From Greece a thought-provoking reflection on the urgent challenge of passing on the faith to the young in today’s weird, fast-moving world. (Bp Erik Varden in Coram Fratribus)
“It must be said, though, that the Church does not easily accept
adolescents. It often has trouble understanding and communicating with them.
The position it imagines for them is a bit strange, because it tells them that they,
the young people, are the Church of tomorrow, while in fact the young are the
Church of today! The Church wants to accompany them for what they will
become; while they want to be taken into account for what they are now!
To grow and mature in one’s faith — let us not be afraid to state this — is
to abandon the God of one’s childhood. Have we not often built an image of
almighty God that in children’s soul is reduced to a disposition for reciprocal
transactional ‘dealings’, not to say idolatrous demands, of the type: ‘Help me do
well in my exams!’? In adolescence, if we leave the young free from facilitating
superstitions (praying for national exams and suchlike) they will understand that if
they haven’t done their homework, there is little point in asking for God’s help!”
