In terms of New Church education in a school setting, this concept of
good success is captured in the phrase, “success in this world and the next.” It
implies a trajectory of life that is eternal. The beauty is that it can include the
pursuit of excellence in science or math or any other educational discipline,
because these can help people to be useful human beings. But ultimately it
is the spiritual focus of the education that ennobles the whole educational
process. It is, again, the focus on what is eternal, as stated in this compelling
teaching: “What more ought anyone to have at heart than his or her life which
lasts to eternity?” (Arcana Coelestia 794)
4. “Opening the Eyes to Spiritual Reality.”
In the Psalms we read, “The eyes of all look expectantly
to You...” (Psalm 145:15) Implied is a conscious turning
to the Lord as the One who provides what we truly
need. In the Gospel of Luke, we learn of two disciples
on a journey to a town called Emmaus shortly after
the sad story of the crucifixion. The Lord joined them, but they did not know
Him until He dined with them and broke bread. Then it says, “Their eyes were
opened, and they knew Him.” (Luke 24:31)
So it is with the use of New Church education. The goal is to open the
spiritual eyes of children and young people, so that they may come to know
the Lord, and behold the things that the Lord would most want them to see.
There is a learning component in this description of New Church
education. Seeing with the eyes corresponds to seeing with the understanding.
In this vein, we could ask ourselves what we most want children to come to
understand as they grow. One teaching lists for us:
The truths that people learn and believe in their earliest years when they are young
children but which later on they either endorse, have doubts about, or refuse to
accept, are in particular these: There is God, and He is one; He created everything;
He rewards those who do what is good and punishes those who do things that are
bad; there is life after death, when the bad go to hell and the good go to heaven, and
so there is a hell and a heaven; the life after death lasts forever; also, people ought
to pray every day and to do so in a humble way; they ought to keep the Sabbath day
holy, honor their parents, and not commit adultery, kill, or steal; and many other
truths like these. (Arcana Coelestia 5135:3)
There is a world of spiritual information in the Word that the Lord would
have us all learn. So it is that parents might rightly turn to the Church for help
in the systematic exposure to all that the Word contains.
But there is another related way of answering the question, “What would
we most want children to see as they grow?” Wouldn’t we want them to see
people worshiping on a regular basis, praying, opening copies of the Word
and learning from them, and so forth? And wouldn’t we want them to see
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