Nurturing Faith

I am a college student. Since I live on campus I attend Sunday Mass at a parish that is close to my college. How do you know that you are good enough to teach religion? I love kids and hope one day to be a teacher. I would like to help out in the parish religion program but do not know how to go about it. Any ideas?
- A Curious Student

Dr. Marie Murphy replies:

Run! Do not walk to the Director of Religious Education at your College parish. He or she will greet you with open arms. You may not start teaching religion at once. Most dioceses have programs of certification that they ask their catechists to take. This is done so that catechists are properly formed in their faith. But even if you do not start teaching religion right away, I am sure that there will be many ways that you can help out in your Parish Religion Program. You asked how one can tell if one is "good enough to teach religion." The truth is no one is really "good enough." But being a teacher of religion is not about being good enough, it is about being chosen by God to proclaim God's Word. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, ... See I place my words in your mouth." Jeremiah 1:5, 9.

Sometimes when I read about the school killings, or mass murders or any other of the terrible tragedies that haunt the human race, I ask myself "Is there really a God and how can God let all these bad things happen?" Sometimes I feel like a hypocrite talking to my 7th and 8th grade students about love and peace and joy when I realize what they have watched on the daily news. How can I tell my students that God is really here for us?
- A 7th and 8th Grade Catechist

"Is there really a God and is God really here with us?" is a question that has haunted human beings since the beginning of time. The Bishops of the United States have spoken about this topic recently in their message from the U.S. Catholic Bishops for the Jubilee Year 2000, Because God Loves You.

Our Bishops begin their message by reminding us that we are made for love. In fact so great is our need for love that we can not live without it. Nurses in neonatal units have long known that infants who are not touched and stroked often became weak and died. A frightened toddler longs for a hug. Friends rejoice in each other's embrace and lovers quite often declare that falling in love literally changed their lives. The sick heal more quickly and the elderly live longer when they are touched lovingly.

But we do not live in a world where persons spend their time and their energy in loving one another. You are quite right, Dear Catechist, this world is sometimes a terrifyingly frightening place. You may be surprised, though, to discover of the many terrors that haunt us, the thing of which we are most afraid is of being alone.

In Because God Loves You, Our bishops point out that recent psychological studies confirm that the greatest human fear is the fear of being alone:

Experts who analyze our worries tell us that chief among them is the dread of being alone. Sadly, many know firsthand that these experts are right. This dread develops because the full reality of our human condition has escaped us. By God's will and design, we are not born to be alone. (Because God Loves You, page 2)

We understand our human need for family and friends. We understand that we need companions to be with us on the way of life. But do we truly understand our profound and boundless need for God? Augustine said it well; "Our hearts are restless, until they rest in God."

Modern society may say that the greatest need of human beings is for money, power, or prestige. We dare to say that our greatest need is for God.

But "what will God do?" some ask. Will God stop the wars and the violence; do away with hunger and homelessness; end all the "isms", racism, sexism, ageism? No, that is what God wants human beings to do. But God has not abandoned us to our own resources. God has been with us every step of the way from the dawn of creation.

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