Wisdom From a 3rd Grader!

"gather the children in this wild country
and teach them what they should know for salvation."
Our Lady of Good Help, to Adele Brise, 1859

This took place last night (03.11.2014) in my Elementary Grade Catechism Class at St. Joseph Oratory in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  

I have 39 students in class.

We were discussing the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, from Lesson 10 of the New Baltimore Catechism #1 (St. Joseph Edition).

As we discussed grace, we reviewed briefly how the life of grace can be darkened or destroyed in us by sin.  There was a question from one young man, "How do I know if I have a mortal sin."  So, we reviewed the 3 conditions which make a sin mortal: The matter must be gravely wrong, the sinner must know it is gravely wrong, and the sinner must give full consent of the will in committing the sin.

Then, as some still seemed unsure of what sins might be so grave as to be mortal, I asked for some examples of things that would, objectively, be gravely wrong.  We came up with most of the things you'd expect; murder, abortion, intentional physical injury of another (or of yourself), suicide, etc.

One answer, however, rather amazed me.

A young man, whom I will only identify by his first name, "Gus," said this:

"Like if you use a gun or something and force someone to give up the Catholic Faith, or do something so they have to give up being a Catholic or they'll die."

Yes!  To induce someone to abandon the Catholic Faith is a seriously grave matter! Objectively speaking, it is a mortal sin.

I was remarking to the class that I've never heard that answer from anyone in a Catechism Class before, nor even from adults in the many adult faith formation classes I've taught.  Then, I stopped myself and asked Gus, "What grade are you in?"  He smiled and said "Third."

I told him, "God has given you wisdom to say what you've said, and your angel has helped you to say it!"

Matthew 21:14-16 ~

"And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, 'Hosanna to the Son of David!' they were indignant; and they said to him, 'Do you hear what these are saying?' And Jesus said to them, 'Yes; have you never read,

‘Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings
thou hast brought perfect praise’?”