Culture of Christ

Representative on earth of that divine Master who while embracing in the immensity of His love all mankind, even unworthy sinners, showed nevertheless a special tenderness and affection for children, and expressed Himself in those singularly touching words: "Suffer the little children to come unto Me," We also on every occasion have endeavored to show the predilection wholly paternal which We bear towards them, particularly by our assiduous care and timely instructions with reference to the Christian education of youth.

After telling the Apostles to let the children come to Him, Our Blessed Lord reminds us that we must be like little children if we are to inherit the Kingdom of God. Why did Christ choose the child? I would say it is not the child's ignorance, or it's childish behavior, but because the child, in his innocence and splendor, always seeks to imitate his parents, always seeks to do what they want. They have a humility that we adults often lose. Can you find me a child that is not always seeking to learn the ways of his parents? Therefore, when we are covering the issue of Christian education, this is a fitting place to start. With reminding us Christians to return to that aspect of childhood, while we may have advanced in wisdom, let us never lose our desire to learn from the Father, even as we parents or future parents or others instruct the children.

The reason is that men, created by God to His image and likeness and destined for Him Who is infinite perfection realize today more than ever amid the most exuberant material progress, the insufficiency of earthly goods to produce true happiness either for the individual or for the nations. And hence they feel more keenly in themselves the impulse towards a perfection that is higher, which impulse is implanted in their rational nature by the Creator Himself. This perfection they seek to acquire by means of education.

As with most problems, they start out with a corruption of that which is good. The desire for education and knowledge is a very good thing. As Pius XI points out time and time again in this encyclical, this comes from God. That desire is to understand who we are, what our purpose is on Earth, and to prepare and form us for the things of heaven. Education touches upon all of this. Education imparts knowledge to people, whatever that knowledge may be. The problem is when the pursuit of knowledge becomes God. That's what we have in todays society. There is no need for God we are told, because we can know everything. So for the Christian, one must look at education as a means to an end. That end is knowing and serving God better and deeper. The means is through learning his ways.

From this we see the supreme importance of Christian education, not merely for each individual, but for families and for the whole of human society, whose perfection comes from the perfection of the elements that compose it. From these same principles, the excellence, we may well call it the unsurpassed excellence, of the work of Christian education becomes manifest and clear; for after all it aims at securing the Supreme Good, that is, God, for the souls of those who are being educated, and the maximum of well-being possible here below for human society. And this it does as efficaciously as man is capable of doing it, namely by cooperating with God in the perfecting of individuals and of society, in as much as education makes upon the soul the first, the most powerful and lasting impression for life according to the well-known saying of the Wise Man, "A young man according to his way, even when he is old, he will not depart from it." With good reason therefore did St. John Chrysostom say, "What greater work is there than training the mind and forming the habits of the young?"

We always put such great hopes in our children. Even those that aren't our own. I myself remember from my days at the bowling alley my friends son Dominic. I originally viewed him as a spawn of satan, the little rugrat never left me alone. Whatever I was doing, he always wanted to do. If I was bowling, he'd grab one of the 6 pounders and come up to the lanes and try to bowl. If I was playing pool, he jumped on the pool table and started throwing the cue ball into the others trying to knock them in the pockets. Kids always look up to those people in their life, and constantly imitate them. Let's think about that responsibility. What you teach that child may stay with him for his entire life. The knowledge and wisdom given forms his mind and actions, to where long after you are gone, that kid will remember those habits. Should we not recognize the awesome responsibility such is?