Catholic Exchange

Is it Real?

Written by

Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur

in

My children have reached an age where they are very interested in what is real vs. what is pretend. Some distinctions are easy to make. Bert and Ernie from "Sesame Street?" Pretend. Benjamin Franklin? Real. Spongebob Squarepants? Pretend. Their Great-grandparents? Real. Other distinctions aren't so easy. Laura Ingalls Wilder? Real, but everything in the "Little House" books didn't necessarily happen exactly the way the books are written. King Arthur? Yes, there most likely was a King Arthur but the exploits of the Knights of the Round Table and Merlin fall under the category of legend.

Then, there is the Bible. Most evenings we read a Bible story before bed. Some things they accept without question. The existence of the main characters — Abraham, Moses, Noah, Jesus, etc. they eagerly believe. They accept miracles. Water into wine? Not a problem. Parting of the Red Sea? How else would the Israelites get across? Some things, however, do cause them to question. Noah living to be 950 years old? Something isn't quite right there. The world being created in 7 days? How could that happen, Mom?

I admit I don't have all the answers, or even most of them. When it comes to what is real or not in the Bible, I try to take a lot on faith. Some questions I can answer rather straightforwardly – the world may have been created in 7 days, but God's time is not our time. One day could have been a billion years. Other questions, I just don't know. The people in the Hebrew Scriptures seemed to live awfully long times and have children at extremely advanced ages. It might have happened that way or it might not have. The numbers could be symbolic or there may have been a different way of counting years.

The question of what is real or not in the Bible does not have a definitive answer. Some Biblical scholars spend their entire lives searching for solutions. Archeologists scour the Holy Land for clues. Theologians debate the meaning of certain passages and what they mean for our lives and our relationship with God. All of which makes answering the questions of a six and four year old that much harder. Is it real? Well, yes and no.

I don't want my children to view the Bible as a work of fiction, because it is not. I want Scripture to be important in their lives. At the same time, I don't want them to get bogged down in the details. I want them to live the message. So, I try to explain that even if things didn't happen exactly the way things are written in Scripture, especially in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Bible still teaches us how to live. Loving God and neighbor is most important. Trusting God when life is difficult and the situation seems hopeless is a key theme.

Following Jesus and doing what he says matters. I want my children to believe in the Resurrection and the gift of eternal life. Even if you strip everything else in the Scriptures away, that message is what remains. Is it Real? I'd bet my life on it.

Comments

  1. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    Excellent article!

  2. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    Interesting points.

    This is why our family has never had Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy.  They are not real. But we have our Guardian Angels, a family Rosary, and the communion of saints.  They are real.

    However, the article makes it seem like parents are left on their own to figure out how to interpret sacred scripture and what to say to honest inquiries.

    The good news is that we are midgets standing on the shoulders of giants — we have an authoritative Church and the greatest intellects of the ages who have weighed in on such matters. 

    Read Dei Verbum on the senses of scripture. Read Aquinas and Augustine. Surf over to the vatican website, knights of columbus, ewtn, catholic.com.

    Heck, just type your question topic in the little "search CE" box in the upper right of this very page and click.

  3. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    PTR, I have no doubt that Patrice is well aware of the senses of Scripture. Her greatest challenge (the same one all mothers face) is figuring out how to dispense this information to children at an age-appropriate level. I doubt Patrice's children (bright as they are) would be much enlightened if she read "Dei Verbum" out loud at dinnertime.

    Patrice, I remember sitting through a class on the Pentateuch in seminary, and feeling the wind let out of my sails when I heard for the first time that the first twelve chapters of Genesis are not necessarily historically accurate! Adam, Eve, Enoch, Noah … all of them. But my seminary professor reminded me that there are different kinds of truth, and gave me a helpful definition: A sacred myth is a story that is real on the inside, like a Christmas present. The pretty wrappings don't matter as much.

    For example, as Catholics we believe the whole human race descended from the first man and woman. Names and ages need not be historically accurate in order for God to teach us what we need to know about our origins.

    Hope that helps.

    Heidi Hess Saxton Editor, "Canticle" Magazine Blogroll

  4. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    Heidi,

    We must be careful about what we claim to know and what we claim to not know.

    Since I don't know Patrice, I can only use her article to gage her knowledge. When she writes things like, "I admit I don't have all the answers, or even most of them," and "Other questions, I just don't know," I take it that she is struggling to undertand it herself, not just struggling to dispense it at an age-appropriate level.

    I'm glad you have no doubts about Patrice's grasp of the Church's teachings on the senses of scripture, especially since most Catholics have no idea about it. 

    And more especially since we also apparently know that Noah and Enoch are really only a sacred myth — pretty wrapping paper.

    But Jesus referred to Jonah and Noah by name. Of course, Jesus was not a seminary  professor, was He?

     

  5. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    God loves you .

    Revelation declares, and loudly:
    “I AM, and I am here, and I am here with you to love you and save you.”
    Boldly proclaimed, like Christ on the Mount, and all those thousands . . .

    I get into the details and that voice becomes gently like the murmurs in a confessional. For, there, in those details, so fussy and seemingly less-important, He whispers . . . yea, even confesses:

    “I AM, and I am here, and I . . .”

    Remember, I love you, too

    Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ,

    Pristinus Sapienter

    (wljewell @catholicexchange.com or … yahoo.com)

  6. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    Thanks for your post. It brings to mind a post I wrote for my blog. You might like to read it – It's entitled The "Claus" Clause. -Tom

  7. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    Thanks, Tom — I understand what you mean. At our house, our kids know only about St. Nicholas. We make gingerbread houses every year, and talk about how St. Nicholas threw bags of gold to three poor girls who wanted to get married, but didn't have money. Believe it or not, I was even able to share this story in my son's classroom … so long as I demonstrated how to make a gingerbread house as well!

    PTR: I never said anything about Jonah — he's not in the first 12 chapters of Genesis. He has his own book. And actually, when I was referring to names I was recalling a conversation I had from Karl Keating, who (when I mentioned the Penteteuch class to him) told me  most emphatically that Adam and Eve may not have been their real first names — but it doesn't matter, so long as we believe all mankind descended from one man and one woman! (So if you disagree, feel free to take it up with him.)

    Again "sacred myth" means there is real truth — however, not necessarily historical truth because they are not supposed to be historical books. They are a different genre.  

    Heidi Hess Saxton Editor, "Canticle" Magazine Blogroll

  8. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    For the record, I have read Dei Verbum. I am still learning about scripture, as I think all of us are. We can study for a lifetime and still not know it all. I don't struggle with what is "real" or not in the same way that my children do because I am at a different life stage. I can accept some things as myth and still see them as very religiously significant. I accept Scripture as being divinely inspired and if God chose to teach via myth, that is fine with me. My children, however, are currently at a stage where they are trying to fit everything into neat black and white categories and the Bible doesn't always fit that way. My point was that it is the message that matters.

     

    Thanks to all of you for your comments.

     

    Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur

  9. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    I am all for everyone taking the Holy Scriptures seriously, and at its word.  We all need to read the Bible more and read it better.  Most of the Bible can be read to children at the level appropriate to their age.  To do so sets a tone for the rest of their lives at an age when the mind is very like a sponge.

    That said, I am flummoxed by the gentlewoman who stated because of her love of the Scripture and desire to "keep it real" (phrase mine) she didn't allow Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or presumably, leprechauns touting St. Paddy's Day into her home.  Exactly how are the two groups antagonists?  Does she really believe children are so dim they will come to believe God and Santa Claus interchangeable?  If so, the fault lies with the teacher (such as the parent), not with the child.  Children have broad and intricate imaginations which are more than up to the challenge of loving the Lord and dyeing Easter Eggs and biting the head off a chocolate Easter Bunny. Children denied the use of their imaginations and the wonderful journeys it takes them on become bitter and cynical, not pious.  Or does this lady equate the two?

    When our Lord said little children should not be prevented from approaching Him, and that one had to become like a child to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, I always picture those holy hands making mud pies worthy of His Father as He laughs along with the children as they pretend the pies are really chocolate cream!  Lighten up, people!  If children have the inside track, you had best learn to be silly, because I never met a sour-faced (and heart) child.Cool

  10. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    Yes! Unless our children believe in Santa and the Tooth Fairie they will have no imagination and grow up to be bitter and cynical. But isn't that a generalization?

    The same tendency toward generalization in the human mind equates a ban on Santa and the Tooth Fairie with a ban on making mud pies and eating chocolate bunnies.  This tendency to generalize equates parents introducing and actively perpetuating lies about Santa coming down the chimney and a giant bunny hiding eggs in the yard with parents introducing and perpetuating lies about guardian angels and the Blessed Mother interceding for us.

    It is the same tendency to generalize. So why feed it?

    Because the tendency to generalize let's us "fit in" with the rest of the culture, who is happy to lie to us to get us to buy their brand of laundry soap?

    Like a lamb among wolves, let's stand up to our neo-pagan secular confusion of the sacred. Jesus Christ — the Way, the Life and the Truth will not make us bitter and cynical – He will make us real.

Leave a Reply

More posts