Tell me what you think about this

[hedgehog]

The Sunday before Halloween, Father had the kids up to the altar for the homily. He showed them a pumpkin and they all agreed that pumpkins are full of yucky stuff. Then he said that they were all full of yucky stuff, too, and had to go to reconciliation so God could take the yucky stuff out and fill them full of good stuff. I'm shortening this to make it fit, but you get the point. I was flabbergasted. It was all dressed up in sweetness and light, but in my opinion this was a terrible thing to be telling children (3-10 year olds). They're full of sin and evil? By the way, the Gospel reading that week was the rebuke to authority figures for making strict rules but not lifting a finger to help their flocks!

Comments?

[CBHagman]

1. But people ARE filled with yucky stuff.

I think I understand where you're coming from. More than a few Catholics recall long discussions of the stains on our souls, of Limbo, of the risk of dying when not in a state of grace, etc. I'm old enough to remember idiotic notions about God putting us in purgatory for eating a piece of meat on Friday.

And I've heard kids preparing for their first confessions in a state of fear, as in the case of the little girl I tutored ("I'll be dead meat!"). "What can that little girl have to confess?" my then-housemate wondered.

But when those children are much older, they will have some concept of human nature and all the things that human beings are capable of. Even the people regarded as holiest by the masses -- indeed, perhaps especially the people regarded as holiest -- are aware of the darkest impulses within themselves. Even a child is capable of cruelty.

I'm not supporting a sickening admonition to the children that they are a bunch of sinful wretches. But they are human, and they do need to turn to God in everything, including those times when they have hurt another person.

When we go through the penitential rite at my church, the emphasis is always on God's mercy and our turning to God, not how deeply rotten we are.

I guess a fair number of us were brought up with severity, with the concept of God as "the grandfather with the baseball bat," as a priest I know once said -- i.e., the concept of God always looking out for ways we've botched things. The turn to building self-esteem in children and looking at God as a loving parent are certainly healthy things.

But the concept of sin isn't dead, nor is the seeking of grace. Three-year-olds are too young to understand such things, but seven-year-olds aren't.

If the priest was telling them to turn to God when they've messed up, isn't that a fair thing to learn? If he was telling the kids that God will light them from within, is that so far from the truth?

[Matilda]

2. I don't particularly care for the priest's analogy -

it's a bit of throwback to the days of constant threats of
damnation.

When my children made their first reconciliations, in the leadup
classes the emphasis was on doing the right thing, because God
loves us, and this is how we show our love for him - by loving
others. There was no mention at all of punishment, and I do think
that stresssing the positive is a better way to go. This was in
the early 90s, BTW.

[Maeve]

3. Mmmmm...pie!

Sorry. :silly:

I don't care much for the analogy, nor would I tell little kids they are FULL of yucky stuff; the "good news" is that we're loved even when we're far from God. (Unless he wants to say that God is like the kids who are into gross things, huh?)

Interesting timing, with that Gospel, too... :eyes:

[Beer Snob-50]

4. a defination of mortal sin,

the sin for which we go to reconcilation for, is that it is a grave offense, done with knowledge that it is a grave offense, and you are doing it of your own free will. i do not believe that children between the ages of 3-10 have any idea that they have committed any type of sin (most adults really don't either). this priest was preaching to the wrong group.