The Shepherd, August 2008
THE RELIGIOUS UPBRINGING OF CHILDREN
By Archpriest S. Shchukin
THE AIM OF A CHRISTIAN UP-BRINGING
THE AIM of a Christian upbringing is clearly shown in the Mystery of Holy Baptism. The priest, who is accomplishing the Mystery, reads, among many others, the following prayer: “O Master, Lord our God, call Thy servant / handmaid, N., to Thy holy Illumination … put off from him / her the old man, and renew him / her unto life everlasting … that he / she may be no more a child of the body, but a child of Thy Kingdom ….”
In Holy Baptism the infant dies unto the life of sin and is resurrected unto the spiritual, being born again unto eternal life with Christ. After this the child needs not only physical nourishment, but spiritual as well, because the Church sets before the baptized a high purpose: to become a new man, living not according to the gross demands of the body, but in accord with the high aspirations of his soul. Immediately after the infant has been chrismated, the Church chants “All ye that have been baptized into Christ, Christ have ye put on” - a verse taken from the epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Galatians, as if to indicate that the Baptism is only a beginning and the most important purpose, the being clothed in Christ, still lies before him.
To confirm that the family accepts the task of educating the child, in the Mystery of Baptism in the name of the parents guarantors, the child’s sponsors, solemnly renounce on his / her behalf “Satan and all his works” and they promise to “unite” him / her “unto Christ.” This solemn undertaking, give before the altar of God in the infant’s name, the parents and the sponsors are obliged to fulfil, though providing for him / her a Christian up-bringing such as would make him / her an Orthodox Christian. Thus, from the very moment of his / her Baptism a great responsibility is laid upon the parents and godparents for the soul and the faith of the infant. They give a promise to God and they are bound to fulfil it, just as the Righteous Joachim and Anna fulfilled their promise when they gave up the holy Virgin to be brought up in the Temple of God. This promise is fulfilled in reality by the Christian up-bringing of the child.
Man consists of a body and a soul. Nourishment (pitanie in Russian) - this is care for the child’s body: upbringing (vospitanie in Russian) - this is care for his soul. A family devoid of Christian faith pay the greater attention to the physical nourishment of the child; then he grows up as “a child of the body,” unspiritual, a slave to sin, because “they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8). However, the Christian family is obliged to put spiritual up-bringing, the formation of “the inner man,” first and foremost. Saint John Chrysostom speaks thus about the responsibilities of Christian parents: “To school the heart of a child in virtue and piety is a sacred duty, which cannot be broken; those who fail to do it are guilty of a kind of infanticide. This responsibility is common both to the father and to the mother.”
“There are fathers who spare nothing to provide their children with pleasure, as though they were heirs to riches; but that their children should be Christians this is of little consequence to them. O criminal blindness! One can ascribe to such gross inattention all the disorders under which society now groans.… If fathers strove to give their children a good up-bringing, then there would be no need of laws, of courts, or of punishments. There are executioners, because there is no morality….”
And so the aim of a Christian up-bringing is the care of the child’s soul. The very most important and valuable period in the formation of the soul is the earliest infancy. It is in infancy that properly the whole moral world of a man is shaped. The soul of a child, until abut six or seven years of age, is like soft clay, in which it is possible to mould his future personality. Above this age the most prominent contours of the person have already been laid, and it is almost impossible to realign them. If that time is wasted, then it is difficult to correct the child’s character. We all know how difficult it is to re-educate a child wrongly brought up is. Inasmuch as these years are spent by children in the family, everything depends for the most part on family circumstances.
Christ Himself speaks of the importance of the earlier years of childhood. In the Gospel it says, that He set before His disciples the example of little children: “And Jesus called a little child unto Him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Amen, I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:2). On the other hand, the Gospel teaches that the most important thing in a man’s life is the correct disposition of his heart. By “heart” the Saviour always means not the organ of blood circulation, but the very centre of the interior life of a man, which guides him throughout his whole life, his desires, his feelings, and his aims; When we read in the Gospels, “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications….” (Matt. 15:19), this indicates that it is not the outward circumstances of our life but our own inclination to evil or to good that determines our actions. Man of necessity lives continually surrounded by good and evil, and for that very reason it is most necessary that his moral life is established so as to distinguish good from evil and to love the good. Because of this from the earliest years parents must inculcate in the child a wholesome love of the good, and certain inner sensitivities which will help him not to be allured by the evil, even if it has the appearance of good.
Such an inner sensitivity towards the good has to be inculcated in the very earlier years, when the soul of the child is pure and not flooded with egoism and a desire for esteem. One must begin the religious up-bringing of an infant as early as possible, before everything in life around him destroys his receptiveness to good. It is only thus that the parents will be able to form in his soul “the new man,” concerning which the Apostle Paul teaches: “That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:17). It is to this aim that all the efforts of parents and teachers should be directed.
… to be continued in the next issue with “When is it
Necessary to Start the Up-bringing of an Infant?”
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