Education in the Supernatural

Education in the supernatural does not mean education in piety. In Christian families, education in piety is properly provided. The children are taught their prayers, how to go to Confession, how to prepare for Holy Communion, how to assist at Holy Mass and other church services, how to say the rosary.

All this is fine, but perhaps it is not the most essential thing!

The important thing is to teach the child who he is, who God is, and how God wants to mingle His life with his by coming to dwell in him, consecrating him thereby as a living tabernacle of the Most High. When the child knows all this—then and then only will there be a solid foundation on which to build religious instruction and to justify exercises of piety. It is absolutely essential that before all else the child be informed of the divine riches which his baptism brought him. It must be explained to him that on the day he was carried as a little baby to be received into the Church, God came to take possession of his soul.

He should be taught that when people come into the world they do not possess this divine life. God gave it to Adam and Eve in the beginning, but they lost it. Right here is a splendid opportunity to explain the greatness and goodness of God and how He wanted to make all of us His children. The little one knows well what a father is. Explain to him that God is our Father in order to give him what is essential in all true piety, a filial spirit and an understanding of how true it is to call God, good.

The story of creation fascinates children; so too does the story of Adam and Eve and the Fall. What a lesson for the child is the example of the terrible punishment incurred by disobedience! The divine life is lost! But God still loves His poor human creatures just as mamma and papa continue to love their child after he has done wrong. And what is God going to do to give back this lost supernatural life? When one commits a fault, he must make up for it to obtain pardon. Who can make up for such a fault? God asks His own Son to do it. His Son will come down to earth. And then follows the beautiful story of the Christmas Crib and the timely application of these truths.

Not only will Jesus live upon earth with us but He will die for us after living more than thirty years over in a little country where we can find many souvenirs of His stay—the little town of His birth, the workshop of His foster-father, that noble carpenter named Joseph, the villages that heard Him preach especially to children, on how to get to heaven and the place of His death upon the Cross, beneath which Mary His Mother stood. All of this happened so that John, Paul, James, Henry, Peter, Louise, Camille, Lisa, Susan may be living tabernacles of God who is Goodness itself. Later in heaven, they may be with the God of their hearts forever.

Without this, religious instruction is not sufficiently centered; it is not centered about the central mystery of Catholicism. Even the catechism with its divisions of Dogma, Morals and the Sacraments can, if we are not careful, make one forget the beautiful wholeness of Christianity which is superbly majestic, clear and pulsing with life.

Header Image: Statue of Christ the Redeemer (Corcovado), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - © Peter Adams Dreamstime.com

Note: Adapted from Father Raoul Plus, S.J.’s Christ in the Home (Colorado Springs, CO: Gardner Brothers, 1951). This book is a treasure chest of advice for Catholics on the practical and spiritual concerns of raising a family. As seen in Crusade Magazine January / February 2015