Reflections on the Content of the National Directory for Catechesis
Most Reverend Donald W. Wuerl, Bishop of Pittsburgh
I have been asked to discuss the newly approved and soon to be published National Directory for Catechesis. I welcome this opportunity to review the content of the directory since it should so strongly impact the ongoing catechetical effort in our country. As the directory itself points out this is a new moment in the Church in terms of the renewal of catechesis and the directory brings its own vision for this Church-wide enterprise in the United States.
In Saint John’s Gospel we read: “Then many of his disciples who were listening said ‘this saying is hard; who can accept it?’ Jesus said to them: ‘the words I have spoken to you are spirit and life’… As a result of this many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, ‘do you also want to leave?’. Simon Peter answered him, ‘Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God’” (Jn. 6.60-69).
We turn to Jesus and therefore to his Church today in order that we might hear, accept and live the words of spirit and truth – the words of everlasting life. Catechesis is all about introducing people into a higher level of life and a new way of living.
In the first Eucharistic prayer the priest, with hands outstretched over the bread and wine, invokes the power of the Holy Spirit and prays: “Bless and approve our offering: make it acceptable to you an offering in spirit and in truth. Let it become for us the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ your only Son our Lord.”
We live in the transforming power of the Spirit and we are enabled to do so because we walk in the truth of God’s revelation. The truth and the life are intimately related precisely because entrance into new life, a supernatural reality that transcends the parameters of this human life, takes place precisely to the extent that we hear and receive the truth that opens us to this spiritual transformation.
Since you have the table of content of the directory I do not intend to repeat what is evident but rather to reflect on why the directory contains what it does and what it says to us. In discussing the contents of the National Directory for Catechesis I am going to touch on a number of points including:
- The overall setting that the directory provides for catechesis, that is, the new evangelization;
- The context of the directory, that is the current state of religious faith in the Church in the United States. This will account in no small part for the difference between the current national directory and the first one, Sharing the Light of Faith, published in 1978;
- The impact of culture on the reception of the faith and the expectation that the faith should mold and transform culture. Inculturation as a condition for successful catechesis;
- What I would call the “new confidence” that is a part of the life of the Church today and is beginning to be more pervasively felt in the presentation of the faith. This new “comfort level” with Church teaching is in no small part due to the influence and emphasis of Pope John Paul II;
- The ecclesial dimension of catechesis and the organic nature of the Church as it proclaims and lives out the faith. Here we will see the interrelatedness of so many catechetical elements;
- The emphasis on the spiritual communion and the sacramental nature of the Catholic Church as the means of salvation;
- Clearly the Eucharist remains the center not only of the life of the Church but of the process of catechesis by which one is more intimately identified with Christ and his Church;
- The recognition of the importance of proper methodology in the catechetical process and the need for appropriate resources;
- Finally, I would like to conclude with a recognition that as we are in a new moment in the life of the Church, it should be a time of great optimism for us as we recognize not only the challenges but also the enormous potential of the circumstances of our day.
We need to begin with what is clearly a new moment for catechesis in the Church in the United States. Looking at our history going back to the publication of the
General Catechetical Directory at Easter of 1971 on through to today and the approval of the new
National Directory for Catechesis, we see the emergence of instruments of significant magisterial guidance in this worldwide process and certainly as it is articulated in the Church in the United States.
Beginning with the publication of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1993 and the general renewal of catechetical texts in the United States through the work of the Ad Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism and on through the development of a new
United States Catholic Catechism for Adults as well as the publication of the General Directory for Catechesis and our own
National Directory for Catechesis we find a significantly different climate.
Many can recall the wide-ranging and disparate catechetical initiatives of the 70’s and even early 80’s where, in many instances, there was not to be found a definable or well articulated reference point for the faith. This led to the efforts of our own Conference of Bishops to produce in 1990
Guidelines for Doctrinally Sound Catechetical Materials in order to indicate clearly the content that needed to be included in catechetical materials. Today while the implementation may still be fragmentary in some areas, the
General Directory for Catechesis and the
Catechism of the Catholic Church and the adaptation of both for the United States are and will increasingly be the normative documents for good catechesis. Thus today we have a new frame of reference that simply was not available for the previous directory.
Part of the vision of the new national directory is found in its mood and style and the way in which it presents the Gospel vision of the faith as the doorway into the realm of the Spirit.
At the beginning of Mass we prepare ourselves “to celebrate the sacred mysteries.” Echoing the language of Saint Paul in the New Testament and the words of Jesus at the Last Supper, the Church has always understood discipleship as more than just a way of relating to one another. It is a new, transforming relationship with God that actually alters our being. Saint Paul speaks of being adopted children of God through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1.5; Gal. 4.5-7). He also describes discipleship as the beginning of a new creation (2 Cor. 5.17).
In our approach to the mystery of the faith we recognize that in an act of faith and through the power of the Spirit God actually comes into this world and our lives. The transcendent reality of God breaks into this world by the power of the Spirit and continues to be manifest in the supernatural reality that is the Church and in her actions the sacraments.
Thus the entrée into this new world of life that will not be taken from us begins with an act of faith based on the acceptance of God’s Word as the Church proclaims it and presents it in each age.
The newly approved
National Directory for Catechesis echoes the tone and spirit of Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory and John Chrysostom. It recognizes that the essential thrust of the proclamation of the faith, evangelization and catechesis is to bring the transforming message of God’s Word / revelation into our world. It is in this action that the world including ourselves is transformed. Human experience is a significant factor in this process to the extent that it can offer a starting point for the seed of God’s Word to take hold, grow and bear fruit. It cannot, however, substitute for the seed or its flowering.
This brings us to what I would call the new setting for the understanding of catechesis. One of the most helpful insights in the
General Catechetical Directory is its contextualizing of the entire catechetical effort in the wider initiative of evangelization.
In presenting its vision the national directory highlights the renewal of catechesis called for by the Second Vatican Council and its relationship to evangelization. “In his apostolic exhortation
On Evangelization in the Modern World (Evangelii Nuntiandi), Pope Paul VI stated an important principle for the renewal of catechesis when he described catechesis as a work of evangelization in the content of the mission of the Church. Pope John Paul II further developed this concept in his apostolic exhortation
On Catechesis in Our Time (Catechesi Tradendae), in which he described catechesis as a very remarkable moment ‘in the whole process of evangelization.’ Throughout his pontificate, Pope John Paul II has vigorously contributed to the worldwide renewal of catechesis through his many encyclical letters, apostolic exhortations, and discourses” (NDC pp. 6-7).
In short, what the directory is saying and what the new evangelization recognizes is that there are multiple secular options drawing their inspiration from a variety of sources, presenting other visions, lifestyles and opinions, in direct challenge to the vision and life offered by Jesus and his Church. The temptation of many is to say what the Church offers are “hard sayings,” “who can bear them.” On the other hand what the directory offers us as a vision and motivational force is the recognition that “Lord you have the words of everlasting life.” What the directory encourages us to do is envision catechesis as the presentation of an invitation to a whole new order of life and way of being and thinking.
Both the general and the national directory place catechetics today in the context of the new evangelization to which our Holy Father has called the Church for more than two decades. In the prologue to part one we read that “The concepts word of
God, Gospel, Kingdom of God and Tradition…. are fundamental to the meaning of catechesis. Together with these, the concept of evangelization is an indispensable point of reference for catechesis” (35).
As the directory, quoting
Ecclesia in America, instructs us “the new evangelization is primarily the ‘clear and unequivocal proclamation of the person of Jesus Christ, that is, the preaching of his name, his teaching, his life, his promises and the Kingdom which he has gained for us by his Paschal Mystery.’ It involves the active participation of every Christian in the proclamation and demonstration that the Christian faith is the only full and valid response to the problems and hopes that life poses to every person and society” (p. 60).
To evangelize individuals is not sufficient. The Gospel is intended for every people and nation; it finds a home in every culture. Those who proclaim the Christian message must know the culture and love the people to whom they bring the message in order for it to be able to transform the culture and the people and make them new in Christ. “The new evangelization calls for a clearly conceived, serious and well organized effort to evangelize culture.” The dynamism inherent in the new evangelization demands both the inculturation of the Gospel and the transformation of the culture by the Gospel.
The purpose of this evangelization is to bring about faith and conversion to Christ. Faith involves a profound change of mind and heart, a change of life, a “mentanoia.” Such a change can only arise from deep within the interior of one’s being, where one faces the truly important questions about human life. Such a change, engendered by the action of the Holy Spirit, shows itself in the transformation of one’s life. One begins to live “in Christ” and is able to confess with St. Paul, “Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.”
The new evangelization – as presented in the vision of the directory – finds fruitful soil for the sower’s seed. There is a sense among some of our young people that the secular, material world does not provide them sufficient answers for their lives. Over and over, the phenomena of youth gatherings from as large as World Youth Day to as modest as small parish programs speak of the searching for value and direction that characterizes a growing number of our faithful. There is a hunger for God and the things of the Spirit but it needs to be encouraged, informed and directed.
Even among those who have no secure grasp of the faith, we find everywhere a longing for some faith, and the desire for a life of generous love when the world fails them so sharply and they wish to make enduring sense of their lives.
In reaching out to the young, I have experienced their openness, sense of searching, and desire for a clear affirmation of the faith. The basic truths of the faith often evoke in them a positive and affirmative response. In my reading of the NDC I find that it recognizes the world that so many of us engaged in evangelization, catechesis and proclamation of the word face today. The intuitions of the directory seem to grow right up out of the experience we hear so many catechists and those involved in the proclamation of the faith describe.
The background or context for the new evangelization is the increasingly secular world in which we live. The powerful influence of a moral framework and set of values or lack of them generated by what is described as the influence of the entertainment and information media creates a world view that is not only different from but actually inimical to the understanding of life based on gospel values.
We need to recognize as does the directory between the many national and ethnic cultures and heritages that are a part of the Church in the United States and the Gospel values enshrined in so many of those cultures. At the same time we must distinguish these cultures from the pervasively secular culture that dominates our country and impacts at times so negatively on the efforts to spread the faith.
Concomitant with the recognition of the impact of the secular culture on our faith is the disintegration of the community and social structures that once supported religious faith and encouraged family life. In fact the heavy emphasis on the individual and his or her rights has greatly eroded the concept of the common good and its ability to call people to something beyond themselves. This impacts strongly on our capacity to call people to accept revealed teaching that cannot be changed by democratic process and an absolute moral imperative that is not the result of prior popular approbation.
Underlying and calling forth this focus on evangelization is the recognition that we carry out our catechetical activities today in circumstances where too often little knowledge of the faith can be presumed and where the teaching task is every bit as much to introduce someone into the faith as it is to strengthen and deepen their already present knowledge of the faith.
We have in our own catechetical ministry experienced the effort to invite people to the faith who scarcely know Christ in any personal or meaningful way. We work with and try to teach people some of whom have not really tasted the joy of personal faith and who have found few reasons for believing. The
General Catechetical Directory reminds us of what we know: that great numbers of our people “have lost a living sense of faith, or even no longer consider themselves members of the Church and live a life far removed from Christ and his gospel” (GDC 58). Our national directory develops at considerable length the challenges to catechesis from the social and cultural conditions of our land (cf. p. 14).
In a nutshell, we cannot presume as a given in our catechetical efforts even a foundational level of understanding and adhesion to the faith. Rather we must approach the task as if we were introducing our students and hearers to Christ for the first time.
The national directory reminds us that the challenge for catechesis is “to integrate faith and life in religious beliefs and moral choices, and for catechists to see all of life as a lived response to God’s call. Catechesis needs to present the Christian life as a response to Christ’s invitation to follow him – in one’s personal life and family, the parish, and the wider human community” (NDC p. 17).
We should not be surprised then that chapter one of the
National Directory for Catechesis deals with the general characteristics of U.S. culture as it addresses the issue of proclaiming the Gospel in the United States. Effort is also made in the newly approved
United States Catholic Catechism for Adults to contextualize its teaching in the same manner.
The characteristics of our culture give us many blessings and an equal number of challenges. To speak of personal freedom, religious freedom, economic freedom, a sense of pragmatism, an interest in science and technology, an awareness and openness to globalization and the mobility of our general population is to recognize the basic categories of thought and life and the action that follows on them in our nation.
In the same chapter the directory speaks about the diversity in our U.S. culture – cultural diversity, religious diversity, regional diversity as well as a diversity within the Church itself.
The directory is particularly fluent when it speaks of cultural and ethnic diversity. “Just as all races, ethnicities, and cultures in the world are represented in the population of the United States, so too they find a home within the Catholic Church. Each group brings its own language, history, customs, rituals, and traditions ‘for building up the body of Christ.’ Since persons can only achieve their full humanity by means of culture, the Catholic Church in the United States embraces the rich cultural pluralism of all the faithful, encourages the distinctive identity of each cultural group, and urges mutual enrichment. At the same time, the Catholic Church promotes a unity of faith within the multicultural diversity of the people” (NDC p. 37).
The directory then goes on as well to offer a profile of Catholics in the United States addressing the demographics and pastoral life as it is currently reflected. The text then speaks about family and home in our country.
The national directory in concluding this section offers us what I believe are profoundly significant words of encouragement. The text reminds us that “in the process of boldly proclaiming the Gospel to this culture and the discreet cultures within it, the Church holds fast to the fact that through the mystery of the Incarnation, people of all cultures are capable of receiving the Gospel, and through the Gospel, people of all cultures can experience conversion to Jesus Christ and commit to following his way in order to be in communion with the Universal Church. Since catechesis always occurs within a social and cultural context, catechists must carefully consider both the integrity of the Christian message they announce and the particular circumstances in which they announce it. They do this within the community of the Church and with the firm confidence that the one Teacher and the first Evangelizer will be with them ‘until the end of the age’” (51-52).
There has never been a time when the Gospel did not encounter challenge and in many instances even significantly convert the culture. The fact that we deal with a new set of circumstances should not in any way diminish our enthusiasm for the Gospel mandate. We are sent to teach all that Christ has taught us knowing that the Spirit will remain with us until the end of time.
I want to touch on, in passing, a brief comparison between
Sharing the Light of Faith and the
National Directory for Catechesis. While one can find many significant areas of similarity and while one can easily look to certain parallels in both documents what distinguishes the
National Directory for Catechesis from the earlier document
Sharing the Light of Faith is the overarching perspective of evangelization that characterizes not only the directory but its understanding of how catechesis must be envisioned today. It is for this reason that the section on catechesis within the Church’s mission of evangelization follows immediately on the directory’s description of the culture and context of catechesis today.
Perhaps one of the reasons why there is a contrast in the circumstances surrounding passing on the faith as perceived in the current national directory and the earlier one Sharing the Light of Faith is because the disparity between the secular values of the world today and the Christian values of the Gospel was not as apparent in the 60’s and 70’s as it is now.
The directory benefits from the fact that the
Catechism of the Catholic Church was not only published but impacting upon the context of catechetical materials by the time the General Directory was published and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops began its adaptation for our nation. Thus the current directory benefits from the presumption that the content of the faith is available and present to catechists in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church and in its adaptation for the Church in the United States, the
United States Catholic Catechism for Adults.
Another major area of development since the publication of
Sharing the Light of Faith is the attention to the concept of inculturation. Both the GDC and the NDC pay serious attention to the importance of inculturating the Christian message and the need for the culture to be molded by the Gospels. The encounter of faith with the culture has a dual dynamic. There is on the one hand the recognition that the culture is a vehicle for the faith and that reception of the faith can be heavily conditioned by cultural influences and at the same time the profound realization that the Gospel must impact on and inform every culture.
We should not be surprised to find that our own national directory gives more attention to the needs of people from differing ethnic backgrounds and for the people who live with disabilities than what was presented in
Sharing the Light of Faith. I think this is a function of the greater awareness in our culture of the richness of ethnic diversity and our need to be attentive to people with special needs. We should expect that this would overflow directly into how we carry out our evangelizing and catechizing ministry.
Perhaps there has been no single individual source of influence and emphasis on the catechetical ministry in the past 25 years than Pope John Paul II. As he proceeds in his 27th year as the Shepherd of the Universal Church his teaching corpus continues to grow. He has not only produced an extraordinary number of encyclicals – 14 in number – but he is also the author of 14 post-synodal apostolic exhortations. This body of material in itself covers just about every aspect of the life and teaching of the Church. Together with the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, which has as its primary source Sacred Scripture and then the Second Vatican Council together with papal magisterium and classical expositions of the faith, the Pope has altered the mindset of and brought a renewed confidence in the faith to so many of the faithful throughout the world including many of us engaged in catechesis.
A recurring theme of the Holy Father is “do not be afraid.” He set out to restore confidence, particularly among those who proclaim and teach the faith, that the very words of the message are in fact life-giving. He has held up in travels, that have taken him to just about every nation on this planet, the consistent theme that the integrity of the faith rests upon God’s revealed word presented in his Church. Thus the full proclamation of the teaching of the Church is to be a part of authentic catechesis.
In October of 1978 when he stepped onto the sacrato of Saint Peter Basilica to deliver the homily at his Mass of installation as Shepherd of the Universal Church he began with a challenge that is echoed over the past 26 years throughout the world. “Throw open the doors of your heart to Christ.” He was speaking in Italian and used an interesting Italian word that means to break the door off the hinges.
His comments, talks, exhortations, homilies at world youth days are the dialogue of a drama of encouragement. How often he has said to our young people “Do not be afraid.” “Be proud of your faith.” “Know your faith.” “Live your faith.” “Love your faith.”
I was particularly struck during his visit to Denver all those years ago when at the conclusion of his homily he said to the half a million young people gathered in that huge open space outside the city: “Never be ashamed of your faith!” He then paused, looked at the paper in his hand and said “that is not what I mean to say. What I want to say is ‘be proud of your faith.’”
Chapters three, five and six are devoted to a reflection on and presentation of the breadth of Catholic teaching. The directory follows the same structure we find in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church and calls us to the recognition of a need for a full, complete presentation of the faith. The tone of these chapters is one of confidence reflecting the profound truth of the Church’s teaching even if it runs counter to our heavily secular culture today.
In the New Testament, the followers of Jesus marveled that, unlike other teachers, he taught with
authority. In Matthew’s Gospel, for example, we read: “Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes” (Mt. 7.28-29). Saint Mark recounts how Jesus “entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority” (Mk. 1.21-22).
Jesus had authority because of who he was. “I am the way, the truth and the life,” he proclaimed (Jn. 14.6). The truth – the very reality of who Jesus is – is what he shares with us through the Church.
When Jesus was on trial, Pilate asked him, “Are you a king?” Jesus answered, “For this I was born. For this I came into the world to testify to the truth. Anyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (Jn. 18.37).
Our confidence in proclaiming the faith rests on the identity of the Church and therefore our identity as faithful members of the Body of Christ alive in an apostolic tradition reaching back to the days of the apostles and echoing in our world the Gospel message.
To avoid this confusion and the possibility of misunderstanding God’s word, Jesus chose apostles and charged them and their successors with the responsibility of teaching the true faith, making sure that it is presented clearly and applying it to the problems and needs of the day.
Authentic Catholic faith is never partial or selective. It is always universal. We say “yes” to the whole mystery of the faith to each of its elements because of our personal faith in God. We believe the truth that God reveals because we believe God, and we believe that God is still teaching in and through the Church.
When Peter came to recognize that God was in Christ, he was prepared to believe the word of Christ, for it was clear to him that God is always to be believed. “You have the word of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” (Jn. 6.68-69).
While every Christian shares in the mission of spreading the truth and bearing witness to the Gospel, the apostles, the bishops, had the prime responsibility of guarding, proclaiming, and verifying the Gospel message.
Under the heading of the ecclesial dimension of catechesis I want to touch on the role of the bishop and all of those empowered or charged to participate in the catechetical action of the Church. In chapter 8 and chapter 9 we find discussion of those who catechize and the organization of catechetical ministry. The starting point is obviously the Church. The faith is lived and passed on within the context of the Church. Thus in both sections the role of the bishop is highlighted since he has the responsibility first to teach actively and directly and then to oversee all of the teaching ministry carried on in the diocesan Church in the name of the Church. The directory speaks then of the overall ministry of the Church under the guidance of the bishop and then the expression of that ministry in the parish which is the most commonly experienced realization of the diocesan Church in the lives of the faithful.
Since the national directory envisions faith as the opening onto the whole realm of the kingdom coming to be in our world and since that faith comes to us through the proclamation, preaching or presentation and witnessing of others all catechesis is essentially ecclesial. Thus we see in the directory an emphasis on the role of the bishop as principal catechist and then an indication of those who are charged by him either through the sacrament of holy orders or through the delegation and appointment of catechists to participate in the Church’s proclamation of the faith.
The directory highlights and values the role of all catechists. It lists the various manifestations of catechetical activity in the Church and holds all of them up for praise as a participation in the ongoing teaching mission of the Church.
It would be redundant to go through the many fruitful expressions of encouragement and direction dealing with the whole range of catechetical experience. However I do want to touch on one point in chapter 9 concerning the organization of catechetical ministry. Here we are reminded that just as the bishop is chief liturgist in the diocese, he is also chief catechist and thus should be to the extent possible directly engaged in encouraging, overseeing and supervising catechetical ministry. The ecclesial dimension of the proclamation of the faith parallels the renewal in the liturgical life of the Church particularly in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults where the ecclesial dimension of a person’s personal faith journey is underlined as essential and life-giving.
In the life of the Church in the United States pastors as those who are ordained as co-workers with the bishop have the responsibility of both the proclamation of the faith and the oversight of its teaching in the parish.
Religious education takes place in a variety of formats beginning with the introduction of a child into the awareness of the faith on through the continuous and ongoing faith formation of adults. The directory makes reference to the Conferences’ adult faith formation program “Our Hearts Were Burning Within us” to highlight the significant role of adult faith formation.
The directory also recognizes that religious education is a lifelong process. First of all, it begins with the simple recognition that God’s word, the revelation given to us in Jesus Christ, the truth presented to us in Christ, is utterly beyond us. It takes an act of humility to recognize this fact. The act of obeying and accepting the word of God is sometimes described as a “genuflection of the will”: “I may not fully comprehend the mystery of what you are saying, God, but in humility, and recognizing my own limitation, I accept your word.”
The next step is to try to understand. The task of understanding has been the work of the Church for two thousand years. What does it mean to say that Christ came among us, died, rose from the dead, and saved us? What does it mean to profess that we are justified, that we have been redeemed, that someday we will be united to Christ in glory? What does it mean to say that I am obliged now to apply the commandments and the beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, and the works of mercy to my daily life? Thus, the Church begins to unfold that revelation for us and to apply it to our daily lives.
The national directory places an emphasis on who we are as God’s people. Thus there is a sense in which we are all caught up in the task of living and inviting people into a mystery. The dynamic of the new directory includes the realization that we are identified as a people by our faith in a whole supernatural reality that simply cannot be verified experientially. The entrance into this great mystery, the paschal mystery made present in our lives sacramentally and particularly in the Eucharist, is something that transcends basic human experience.
We are called to recognize the importance of the sacramental life of the Church and to see the reality of God’s coming among us, of Jesus as God-With-Us, of the unique mediatorship of the Church as the continuation of the mission and ministry of Jesus and the sacraments as privileged moments of encounter with the living Christ.
This national directory is being published in the very context of the Year of the Eucharist. This coming October our Holy Father will preside over a synod on the Eucharist to highlight once again the essential and imperative place of the Eucharist in the mystery of our redemption and therefore of all evangelization and catechesis. Our Holy Father’s encyclical
Ecclesial de Eucharistia is a beautiful reminder of the ineffable mystery of our participation in the death and resurrection of Christ sacramentally but truly when we enter the mystery of the Eucharist.
“When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the memorial of her Lord’s death and resurrection, this central event of salvation becomes really present and ‘the work of our redemption is carried out.’ This sacrifice is so decisive for the salvation of the human race that Jesus Christ offered it and returned to the Father
only after he had left us a mean of sharing in it as if we had been present there. Each member of the faithful can thus take part in it and inexhaustibly gain its fruits. This is the faith from which generations of Christians down the ages have lived” (11).
One of the great strengths of this directory is its emphasis on proper methodology and an entire chapter devoted to divine and human methodology and the elements of human methodology. Another strength of the directory is its recognition of the need for proper resources for catechesis. While the directory sets the content and context of our catechetical evangelizing in the realm of revelation and the proclamation of the Church in the gift of the Spirit, it is also fully aware: that we are catechizing the people of God in diverse settings; that there are differing roles of those who catechize; that there must be preparation and ongoing formation of catechists, and that there needs to be with intense attention the proper organizing of the catechetical ministry.
An entire presentation could be devoted just to the resources for good catechesis today. The materials produced by the Holy See and our Conference of Bishops in the past decade alone would be the topic of a whole discussion. The directory clearly recognizes the importance of these resources and addresses their significance in the catechetical enterprise.
In bringing these reflections to a conclusion I want to highlight something of which, I think, we all are fully aware. This is a new moment to engage the next generation in the lived experience of Jesus Christ. Our Holy Father, according to a commentary in a recent national magazine, has been seen by more people live than any single person in all of human history. As remarkable as that fact is the commentary went on to note that his influence and impact, though in intangible terms, is more identifiably significant, particularly as a countercultural phenomenon, than any other person, group of persons or even institutions or groups of institutions in the world today.
His message is a simple, consistent, persistent and insistent one. God loves us, Christ has come among us to lead us to the Father.
I remember as a young priest once asking a much older and wiser priest what more can we do when people don’t seem to hear the lessons that we proclaim Sunday after Sunday from the pulpit. He replied, “There is only one answer. You preach the gospel. You say it as well as you can. And then you say it again, and again, and again.”
There are days when I wonder if we should resort to other means than proclaiming the gospel again and again and then I think of the wisdom of that venerable and sage priest. Ours is a ministry of proclamation. We are called to teach, exhort, convince, persuade and to the extent that we do that, to that extent are we faithful to our ministry.
The great consolation I take from the document Pastores gregis, an apostolic exhortation addressed to bishops and I believe applicable equally to all of us in this conference, is the recognition that it says to me that even though I do not have the gifts of an Ignatius of Antioch or an Augustine or a John Chrysostom or a Basil or a Gregory, I can still do my best to teach in word, in pastoral deed and in witness.
I believe this is true for all of us engaged in the catechetical enterprise. Even though we may not have all of the wonderful qualities of a Louise de Marillac, an Elizabeth Ann Seton or a Katherine Drexel we can still do our best to model the faith in our lives, proclaim the good news of Christ and our encounter with him and invite those entrusted to our care to the celebration of the Eucharist so that all of us can join in that joyful refrain that continues to sustain us today: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
Thank you.