One of the biggest challenges in the history of the Church
is communicating the Gospel to the world.
This stretches from age to age: from the apostles, to the evangelizers
of northern Europe, to the missionaries that traveled to the Americas and
Africa, to the present day.
Evangelical efforts have always been a mix of success and
failure. This trend is there in Acts of
the Apostles—at Pentecost, the very beginning.
Over 3,000 souls chose baptism that day (Acts 2:41), but they were
side-by-side with a group that derided the apostles, calling them drunk (Acts
2:13). Similarly, St. Paul’s preaching
at the Areogapus was going fine until he started talking about the
resurrection. Dionysius and others
thirsted for more, but still others mocked St. Paul for his teaching.
In all of our efforts to evangelize, we have to keep a healthy tension between reasonable
and positive expectations. On one hand,
the grace of God has power beyond our imagining. In Mexico, for example, Our Lord sent the
Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Juan Diego.
In a brief time, millions converted thanks to that miraculous
intervention—accomplishing more than earthly missionaries had in years of
effort. On the other hand, original sin
eliminates the chance of converting the entire world to Christ before the end
of the world. There will be no perfect
society, no “Christendom” as we would like.
St. Thomas More coined the word “utopia” as the name of his fictional,
perfect society. He made a new word out
of two Greek words, which etymologically means “no where.”
I’ve participated in
this evangelical challenge at the parish level, as a volunteer with youth
groups and religious education classes. It’s
the same question—how do we
communicate the Gospel?—with different methods.
Youth group uses a combination of fellowship, catechesis, retreats, and
fun activities to try to get the point across.
Religious education goes about it as a school would: classrooms, curricula,
text books, and sometimes homework.
Maybe that’s too lengthy of an introduction to say… whatever
the Catholic Church in America is doing on a broad scale to catechize its own
members, it’s failing. There are bright
spots and vibrant parishes. There are
other pockets of… well, the opposite. I’ve
already written about it here, but I’ve had more religious education experience
since then. Here are my thoughts,
followed up by questions… the thing is, I don’t have the answers, and I don’t
pretend to be an expert educator, pastoral minister, or anything close. I’m a layman who’s been around a lot of
clergy and a lot of parishes, that's all.
And my thoughts really just apply to the parish level, not
to parents or families. That's definitely a conversation worth having--how can parishes help families, the first classrooms of catechesis?
1) Knowledge is key. I can’t tell you how many small groups I’ve
been a part of over the past 10 years… Questions of a religious nature can be
answered with vague platitudes that don’t ultimately mean anything. At the last confirmation retreat I helped
chaperone, it became an inside joke in my small group. Every question could’ve been answered with “peer
pressure” or other phrases. Every time the
teens would use those answers, I’d press for more.
How can we believe in something we don't know much about? Almost ten years ago, I had a coworker who was a big San Francisco Giants fan. I am a Dodgers fan (there is nothing more awful to a Giants fan than the Dodgers), so naturally this coworker gave me grief about it. He asked for the starting lineup of the Dodgers, and I didn't know--he laughed at me, "you call yourself a fan and you don't even know who's on the team?"
Question: What is
the key knowledge that we need to be passing on? Like I mentioned in my post from a couple
years ago (here
it is again), I’m not talking about heavy theological knowledge—just the
basics. What brought this question up in
my mind is an old Sunday missal from 1941.
At the back, it had lists of prayers and devotions. One of the sections was called “Prayers to Be
Memorized” and had at the top of the page, “Every Catholic Should Know.” It made me wonder… what would we put in this section
now? It doesn’t seem to fit the
catechetical philosophies around today; such a list might be seen as a return
to the “pre-conciliar days” of the Baltimore Catechism (my impression is that animosity
still exists against that time among the elder generation of the Church). There would be fights about diversity, social
justice, and inclusive language before any updated list of “Every Catholic
Should Know” could be completed.
Question: Am I
being too cynical on this?
2) Encountering
Christ. Pope Benedict and Pope
Francis have talked repeatedly about the need for our encounter with
Christ. Perhaps this is done with
regular holy hours, or a retreat, or special groups (e.g. Communion &
Liberation, Neo-Catechumenal Way). Certainly,
great ways to encounter Christ are through the sacraments (see #3 below), but
some of us need a push to come to a better appreciation of the sacraments.
Question: How do you get a “but I’m so busy!” culture (laity and priests included) to
buy into the idea of a retreat, or holy hour, or prayer group, etc.?
3) Sacraments! This probably should’ve been first on the
list. Indeed, if we’re not bringing
people to the sacraments, what’s the point of evangelization? Still, I’d think it would be hard for a
non-denominational Christian, a non-Christian, or a lapsed Catholic (who supposedly already knows about the Mass) to attend Mass without them
having some knowledge ahead of time (#1) and having enough of an encounter with
Christ (#2) to pursue the truth.
This is also an area in dire need of re-catechesis. By that, I wonder how many Catholics stand
up, sit down, kneel, and receive Communion without really knowing what they’re
doing. I can go through Mass all or in
part with my mind elsewhere, even though I’ve been taught how amazing the Mass
is.
Question: Have we reformed the liturgical reform enough? I don't think so. As I get older and
time goes on, the more I think Mass needs to become more sacred. The more familiar it’s become, the less
special it is. And if Mass is not all
that special, if it’s become “protestantized” (as some conciliar reformers
wished and deliberately acted), why bother going to a dull Mass if the local
mega-church has better music, better preaching, and a coffee stand? Ad
orientem and music are the two places I think they should start. Unfortunately, I don’t see the bishops
getting behind that anytime soon.
4) Fellowship outside
of Mass. This is a personal thing
for me, and I know not everyone has this need like I do. Still, I look at the examples of the
mega-churches. They have a small group
for everything! In addition to youth
groups and junior high groups, they have them for men, women, moms, young
adults, older adults, Bible studies, book clubs… and on and on. Whatever the interest, whatever the need,
most likely there’s a group for that.
We’re all spiritually part of the Body of Christ, and we
experience that par excellence in the
Sacrifice of the Mass. My guess is that
the goal of these groups is to provide a follow-up, more visible sign of unity
within a parish.
Question: How do
you convince priests to get behind something like this, over and above the regular
ministries that already take a considerable amount of volunteers and effort?
There. I feel better
now.
