Presbyterian & Reformed

I have a confession: I don’t know the Shorter Catechism.

There – I’ve said it! I was raised Roman Catholic and by the time I had woken up to the call of the Holy Spirit in my mid-teens, and abandoned the faith of my parents for the Faith of my Fathers, I was in no way equipped to learn the SC. Besides which, I was not introduced to it at that time.

Our Kid’s Club at GRC takes our elementary school kids through a version of the Shorter Catechism. I am sometimes asked if I think we should not be doing something more ‘fun’ with the kids. Aside from the fact that the curriculum is very well written and supported with activities, coloring and all sorts of stuff the kids enjoy (not to mention that learning about God and ‘fun’ are not mutually exclusive) – it occurs to me that even if it was miserable and resulted in many tears – I would still want our kids to go through it.

I always have a secret New Year’s Resolution to finally learn the Shorter Catechism. I say secret because I know I’ll probably fail and it’s just too depressing (i.e., humbling) to consider that is was meant

‘to be,’ as the Scottish General Assembly puts it in the Act approving it, ‘a Directory for catechizing such as are of a weaker capacity,’ as they sent out the Larger Catechism ‘to be a Directory for catechizing such as have made some proficiency in the knowledge of the grounds of religion.’

Weaker capacity! Children and the mentally deficient got the Shorter Catechism. I don’t even pretend to think that I might someday like to learn the Larger…

B.B. Warfield had a similar love of the catechism. When he was confronted with the ‘So what?’ of the use for the Catechism, in addition to the above quote he wrote the following:

What is ‘the indelible mark of the Shorter Catechism’? We have the following bit of personal experience from a general officer of the United States army. He was in a great western city at a time of intense excitement and violent rioting. The streets were over-run daily by a dangerous crowd. One day he observed approaching him a man of singularly combined calmness and firmness of mien, whose very demeanor inspired confidence. So impressed was he with his bearing amid the surrounding uproar that when he had passed he turned to look back at him, only to find that the stranger had done the same. On observing his turning the stranger at once came back to him, and touching his chest with his forefinger, demanded without preface: ‘What is the chief end of man?’ On receiving the countersign, ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever’ — ‘Ah!’ said he, ‘I knew you were a Shorter Catechism boy by your looks!’ ‘Why, that was just what I was thinking of you,’ was the rejoinder.

It is worth while to be a Shorter Catechism boy. They grow to be men. And better than that, they are exceedingly apt to grow to be men of God. So apt, that we cannot afford to have them miss the chance of it.

Perhaps next year I shall learn the Shorter Catechism.