ROCKS

"God, being a teenager has so many ups and downs, so many vital decisions. It is a time when the pressures of one's peers are at a high, and the choices that are made will inevitably follow people throughout their life. Everyone needs your help, whether they admit it or not. . . . Our whole life is ahead of us, and we put it in your hands."

These touching thoughts, written by a former student and published in Dreams Alive: Prayers by Teenagers (Koch, ed., p. 26), reflect the uncertainties and longings so many adolescents feel. How can we, as religious educators, provide a firm footing for our young people as they depart our Catholic high schools into a society that is frequently indifferent and sometimes actually hostile to the spiritual dimension of their life?

Living as we do in a world of constant and radical change, it is impossible to provide students with pat solutions to every problem they are likely to face in life. Yet, moral and ethical guidance has never been more profoundly important. Stability and direction are in short supply, and our students need to find these attributes in those of us who are called to teach rather than preach the word of God. We can be their ROCKS if we teach with the following:

• Relevance

• Observation

• Challenge

• Knowledge

• Spirituality

A rehash of religious concepts they've encountered on a superficial level all their life will not provide the foundation young people need to live in the twenty-first century. Unless our students perceive their faith as Relevant to their fast-paced life; unless they really Observe the elements of their world and come to grips with God's place in it; unless they feel free to Challenge what appears to them murky, ambiguous, even erroneous; unless they possess a body of Knowledge that is verifiable; unless they are building a Spirituality that is their own--the chances of religious faith achieving centrality in their lives are slim.

Relevance

Like John XXIII, who understood that church teachings would have to be compelling to modern believers in order to survive, high school religion teachers are called to make faith relevant to their students. John's intent was not to abandon the basic tenets of Catholic Christianity, but rather to convey them in such a manner that they hit home for today's believers. Following his lead, we should seek new ways of expressing old truths, new forms for old practices. This does not imply change for the sake of novelty, but change for the sake of clarity.

The ultimate question on relevance remains what it has always been for individual Christians: Who is Jesus Christ, and what does that mean in my life? Relevance at its core is a faith issue. We must continue to pose this question to our students, for until that question becomes meaningful for them, little else we attempt to instill from the Scriptures will take root.

Most of my students are high school seniors, poised on the high board for a dive into unprecedented depths. Their life will be very unlike that of previous generations, and they know it. This is not the catechism crowd. Pat answers are unacceptable to them, and rote replies are routinely rejected. To oversimplify is to be immediately tuned out. To condescend is to be permanently turned off. Relevance is more relevant than ever. This generation wants its religion on the level of where the rubber hits the road.

God Creates

One way to get students more in touch with God is to expand their ideas of who God is, what God does, and (again) what that means in their life. For many, that means removing God from the Sistine Chapel ceiling and plunking God into "real life." Michelangelo's white-haired, bearded, patriarchal figure, borrowed from the visions of Ezekiel, has little significance today. Modern kids, and many adults, are badly in need of a few "Wow!" encounters with God, and for many of them, those experiences are often found in science. These two areas, science and religion, need to be brought together--if not merged. In my school's layout, that idea is symbolically evident--the chemistry, physics, and biology departments are directly across the hall from my classroom. I can and do exhort students to feel comfortable carrying science texts into my class or, conversely, Bibles into biology.

What do we know of God, and what is consistent with that knowledge? In tossing such questions to the students and allowing them to wrestle with them, real encounters with a real God are possible. It is insufficient to merely state that the Creation accounts of Genesis are not to be taken literally. What is infinitely more important is for students to discover what, if anything, such ancient tales do have to say to people who are both contemporary and conversant with current scientific data. Allow them to decide that the Hebrew Creation stories, like those of other cultures worldwide, were born of the attempts of people who weren't privy to today's knowledge explosion to explain one of the loftiest mysteries humankind has faced: Where did we come from? Let them see that it isn't so much that God created as that God creates and will continue to do so long after this little blue marble in space that we occupy is merely a cinder.

To bring home the truth that this ordered universe is the product of an ordered mind, I read passages from Edward Hays's Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim: A Personal Manual for Prayer and Ritual to my students. As their notion of the size of the universe grows, so does their notion of the size of God. I then plug in Carl Sagan's hypothetical calendar year in which the dawn of creation occurs on January 1, and humans arrive at 10:30 p.m. on December 31. Suddenly, the cherished belief that humanity in general, and themselves in particular, are the center of the universe is shaken. The importance and stature of God gains considerably.

God is total truth. God cares deeply about each person. Would such a God institute two parallel lines of truth that could never intersect--science and religion--and ask individuals to choose between them? If not, any morsel of truth discovered, whether it has anything overtly to do with religion or not, is a little piece of God.

Do the students get it? I believe they are their own best witnesses. This is one student's comment: "From Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, 'Say not, I have found the truth, but rather, I have found a truth.' This deals directly with the class discussion on the Creation narratives.

It is not that they [the narratives] hold total truth, but that they hold a truth that is meant to be discovered. This also shows that God's word is truth. His essence and spirit contain far more than one singular truth, and yet everything about him is truth." Another remarked, "No single image could convey more than a fraction of the reality." These are "Wow!" encounters with a very real God.

An American Samaritan

Like many of us, kids have heard Jesus' parables so often they're like bedtime stories. In addition to that repetitiveness, these great morality tales also suffer by being cast in a time and place alien to our own. To regain the irony, the bite, the wry twists of these stories, it is sometimes necessary to transplant them. Although my students know who the Samaritans were, and why they were roundly disliked by their Jewish neighbors, it isn't something they're likely to encounter on the evening news (assuming they watch it). Yet, Jesus crafted these anecdotes in homespun settings so that everyone listening would readily understand their message.

If Jesus walked into my classroom, he would probably tell the same stories, but surely he would update the milieu just as he would modernize his wardrobe. Jesus would want to be relevant and would doubtless trade in the robe and sandals for jeans and sneakers. I ask students to choose one of Luke's parables: the good Samaritan, the prodigal son, or the rich man and Lazarus. While retaining the essential characters and plot, they are to place the story in a contemporary setting; in other words, make it relevant. Some recent versions of the good Samaritan were situated in Los Angeles during the riots. In others, the victim was an AIDS patient. The prodigal son (or daughter) became a runaway teen, a person with a history of drug or alcohol abuse, even a business partner. The rich man and Lazarus were most often transformed into allegorical figures standing in for the ills of society: materialism, greed, apathy. All are undeniably relevant, but more than that, they are "Wow!" perceptions of who we are called to be as the people of God.

Observation

To be observant means to take careful notice. Our students need to be trained to observe carefully the world in which they live. They need to see it just as it is, not as they wish it were. They are then in a position to compare their world with the ones they find in the Bible. Those worlds are plural and diverse since the Bible covers nearly two thousand years and a number of cultures.

Recent scriptural research can be of tremendous assistance here. It is pointless to teach the elements of the historical-critical approach to Bible study. In and of itself, the approach is as dry as dust. But if the search focuses on what biblical books mean for us in this historical era, it becomes fascinating. Why was a particular scriptural book written? for whom? when? where? by whom? What was the message for the original audience? What is its message today? Most of us enjoy playing detective.

Remarks on Mark

To demonstrate to students that they make passable amateur detectives even without much training, I ask them to read the entire Gospel of Mark, preferably in a single sitting. This recovers the work as an entity--something that is lost when hearing only the snatches that are normally part of the Sunday liturgy. I then ask them to answer some questions, based solely on their own experience with the text. Again, I'll let them speak.

Question:

What kind of writer is Mark? How would you describe his writing?

Answer:

"Mark seems intent on getting his message across with as short a book as possible. He does not give any background to Jesus' life. He tells the events and major teachings of Jesus. He does not waste time on transitions. The Gospel moves quickly from one event to the next."

Question:

What themes stand out in this Gospel?

Answer:

"To stand up to persecution and to keep faith in God and their redemption. To hear what Jesus was saying."

Question:

If Mark's Gospel were the only one available, how would we see Jesus?

Answer:

"Jesus' face in Mark shows life's wear and tear on him."

Challenge

We do not teach the Catholics of tomorrow. These are the Catholics of today, and we do them a great disservice when we imply that the real world magically materializes at graduation. Possibly to a greater extent than any previous generation, this one has been immersed in a world that regularly delivers massive doses of hope and gloom, optimism and pessimism. In the face of that, the challenge to us who teach of God is to chart a course that is at once realistic and optimistic. It is a challenge to increasing growth; to constant conversion; to lifelong learning; to wider visions of panoramic horizons, lofty heights, and wondrous depths.

Perhaps the greatest challenge is to instill critical thinking skills. A great proponent of that, William J. O'Malley, SJ, comments:

"If our students . . . aren't curious, humble before the truth, if they don't know how to think clearly . . . there's little hope they'll even be able to comprehend the Gospel. . . .

. . . The only thing we can give them--in every discipline--is the skill to think. . . .

. . . If the vast majority of our students don't have the courage--or the interest--even to put up their hands in class (a relatively unintimidating forum), I doubt they're very promising candidates for Christian prophets, apostles, and healers. . . .

. . . If we make them curious, humble, able to think honestly, loving, confident, then Christianity has a chance."

For that reason, class participation constitutes anywhere from 25 to 33 percent of the grade in my classes. The world is desperate for God-centered people who can think. But if they cannot or will not articulate those thoughts, their effectiveness is diluted or worse, lost.

Thinking is not a feeling, a whim, a preconceived notion, or last year's prevalent opinion. Clear, concise thinking is fully compatible with the dignity of the human being who touches or seeks to touch God. Jesus never asked that we follow blindly, only that we "seek," "come and see." The adventure is in the search. Our students must be encouraged to question, to investigate, to poke in dark corners and saunter down unmarked roads. If they are not naturally curious, we must make them so. If they do not naturally care about God and others, we must demonstrate why these are priority values. If they see no reason to stand and be counted, we must show them a reason.

What that means is that we must question, investigate, poke in dark corners, saunter down unmarked roads, demonstrate curiosity, care about God and others, stand and be counted. We cannot be signposts; we must be guides. Our students are guides as well. This is an exercise in mutuality. We're all on the journey together. While we are extending a hand back to them, they are shining a light ahead for us.

God According to Others

We would be remiss in sending young Catholic Christians into a pluralistic world without some acquaintance with other major religions. So just as a study of the Hebrew Scriptures is logically followed by a study of the Christian Scriptures in my classroom, the Christian Scriptures lead into a cursory look at Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam. Independent study of other religions is strongly encouraged. Insight into other faiths more often than not provides insight into one's own, and sometimes offers new and unusual vistas on great truths that cross the boundaries of nearly all religious traditions.

Knowledge

Magic answer boxes we are not. Fonts of wisdom we are not as often as we would like to be. Masters of our fields we are only in our dreams. But knowledgeable professionals in our discipline, especially this discipline, we simply must be. Teachers in other areas may content themselves with lifelong learning. We are those for whom lifelong means eternity, so I think we're in for the long haul.

To be knowledgeable is not to be omniscient. To acknowledge that we do not know something is often our best, certainly our most honest, answer. And it is one that generates respect. If we are not know-it-alls, our students may surmise that they are not expected to be either. It is less important that they be able to spew forth data on cue than that they know where and how to find reliable information when they need it. Teaching resourcefulness is as critical as teaching principles. They need to know where to turn when they are seeking facts and figures, perspective and purpose.

Some say it matters less what we know than how much we care. But these are not mutually exclusive and, oh yes, it matters greatly what we know . . . and what our students know when they leave us.

Young people must move into the wider world equipped with both belief and basis for that belief. If they do not possess a solid, rocklike foundation upon which to erect their faith structure, they will build a house of cards.

Spirituality

One student said our class was into "applied religion." Absolutely. To know about God is one thing; to know God, quite another. The teacher of the Scriptures must unite the two without slighting either, a neat feat.

While we would not put God in a box but allow God to fill the universe, we should not confine our students either. They need plenty of spiritual elbow room. Among other things, that involves exposure to many forms of prayer and styles of spirituality. Their response is often surprising. My students have a great fondness for traditional Eastern meditation techniques, especially if accompanied by the music of Taizé.

Each student is required to plan and lead a prayer experience in the school chapel at some point during the senior year. For the benefit of those who tend to be shy, teams of no more than three may be organized. The theme, music, prayers, readings, handouts, and other elements are preapproved. As these young adults take their places in parishes that rely increasingly on lay leadership, they should be comfortable leading prayer periods.

The relevance of spirituality is most clearly discerned in our own lives. Wordlessly, we teach our students daily that all components of our life are centered around a core relationship with God that grounds us. We embody a lovely, anonymous, prayer, "May you hear God's call to follow the Christ in your own unique way, united with the church, in service to all the world." Another voice invites us to "come to him, a living stone . . . chosen and precious in God's sight" (1 Pet. 2:4). We are those privileged to be the ROCKS who prepare and send such living stones into the world.

Virginia Smith

chairs the religious studies department at Billings Central Catholic High School in Billings, Montana. She is the cofounder of Scripture from Scratch, a basic Bible study program for adults, and she directs adult education in her parish.