As a Hen gathers her chicks so i long to gather you, but you would not come.

I teach 5th grade religion class at a local Church and sometimes I must jump In for the other grades as needed.  Tonight I was asked to step into the 9th grade class as the teacher would not be coming.  I had no Idea what to teach them as I did not know where they had stopped and what they were told up to this point.  So I asked them, I asked them If they remembered anything from the last 9yrs they have been In religion class....blank stares, and looks of confusion was all I got.  This was the start of yet another experience I would have with higher grade religion class that would bring me into further depression and great concern for the future generations.  I asked simple questions such as "Is baptism necessarily for salvation?" "What does Baptism give us, and what does it remove?" "What Is Christian Initiation?"  "What is confirmation?"  "Is John in the old or new testament?" "What are the first four books of the new testament called?"  All of which they did not have an answer.  This night has made me ask questions I am not sure for the answer.  In this age we are more educated than any other.  We have had the awesome grace of God to have such things as the Mass explained In great detail.  We have an entire Catechism at our finger tips ready to explain in great detail any question about the faith we may have.  One can go to any store and see dozens of Bible study guides, prayer books, and explanations for the faith ranging from the advanced to the most simplistic.  This is to say nothing of the Internet, a gateway to unlimited sources of Information.  None of this was available to those before who often tell me they did not understand the mass due to the Latin.  Yet for not understanding It they sure were faithful and can tell me more about the faith then these teenagers I met tonight.  For all the complaints about the Church In the old days they somehow were taught the faith. I do not know if the youth felt the same and did not want to be there but were forced.  The ones tonight did not seem to care much at all.  I am told things were somewhat different but even then there were those who did not want to go, yet somehow they have at least a basic grasp of the faith.  I know this is not true across the board, but It seems to be In most cases.  As I was In that class tonight all I could think about was Jesus weeping over his people, though I laughed somewhat out of shock at some of their answers, my heart ached.  All my education was no help to me In my search to find a way to reach them.  There is a a part of me that wonders If maybe we, as a Church, are trying to hard to explain everything?  Have we sucked out all the mystery in this age of enlightenment? In my education In seminary, the Intellectual seems to get all the focus or at least treated with a sort of paranoia. What I mean Is, It seems those who are leaders in the church and teachers seem to be paranoid that the world is sitting back and accusing the Church of being unreasonable or not intellectual.  We are so paranoid that we over compensate and make simple faith a side note.  I have learned that when we try and compete with the spirit of the world on an Intellectual level, we lose every time, not because what we teach is not an Intellectual endeavor or that we do not use our minds.  No, It Is that the spirit of the world is that of the enemy, and his is the Intellect of an angle, we cannot compete in that manner.  We cannot try and "explain" every little aspect of Catholic Teaching and then wonder why our youth do not have any faith at all.  I am not saying Ignore the Intellect, that would not be true catholicity, but rather that In this age of the Intellect we forgot his spouse...faith...Or better expressed we tend to forget It Is not us who does the work of conversion but Jesus.  We, and I do It myself, forget It Is about a love affair with Jesus, not jamming enough Information Into a persons mind that they will have no choice but to see the pure logic, and rationality of our argument and thus convert...that Is the way the world wins over people...That Is prideful and It takes the power away from Jesus and makes conversion something we, the educators and formatters, bring about.  I understand the theory behind It though....we, like Jesus, long so very deeply to bring them to Christ.  In our strong desire to be a good servant and in our zeal to win converts we forget to get out of the way sometimes.  Our work must be in showing them our own love affair with Jesus, our beloved, and then relay on God for the rest.