Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Lectionary: 392

God spoke further to Moses, “Thus shall you say to the children of Israel: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,
has sent me to you. 

    “This is my name forever;
        this my title for all generations.

“Go and assemble the elders of Israel, and tell them: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me and said: I am concerned about you

 

The human animal treasures the past. We record our memories in stone, paper, and electronic media; and insistently teach our young their history. Our memories consist of the experience of each person plus the collective stories of family, tribe, nation and the universe. If I know who I am, that knowledge is framed by our collective experience. I am a member. Ignorant of the past, we lose our identity as human.

If a people, like African migrants, can be deprived of their past they become slaves of those who have kept their memories and rewritten that of the slaves. However, if the slaves recover their past, they become free.

When the LORD spoke to Moses from the burning bush, he began by refreshing the failing memory of the Hebrew slaves. “I am the LORD, the God of your fathers;” and then he named the first three patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The LORD seemed to present his credentials to Moses, and to demand respect by the memory of the Hebrew patriarchs.

In the 1970’s, the Church realized the old methods of catechesis – based on rote learning – was not preparing Catholic children for an unpredictable, evolving future. Teachers were then given texts, images, and manuals with many biblical references, to instruct the children. The new method assumed the children were learning and practicing their traditional faith at home, and that they were familiar with worship in their parish churches.

Unfortunately, in many cases, those assumptions were wrong. The children, surrounded by pictures of every kind, saw few images of the Lord, Mary, or the saints; their daily routines did not include prayers. Their parents often came from different religious traditions and had neither discussed nor agreed upon the religion of their children. It was simply not important to them. Since the 1970’s, the situation has only grown worse.

Without a Catholic heritage, children learn the skeptical attitudes of the dominant culture. In the seventies it might have been a fundamentalist religion which falsely claimed to read the Bible without interpretation. The obvious followed from that as picking and choosing one’s religious beliefs must lead to infertility. Why would children adopt their parents' religious beliefs which were nothing more than opinions? 

Today’s secular culture despises traditional, organized religion; they claim a vague spirituality which fails to remember even the Christian roots of the word spirit. They suffer that most abject form of slavery: bondage to self. 

It falls to every practicing Catholic to learn more than the rote catechism responses of their childhood. They must learn their faith as adults, and teach them to other adults. I met a devout church-going fellow recently who believes there is no climate change; he also believes Noah’s flood was an actual historical event. Where does one begin to talk this willful naivete about sin and grace in the real world? The Bible does not recognize a distinction between wicked and foolish; both lead to the same dreadful place.

Despite its secularity, the world still occasionally remembers Jesus. We beg God to help us represent the “prophet like Moses” who invokes “the God of your fathers…, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.” 

The Son of God and the Spirit of God are concerned about us. They will lead us back to our Father and free us from bondage even as they restore our memories of faith.