What is real? Of course there are many definitions for the word, but when I looked up "real," one definition stood out most prominently. Merriam-Webster defines "real" as "Fundamental. Essential."
What are those things that are fundamental and essential to our existence? Air, certainly. Water. Sustenance of some sort. Protection from elements and enemies. What about God? Should God be included in that list?
After spending three years with Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, our spiritual formation program for young children, I can say without a doubt that God is the very core of those things which are fundamental and essential to our life.
In my training for this formation program, I remember being baffled by the inclusion of geography in the curriculum Why does a three-year-old need to know where Bethlehem is in relation to Nazareth or Jerusalem? Or where we are on a globe? How could that possibly mean anything?
As the adults in this training discussed the geography presentations, it became increasingly clear: geography is included because Jesus is a real person in a real time and a real place.
Jesus actually lived in Nazareth and traveled throughout the region.
Sometimes as adults I think we get so caught up in the metaphysical aspects of Christ-the sacrifice, the love, the healing-that we lose sight of the fact that Jesus was incarnate. He was an actual person, who actually spoke, and lived, died, and rose again.
I think that is the gift of Catechesis to the child: to be able to simultaneously know without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus not only lived in a real, historical sense, but also continues to live and thrive in each of us in a real, essential and fundamental way.
- ABIGAIL WHORLEY
Re-published from "spirit", St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Richmond, VA
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