Memorization and the Decay of Faith
We can probably all recall a point in our life when we were asked to memorize something. Maybe it was memorizing “times tables” in elementary school math class or having to memorize a few lines for the school play. Whatever the occasion, we probably all felt that same kind of stress of repeating the same words or numbers over and over and over again until bit by bit the words that seemed to only live on paper started to take up residence in our minds.
Memorization can be a great thing. Quickly moving through a series of numbers or recalling lines from a great poem or scripture can be deeply transformative as the wisdom of others now lives within us.
While there is much goodness in memorization, I think that there may be a few dangers in this practice when it comes to living in a real and personal relationship with our God. We can come to believe that our faith is simply a set of rules or prayers to be memorized, but never develop a relationship with the God that has revealed the goodness of a life according to His will. One of the biggest problems that I encounter is when a person never moved from memorization to actually owning and relating to the words and ideas they were committing to memory.
I believe that I was confirmed in 5th grade - and honestly, the only thing that I remember about that experience was that if we didn’t memorize the Creed, we wouldn’t be confirmed. I do not remember a single thing about the day or experience of Confirmation, only that we were required to memorize the Creed.
In 4th grade, I remember the priest storming out of the confessional and berating us for not knowing the Act of Contrition well enough. No encouragement to do so, no visits from the priest to check in to see if we understood what we were saying in that prayer - only a distorted image of God now imprinted onto our young minds that believed He would only hear our prayers if we said them perfectly.
While others may not have had the exact same experiences that I did with these two Sacraments, I think that many have had the chance to suffer through the feelings of inadequacies of struggling through the memorization process without understanding the greater faith context around this exercise. I know that for many in previous generations, the Baltimore Catechism was the foundational text of religious formation. The simple question and answer format was the bedrock upon which a Catholic culture was built. The challenge, however, is helping a young person move from regurgitating the answers, to actually having a living faith in the source of the catechetical material. Generations that were formed using this question and answer approaching from the Baltimore Catechism were the same generations that fled their churches after the 1960s.
I hear this in the confessional when men or women who have been Catholic for their entire lives begin their Act of Contrition with, “O my God, I am “hardly” sorry for having offended Thee…” I have heard this phrasing many times. A mistake that was probably learned in childhood has carried through decade after decade to the point that the penitent is scarcely apologetic for their offenses against God (at least in what they say) compared to being “heartily” sorry for the distance they have placed between themselves and God or their neighbor.
Memorizing words incorrectly is, I believe, only one minor part of a much larger problem. While replacing “heartily” with “hardly” seems so small, we cannot see this as a misunderstanding of words. This example simply shows that there can exist a disconnect between the words that we repeat so many times in our faith formation and the meaning behind the words that we are hoping to transmit to the next generation of Christians. We can become so focused on making sure that the people in front of us are properly committing words to memory, but what steps are we taking to help them experience the reality behind the words?
When we are asking young people to memorize the Act of Contrition, what are we doing to help those learning the prayer to know and experience the mercy of God? As the child grows older and into their teenage years and eventual adulthood, are we providing a deeper knowledge and new experiences that align with the physical, emotional, and spiritual maturation of each person?
Far too many people seem frozen in a childish spirituality that is ill-equipped to deal with the chaos and confusion of the modern world. It is no wonder that so many young people are stepping away from the faith as the words that they were asked to memorize as a 7 year old seem to carry very little meaning for them as a 14 or 15 year old. At this point, we can grow angry and blame “the world” for the enticements that pull people away from their faith, but I think we have to seriously ask ourselves and reflect what we may have done to contribute to their quick and early departure. Those who somehow have continued coming to Mass on the weekends (or at Christmas or Easter) seem to be hanging on by a thread. A thread, that for many, was severed by the pandemic lockdowns and breaking the habit of coming to the church on weekends.
Perhaps underlying much of this is not so much a critique of memorization, but of the metrics that we use to recognize spiritual growth in a person. It seems that memorization is the easiest metric to use and probably why it is the standard for faith formation - especially at a young age. Asking a young person to repeat information about God is a lot easier than asking them about their relationship with God.
We need more than memorized ideas - we need a relationship.
While having an intellectual framework of faith is incredibly important, if a person lacks an experiential relationship with the God who gave us that framework, then the “faith” becomes reduced to a series of propositions that lack any grounding in reality.
Our God is personal. Our God lives in relationship. Everything that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have revealed and created bears the imprint of this relationship. Our reality is grounded in the reality of this relationship. If we remove what has been revealed by God or is accessible by human reason from this relational lens, then we purposefully blind ourselves to the fullness of faith available to us.
In the same way, if we lower the bar of faith formation to merely memorizing information or formulaic prayers without helping our students develop the proper relational framework, then we will continue to see ourselves frustrated as more and more of our young people turn away from the faith.
If we want to genuinely see a change in how our faith is transmitted from one generation to the next, we have to start by examining our own relationship with God. Is it personal? Do I reduce God or the faith to a series of ideas or a set of information to be memorized? Am I committed to living in a deep relationship with God, constantly turning my heart to Him?
If we do not have a living and ever-deepening relationship with our God, if we do not know His love for us and love Him in return, then how can we hope to effectively form our young people in anything other than a dry, shallow faith that can be easily set aside for relationships and experiences in the world that seem to carry more meaning than the cardboard version of Christianity that we have tried to pass on to them.
Parents - you are the primary formators of your children. If they see your relationship with God and if you talk to your children about your relationship with God, this will leave a lasting impression on them.
Teachers and Catechists - knowing the best pedagogical approaches is important and memorization is surely a part of this, but if it becomes our only standard of “knowing the faith,” then we cannot act surprised when so many of our former students disaffiliate themselves from any kind of religious identity.
Those that preach - we have a privileged time during our liturgies to speak about the relationship that we are called to be in with our God. Homilies lacking a relational foundation and proclaiming an abstract, intellectually detached set of ideas about God will remain boring and unconvincing. We do not have to always explicitly mention our relationship with God - but if our words are not rooted in this relationship, if we aren’t directing our people towards union with God (a relationship) through the Eucharist and prayer, then we fail to nurture the faith of those who hear us.
Words matter. The more we say them, the more they should become part of who we are. It becomes natural to say the Creed because we truly believe what we are saying. We long to pray the Act of Contrition because the words express sorrow for the sins we have committed. Let’s go deeper than a stunted elementary school faith that relies only on regurgitating memorized words - instead, let’s respond to the relationship that we were made for and let the gifts of these words truly dwell within us, leading us closer to the heart of God.