By Father Matthew Keshwah
The
Word of God has tremendous power to change lives, to inspire young
people, and to open hearts to receive God’s love. Spending time
with Sacred Scripture is fundamental to developing that deep personal
relationship with God. If we want the next generation of believers to
be active in their faith, they must first encounter the Lord in their
own lives through the Sacraments and the Word. The person of Jesus
Christ must be someone who they know, he must be someone that they
can share their lives with, and he must be someone that they love
personally.
To
help develop this deep relationship with Jesus Christ, I visit our
grade four students each year and give them their own copy of the New
Testament. Their eyes light up each time I arrive with the box of
books since children love to receive gifts. We take the time to
discuss how this book is sacred, holy and to be treated with great
care because it is the Word of God; the stories of His Son Jesus. We
talk about how the Bible came to be written, how it is the
best-selling book of all time, and how if there is only one book they
read in their life, it should be this one – God’s book.
The
children love to share what they know about Jesus. They eagerly tell
“Father” everything they know about Jesus – from the Nativity
story of Christmas to the Easter story of Jesus’ death on the cross
and rising again on the third day. To stir up their excitement to
read more of the New Testament, we take time to share our favourite
stories of Jesus’ life. By doing this, children are witnessing to
each other (evangelizing peer-to-peer), which is a powerful
experience at any age. This sharing stirs interest to read the Word
of God in other students who may not know these stories yet but find
themselves captivated as their friends describe a story.
Let
us pray that many of our young people will fall in love with the Lord
by reading his story and experience the invitation to relationship
that we are all called to in Christ Jesus. May their hearts be open
to receiving God’s love, and may their lives be transformed into
one that earnestly desires to be a faithful disciple who loves God
and neighbour, making our world a better place one person at a time.
