On the Spirituality Page of the Catholic Peace Weekly, a priest gives the readers an understanding of the limits of freedom.
Humans are free beings. However, human freedom is also a limited freedom. The mere existence of any freedom other than mine greatly limits my freedom. But other than that, humans encounter numerous obstacles in their lives that limit their freedom.
Since humans are born and conditioned from within, how mature a person is depends on how much he or she accepts the limits of freedom.
Parents know very well that if they give in to everything their child wants, the child will not grow properly. As a child lives with others in a daycare center, kindergarten, or school, he or she grows up learning that they cannot have everything their way.
The Bible conveys this truth through the story of the fall of our first ancestors on earth (see Genesis 2:4-3,24). Although God gave everything to humans, he also drew a line that should not be crossed. In other words, you must not eat from the ‘tree of knowledge of good and evil'. (The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil "symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that man, being a creature, must freely recognize and respect with trust. Man is dependent on his Creator, and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom (#396 Catechism of the Catholic Church). That is the innate condition of human beings and the innate limitations of human freedom.
This means that human freedom requires nurturing and care. It takes a long time of preparation to become the master of one's own life. You must learn what life is and how to live it from your parents and through interpersonal relationships in various environments.
Faith is similar to this. Through the Sacrament of Baptism, we are reborn as free beings freed from sin and evil, but that freedom is still fragile and can easily go out like a lamp in the wind. Just as a long period of nurturing and preparation is needed to lead one's own life, protection and care are needed to adopt one's parents' (church's) faith as one's own.
This allows us to look at the issue of children's religious education in a new way. One day, when your child expresses difficulties with faith, you must be able to understand it as a problem of freedom. When your child is dissatisfied with the infant baptism he or she received and asks why you took away their religious freedom by making him a Catholic, or when he threatens to stop going to church, you first need to acknowledge that this attitude is natural. Just as puberty during adolescence is essential in the process of human growth, a child must naturally go through such times of rebellion and conflict to make faith his or her own.
However, at the same time, we need to recognize that human freedom is limited. Just as we prepare for 20 years (or more!) to live our own lives, we must be able to realize that we need more time to understand the principles of faith and its meaning. However, this cannot be forced; it is something a child must learn on their own. Therefore, we have no choice but to wait. Even if your child does not accept it right now if you trust God and the church, have patience, talk and trust each other, and continue to walk along the path, you will find that your child will grow little by little and choose faith on his own after overcoming the adolescence faith.
However, you should not stop fertilizing. The best fertilizer for your child's faith and freedom to grow is building trust. Leading children to build trust in God, the Church, their parents, and themselves will serve as the most important cooperation in helping the Holy Spirit work in the child's journey of faith.
