Friday, January 4, 2008

From the Journal of Catechist Dan Teller

We were meditating on the Flight into Egypt, and the relationship between the kingships of Herod and Jesus. Isabel asked if Jesus, as an infant, knew that he was a king. The catechist responded that the question of what Jesus knew as a child is a mystery, since he was a human child who would have had limited knowledge, yet was also God who is all-knowing.

Isabel (age 8) responded: “He didn’t know much on earth, but he knew all he needed to know, being King.”

This juxtaposition of the humanity and the divinity of Jesus has captured the children’s minds this year. Earlier in the year, we discussed the mystery of the Trinity, and Jesus as the Second Person of the Trinity. The catechist brought up the first chapter of John’s gospel, which says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” After this discussion, Robert (age 6) drew the following picture. His phonetically written meditation says: “What I am thinking is that how can Jesus can be God if God was born and Jesus has no beginning and no end. The end.” He captioned his drawing “God and Jesus.” Above the figure of the crucified Christ (with a heart), he wrote “God,”, and above a smiling figure with a heart, he wrote “Jesus.

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