SimonMary Asese Aihiokhai
The classroom can be a place of great inspiration and revelation when both the instructor and the students allow themselves to enter the space of wonder and radical curiosity. Teaching theology to undergraduate students has its own unique perks. Some years ago, I was teaching an introductory course in theology and was specifically looking closely at the sub-discipline of Christology. Being an observant teacher, I wanted to spark some deep-thinking conversation among my students. I asked the students to tell me one thing they admired in the person of Jesus and how that can be applied to their own lives. The class was quiet. I thought the students were engaged in the reflection I wanted to invoke in them, until one student spoke up and said, “I cannot find myself in Jesus.” It got me thinking. Why wouldn’t the student find herself in Jesus?
There was my awakening. The Jesus of Gen-Z is missing. The last we hear of Jesus in the gospels is when he was lost in the Temple. After that, there is a silence until he is thirty years old. Where was the teenage and young adult Jesus? We may want to spiritualize this absence and say it does not matter. I beg to disagree. Remember, the early church was first and foremost a church of adults. The need to imagine the teenage and young adult Jesus in the retelling of his life within the context of the faith community was not urgent. We see that later on, when the church became a community with all stages of human life, the structures of the kerygma have been settled.
Adolescent years are years of existential turbulence. If you are an adult, you would know what I mean. The body is changing. Insecurities amount. Self-doubt becomes an existential reality. Yet, the possibility for building life-long relationships open up. It was at that moment that I posed the following questions to my students: How would you imagine the Jesus who was growing into his life as a youth? How would the church imagine the Jesus that was a sexualized being and what are the implications for our faith? Remember, the christological debates were all about whether he was fully human and fully divine. Chalcedon solidified it, along with the second Council of Constantinople – that he is fully human and divine with all qualities that constitute the fullness of these two natures, but all grounded in one personhood – the Second Person of the Trinity.
I left that class pondering on the following insights and questions: how can the church retell the life of Jesus to account for the missing years to allow for a good part of humanity to discover themselves in the story of Jesus? What would open up for the church’s imagination if this process is embraced? Could it be that the absence of the young generation from the church today is linked to our lack of imagination to tell a richer story of Jesus that can hold the imagination of the youths captive?
I want to believe that this matter may have been behind what inspired Pope Saint John Paul II to start the World Youth Day celebrations. Those celebrations brought some energy into the church. Pope Francis has continued the process by inviting the youths of our world to use their roles as social media influencers to share the joys of the gospel. But I ask, how can these youths share what they have not yet been told or experienced from the fundamental story of Jesus that we currently tell ourselves?
There is a type of playfulness that defines our youthful existence. It is a time when we most embrace wonder and the desire to be creative. We explore our world. We dream big dreams. We want to transform the world. All these are part of what makes our youthful lives fun. We learn to laugh at ourselves and allow our hairs down. These moments of our existence are essential in our retelling of the story of Jesus the teenager. As we reimagine Jesus, we ought to tell the story in such a manner that it can capture the imagination of the Gen-Z population.
This has led me to rethink my own story of Jesus. The youthful Jesus was a funny fellow. He knew how to be witty. He had friends. He loved to play. I think him as one who enjoyed playing soccer, volleyball, pin pong, and also hanging out with his friends socializing at the porches of their respective homes. He did everything a youth would do that was within the boundaries of proper conduct. He had doubts. He had ambitions. He had models he looked up to. He respected his parents. he had cousins. He had neighbors. He loved to sleep in, especially as he grew into adolescent years. His body went through all the changes a young adult would go through.
Retelling this story of Jesus allows for our youths to find themselves in the wonderful story of Jesus. Stories are the foundations of our lives. they give meaning to our existence. It is on that note that I ask you all, what stories come up for you as you retell the story of Jesus the teenager and young adult? Remember, to wonder is itself a marker of the Christian faith. So, go ahead and wonder. Enjoy!
Reflection – February 19, 2024.
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