Apr 14
by Jeanne Heiberg
When teachers I recruited and trained in an upstate New York district gave me a pendant made up of many triangles, I knew they got my message. I had frequently spoken of a “triangle” approach to religious education that reached the whole child: mind, heart, and hands. The triangle pendent was presented with laughter and teasing as we recalled our first class together.
Theory and Practice
I started that class by drawing an equilateral triangle on the board. At the top tip, I drew a sun to represent the mind—the intelligence of the children we want to reach. Of equal importance is the heart, which I drew on the left-hand tip of the triangle. This stands for feelings, imagination, and creative enthusiasm of the children we want to inspire. On the right-hand tip of the triangle, I drew a hand, to represent the senses of the children, their need for activity, for learning how to put into action what they learn in religion class.
Although these practices developed largely after the Second Vatican Council, they relate back to an older tradition. The nineteenth-century Baltimore Catechism asked, “Why did God make me?” the answer was, “God made me to know, love, and serve him.” There you are—the three points of the triangle: head, heart, and hand, given in faith theory if not yet in catechetical practice. Our knowledge of how children learn, develop, and retain faith learning has grown considerably since then.
These three parts of us—knowing, loving, and serving—are three ways we are made in the image of God. They are three ways God wants to be expressed in and through us. The number three is important. The triangle, with its three points, is the strongest building structure. It is also a symbol of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Minding Our Minds
In the Hebrew Scriptures, there was no separate category for the mind; the seat of intelligence was thought to be in the heart and it covered all that was inside of a person. The heart contained thoughts, ideas, memories, decisions, plans, and choices. The Book of Sirach says that God forms people’s eyes and ears (the senses), gives them a understanding hearts, and fills them with wisdom and knowledge (17:5-6).
Through Isaiah, Jesus speaks of God creating people with eyes to see so that they may believe and understand (John 12:37-40). Further mind functions are indicated when Jesus says you can cast mountains into the sea, but only when you truly believe.
Saint Paul urges Christians to mind their minds with these beautiful lines: “Whatever things are true, whatever honorable, whatever just, whatever holy, whatever lovable, whatever of good repute, if there be any virtue, if anything worthy of praise, think upon these things” (Philippians 4:8) and “Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). Paul speaks of our true mind, one with Jesus and our loving Creator. Jesus came to bring us back to what we were created for—to share in the mind and heart of God. When we do this, we are following St. Paul’s instruction to be transformed and renewed in “the spirit of your mind” (Ephesians 4:23; also see Romans 12:2).
We want to do all we can to learn about God’s beautiful creation, especially the perfect creation of the human being. This means that we need to “mind our minds,” to think and act from the true mind that God created in us, our Christ mind, the part of us that reflects the very image of God.
When we mind our minds, we learn more about who we really are and what we are here to do. For example, when we think mean, hateful, and selfish thoughts or hold resentments, envies, and grudges, we are being misguided. However, when we think loving, kind, and creative thoughts, our true minds, our Christ minds, are at work. Our thoughts more easily flow into warm, happy feelings and kind, loving actions. St. Paul tells us that the “concern of the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6).
We need help in keeping our minds connected to God. Jesus came to make this possible. He said “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). He is the way for us to be one with God.
We all struggle with negative thoughts and feelings, distractions, and critical conversations in our heads. However, prayer, minding our minds, and seeing what is good and beautiful in others and in all of life bring rich rewards.
Loving with Heart
The law of love appears early in the Old Testament. “Take no revenge and cherish no grudge” but rather “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).
In the New Testament, Jesus says “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39).
Paul says that love is the only debt that we have to one another (Romans 13:8, 10). He prays that Christ dwell in our hearts through faith and that charity be the root and foundation of our lives (Ephesians 3:14-21). He advises us to get rid of all bitterness, passion, anger, harsh words, slander, malice, and other thoughts that separate us from God. In place of these, he urges kindness, compassion, and forgiveness (Ephesians 4:31-32).
This is possible because the Spirit of Jesus is sent into our hearts (Galatians 4:6). Jesus came to bring us back into the oneness of that love and prayed that “The love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:11, 20-21).
We are created to love as God loves. We are created by God’s love, to share in God’s love, and to express God’s love to others. God wants to love in and through us. Such love expresses itself in joy and in actions and service, the third point of the triangle.
Senses and Service
Although God created our senses, we cannot directly experience God through these physical gifts. We have these gifts to make our way in a physical world, to praise God, and to help and serve one another.
Jesus taught through concrete, sensory things that people saw around them: sheep, goats, lost coins, dough with yeast, seeds, and fig trees. He gave us Sacraments so that visible things we see, taste, and touch reveal to us the presence of God. Bread, wine, oil, water, and fire bring us into communion so that we know and feel God’s presence. Through the Sacraments we know that Jesus, unseen by physical eyes, is touching us in a deep and wonderful way.
Sacraments—that we celebrate with our senses—help us make good use of our senses in service to others. Jesus teaches us about this: “For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve” (Mark 10:45; also see John 13:15f). Jesus says, “I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:27).
We don’t always think of God, Creator of the Universe, as one who serves us. But Jesus, who most perfectly expressed the image of God, came as a servant. He washed the feet of his disciples like the most humble servant. He said that those who serve and care for others are welcome in the kingdom of heaven, where we are restored in the image of God.
For a lesson, craft project and prayer to help students make symbols that remind them to use their minds, hearts, and hands to live their faith, click HERE.
Jeanne Heiberg is the author of Advent Arts & Christmas Crafts (Paulist Press) and Advent calendars
(Creative Communications). She has taught art, writing, creative
catechetics, and meditation, and has directed parish catechetical
programs. Jeanne writes, paints, and gives writing workshops in upstate
New York.
Source: CATECHIST Magazine, April/May 2010
Copyright
2010, Peter Li, Inc. This article may not be reprinted or reproduced in
any form without permission, except for use with your classes or
families.
Tracked: Apr 14, 17:03