[THE ANGLICAN CATECHIST A Column for Catechists or Teachers who share their Christian faith with children, youth and adults in congregations of the Episcopal Church.]

Eyes that See and Ears that Hear

By: The Rev. Joseph C. Neiman

Jesus reminded his disciples - and us: "Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous ones longed to see what you see, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it" (Mt. 13.16-17).

You and I are catechists because we were well taught, because we have seen the Light that has come into the world to illuminate the darkness of our human condition (John 1.9-13). True, we know how much we don't know, how much there is to learn, but that is because we have begun to sit at the feet of the Master like Mary (John ), and listen not only with our minds, but with our hearts as well. How then do we teach our students to see?

There is no simple answer, no device or technique that produces as its outcome the type of seeing and hearing, the true "knowing" about which we are speaking. There are simply better and worse ways, ways of helping or hindering that process which is itself the result of the gift of faith, the leaping into the arms of the Lord and saying with Isaiah: "Here I am, Lord" (Is 6.8). But let's leave the lofty words of Sacred Scripture for a moment, and look at an incarnational reality, a specific way of helping the process of seeing: i. e. videotape or CD/DVD Player!

A videotape recorder (VCR) and these others are one of those "quantum leaps" forward in technology to which we "older" catechists simply must adjust. They are here to stay, and they will very, very shortly replace the filmstrip, audio tape recording, and the movie film. If you have thought of purchasing a new filmstrip or 16mm movie projector, don't. They're obsolete. And as for the VCR, CD and DVD players/projectors, there are several choices. True, there are not yet a whole catalog of videotapes CDs or DVDs for use with our religious education programs, but the most important aspect of "seeing" won't be found in catechetical tapes anyway. It is to be found in precisely what you are watching already, or more accurately, what your students are watching now on the home television set.

Recording the favorite programs watched by your students is the first step. The second is a lengthy previewing session on your own during which you take apart the show, the plot line and the various images or scenes, meditating on the variety of things they call to mind for you, and potentially for you students. In a recorded movie about high school students, for example, with the help of the tape counter on the VCR you can mark where to find scenes that pertain to teen relationships with their parents, with their teachers, with one another. Terrific scenes for eliciting a discussion about each of these topics using the characters in the show as the symbols and examples.

That's the next step: show the whole film, then take it apart with them in slow motion showing segments pertaining to themes you see or they see. The rewind technique gives us the ability in this art form to see again what we thought we saw, to hear again what we thought we heard, and to learn in dialogue if that is what others saw and heard as well. Would that we could do this with our own lives at times!

Indeed this is precisely what we do when we sit at Evening Prayer and examine our conscience during the rite of Confession. We review where we saw the Lord working in our life that day, where we recognized what He was leading us to do and to say, and where we blew it, as they say. This is our daily challenge as His disciples, and our regular challenge as catechists: learning to have eyes that see and ears that hear so we can comprehend what happened to human history and our own when the light entered the darkness at Bethlehem so many centuries ago.

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