What Have We Done - Raising Children and Human Freedom

My youngest son (17) is just back from an academic program at University of Dallas.  Two weeks with 20 or so other teens, reading literature and philosophy, playing capture the flag and ultimate frisbee, making new friends and flirting (quite a bit).  He had a great time.
We spent the evening receiving a bit of a data dump on his experiences there.  Much of what we heard were biographies of those he became friends with, the pranks they played, the jokes they told - but peppered in there were references to discussions of John Donne and Nietzche at 2AM (there was a curfew but sounds like it was routinely broken by these "great kids").  It warms a mother's (and a father's) heart.....
Sounds like UD has become a possibility for college applications.  That was part of our intent in spending the money to send him.  UD or not, it seemed like a program that would benefit him in several ways - resume building, perspective building.  The outcome seems to have fulfilled our hopes - he's full of comments about Antigone, Agammemnon and Shakespeare's Sonnet 94 (which I have been informed is "chill" - current teen speak for cool).  He wants to finish memorizing it. ( I am trying to contain myself!) 
Whether Prince 94 ends up going to UD or somewhere else our money was well spent, invested, in sending him to the summer program.
These kind of investments are part of proposing a way of life, of a way of focusing on eternal and essential truths to our children.  And this proposal is itself an essential element in respecting the freedom, the human freedom of our children.  In this, we imitate our Father who is the originator of our freedom.  He proposes Life to us and we in our turn, join in proposing Life to our maturing children.

Looking for solutions to the challenges we face

Three years of preparation for our regional efforts on developing a culture of discipleship and equipping our people as evangelists have enhanced my preoccupation with how we can address the contemporary situation effectively.  This morning, as I tried to fall back asleep, I was musing on the challenge of formation for the teachers of our schools, who are increasingly products of the secular society.  If we are lucky they "practice" but the question arises even then whether or not they are equipped to propose Christ to the students in an effective manner.

In the background of my thoughts, was the conversations with my sons, mentioned in the previous post.  We have (our team) recognized that not every "Catholic" teacher actually BELIEVES or thinks like a Catholic, and that many are not in fact clear in their own minds about what a life of discipleship implies.
And we recognize that evangelization is always the first step -  initial evangelization or re-evangelization (i.e. effective proclamation of the gospel),  But thinking about #83's comments about dualism and my understanding of his experience - it occurs to me that what we need to start with for our teachers (i.e. the teachers at my parish, my school) is a proposal of friendship.  This is where Giussani starts.  With an invitation for dinner, an invitation to conversation....
(What has made such a difference for my son is the incredible INTEREST the folks he has met at CL have had in HIM as a person.  He is not an object for their evangelization project or for recruitment to their organization.  He was invited into friendships - and they have had a profound effect in his life (especially in the past few difficult years).  It is not that he didn't have a deep faith when he met them - but his understanding of the lived out reality has expanded.)
We run the risk (always) of alienating our teachers as we attempt to form them in the faith - the formation "process" becomes just "one more thing" they are required to do for their professional life.  But their professional life is not, in fact, what we are concerned with.  It is in fact their WHOLE life that affects their ability to fulfill their vocation as a Catholic school teacher. Only a disciple can call forth disciples.  And disciples are what we need.

Backdrop to my musings

One day last week I was involved in a conversation with my two oldest sons which forms a backdrop for my thinking this morning. #85 returned home from a Youth Ministry retreat he had worked on for a neighboring parish.  He has been assisting there, off and on, for about 4 years.  He brings a deep understanding of his relationship with God to his work there.  He also brings his whole person - which (imho) is a reasonably well developed and rounded person. He has interests outside of church which he brings to bear in his relationships with the YM.  Music, trends in fashion, urban planning, sports, etc.  He is embarrassed and intrigued by the frequent adulation he encounters from both the kids and the parents there.  He and #83 were talking about how frequently the life of faith (as presented to kids anyway) seems to preclude interests outside of church, that "that" is the impression many young people have and they instinctively and/or eventually reject.  The point of their exchange was a rejection of that approach, an embrace of "incarnational" life and the pursuit of INTERESTS - which make one a more interesting person and are actually a fulfillment of what God has planted in us.  #83 remarked that anything else is a form of dualism - and inadequate. His experience reading Giussani and Caron, his conversations with Communion and Liberation SOC support the approach of looking for Christ in what fascinates, attracts, interests him.  So often what we are caught up in is a critique of the culture we live in - and there is certainly plenty to critique.  But what we really need to OFFER the culture is a positive alternative - not just a challenge - maybe not even a challenge in many cases - but an invitation to pursue the deepest longings of the human heart and find a life that is more than we ever imagined - through Christ.