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Exploring the word

29 Sep 2013 - Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Today’s a great day to do some catechesis on the social teaching of the church—but don’t say that or you’ll lose everyone’s attention! Nothing sounds worse than catechesis, unless it’s social teaching! A few useful terms will introduce the great Catholic writing on this subject and help us concentrate on the essentials. Let’s start with the common good. In the fourth century Saint Ambrose taught that what God intended for all should not become the possession of a few, or as Pope John Paul II said: Christianity teaches that private property is under a social mortgage. The goods of creation don’t belong to the strongest, smartest, or most devious. While the rich man in the parable earned, inherited, or otherwise acquired a lot of stuff, that didn’t give him the right to withhold even the crumbs from Lazarus. So how do we build a more just society? The first step is the recognition of solidarity. We’re all God’s children and that makes us brothers and sisters. You don’t allow family members to suffer. You take care of them, even when it costs you. The “unity of the human family,” Pope John XXIII said, means the common good is not simply a national quest but a universal one. We’re all in this together on a little planet. And when choices have to be made, the preferential option for the poor is the bottom line. As in a family, the last come first, the weak before the strong, the child before the adult. The rich man called Abraham his father but never saw Lazarus as his brother. The second step toward justice is personalism. We recognize that the person always comes before the goal. There is no goal more important than the person who accomplishes it. That has ramifications in government and the workplace, the legal system and the marketplace, the family and the church. Human dignity must always be considered and respected. Even after death the rich man views Lazarus as a slave to be ordered about, not a full person like himself. Subsidiarity is next. That means people should have as much say as possible about decisions that concern them. They should have the right to choose their leaders, protect their local environments and economies, not have Powers That Be determining their fate in broad measures over their heads. Poor Lazarus didn’t even have the power to keep the dogs from licking his sores, and the rich man didn’t care what Lazarus thought or needed even though he lay at his door. Our humanity makes us one. Our humanity gives us dignity. Our humanity gives us the right to a voice. Together we seek the common good: closing the chasm between Lazarus and us. Related scripture links Theological virtues: 1 Cor. 13:13 Are we saved by faith or works?: James 2:14-26 Charity as divine attribute: 1 John 4:7-12 Took on human likeness: Phil. 2:5-11 Catechism links Charity: CCC 736; 864; 1812-1813; 1822-1829; 1832; 1889; 2055; 2831

Authors Alice Camille

humanity catechesis common good

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Exploring the word

16 Sep 2012 - Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Recently I toured a local observatory where the eager staff assured our group that, despite our camera-snapping presence, they were still “doing science” during our visit. It was obvious they knew what they meant by that, even though it sounded quirky and mysterious to us. When my friends and I get together for dinner, we likewise “do theology” and are quite certain among ourselves what we intend by that phrase. I presume people “do” accounting, firefighting, parenting, farming, policing, social working, or perhaps even “monking” with the same purposeful awareness of their task. When it’s your profession, you better know what the goals are and how to attain them. This weekend celebrates Catechetical Sunday. While catechists know what that means, does the rest of the assembly? Catechesis is not intended to be a mysterious enterprise. It involves handing on the faith we’ve received from the last generation for the sake of the next. We do this in two ways: through teaching and evangelization. The teaching part is more or less simple: pass on the faith facts. The other part is trickier: facilitate faith formation through an encounter with the Risen Lord. Now let’s be clear: A religious educator cannot make you encounter Jesus, but she or he may arrange an introduction and invite you to be present for the meeting. It could be an hour of prayer, a lecture, a social-service project, a discussion group, or a night of recreation. Jesus promises to be where we are gathered. You don’t have to encounter him. But you might. The offer is there. This faith-formation aspect of religious education was long neglected by the church. Many of us grew up in a parish that taught children faith facts and then let us all off the hook after age 13 or so. Once you got that, what else did you need to know? A lot, actually. When Jesus asked the question, “Who do you say that I am?” the correct answer was not, “why, you’re Jesus, of course.” It’s not even enough to give a doctrinally sound answer as Saint Peter does: “You are the Christ,” because while Peter had the facts straight, he had Jesus wrong. Peter imagined he knew Jesus well, but he didn’t appreciate the most important things about his purpose and mission: what it cost Jesus to be the Christ, and what it might cost Peter to be his disciple. As spiritual writer Margaret Silf says, belief in God doesn’t mean defining God correctly; it means living a life of trust in God. Which is why the Letter of James argues that faith is the starting point of works and has no meaning apart from them. Today is a day to thank all those who teach us how to live what we profess: parents, DREs, preachers, spiritual directors, faithful friends. Related scripture links The inheritance of the meek: Matt. 5:5 Kingdom paradoxes: Mark 4:30-32; 8:35; 10:31, 43-44; Matt. 1:23; 3:14-15; 5:3-12; 10:39; 11:2-6; 18:4; 19:30; 20:16, 26-28; 23:11-12; Luke 1:46-55; 4:18-19; 6:20-28; 7:22; 9:48; 13:30; 14:7-14; 15:32; 18:14; 20:17 Catechism links Catechesis: CCC 4-10; 282; 426-429; 904-907; 1074-1075; 1696-1698; 2033; 2221-2226; 2688

Authors Alice Camille

catechetical sunday catechesis religious education

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Homily themes

13 Sep 2009 - Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Who do people say that I am? The gospel this week stands at the heart of Mark’s gospel: roughly at its center, and at a point where Jesus turns from Galilee to Jerusalem and his Passion and Resurrection. The story also turns from Jesus the miracle-worker to Christ the suffering Messiah. These shifts are significant. “Who do people say that I am?” Jesus reveals he will not be simply a healer or prophet in whom one believes. “Who do you say that I am?” To follow him will mean seeing him for who he truly is and personally committing oneself to the consequences: self-denial and suffering. We cannot merely believe; we must also do. “Faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Homily points Catechesis and religious instruction have different objectives: to introduce Jesus or teachings about him. Personal relationships involve us on a deeper level than giving our assent to abstract ideas. Catechesis and religious instruction provide different answers to the question: Who do you say that I am? Vital faith in Christ will lead us to vital works that affirm what we have come to know and believe.

Authors Joel Schorn

jesus catechesis religious instruction Faith

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Exploring the word

16 Sep 2018 - Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Happy Catechetical Sunday. Before launching into a dissertation on what we should be teaching our children, we might take a moment to distinguish between catechesis and religious education. Catechesis is the work of preparing a person for a full and sincere confession of faith in Jesus Christ. Religious education, on the other hand, refers to the more general instruction in our religious tradition and practice. It’s the difference between knowing Jesus Christ, and knowing about him. Today, we celebrate the relationship and not the pedagogy. While religious education is a process most frequently associated with children and youth, catechesis applies to people of all ages and most poignantly involves adults and adult discernment. A significant portion of the Catholic population has encountered more religious education than catechesis, which explains a lot of things about the failure to commit more than an hour (and the traditional dollar) a week to the business of religion. The church’s teachings about Jesus are certainly important, and how these fundamental doctrines affect ecclesiology and authority, liturgy and sacrament, moral formation, and the life of prayer are no small matters. But I think we would all agree that the teachings of Jesus must not be eclipsed by the teachings about him. Knowing Jesus means drawing closer to the person than we can ever hope to get to the doctrine. God’s faithful servant I used to teach Bible study according to the “facts”: who wrote a particular work and when (as far as we know), why it was written, and what it says about then and now. While I still believe those ideas are important to approaching a text with understanding, I now base many Bible lessons on the people in the stories and not just on the ideas. This method takes a page from the success of People magazine, perhaps, but the folks behind that rag may be onto something. Human beings enter into relationships with other human beings more naturally than they do with concepts and ideals. Soldiers in a war typically die for their buddies, not for principles. So, too, parents make great sacrifices for their children with faces and names and personal histories more readily than they do the abstract idea of progeny. The story that moves us most powerfully is not about “freedom” or “poverty,” but about that woman wearing a burka holding up a finger purpled at the voting booth, or that small boy struggling to make it to the Red Cross refugee camp before he expires. Isaiah presents us with the concrete image of the faithful servant, who speaks to us in the immediacy of the first-person address. Isaiah may be speaking of his own ministry as prophet, or a coming messiah, or Every man and woman who lives in fidelity to God’s will. But his use of the “I” voice involves us personally in a relationship with one who endures suffering for the sake of his obedience to God’s Word. Obedience, in terms of religious education, tends to focus on commandments and precepts and our conformity to them. But obedience in catechetical terms is about listening, the opened ear that hears what God is offering and yields to it. Who do you say that I am? In religious education, we generally receive both questions and answers in a convenient format. While this serves the needs of the classroom and academic evaluation very well, it does not necessarily promote the agenda of the catechist, who seeks something other than the textbook-correct response. When faced with the question, “Who do you say that Jesus is?” the religious educator will recommend a variety of acceptable answers: Son of God, Christ, Lord, Savior, Messiah, Prince of Peace, King of Kings, Emmanuel, Lamb of God. But what would the right answer be in the eyes of the catechist, whose job it is to acquaint a seeker with the living Jesus Christ? The only Jesus that matters is the one you believe in and entrust your life to. It is less important to reply that “Jesus is Lord” than to confess that Jesus is Lord of your life. And not merely to profess it, but to put your life where your profession is. We look to Peter for immediate confirmation of the responsibility. His reply to the question is picture perfect: “You are the Christ,” he says. But when Jesus teaches that being the Christ means suffering, rejection, and dying, Peter objects. He learned the right answer without embracing the real Christ. This is the fate of the inadequately catechized. It’s possible to hang around with Jesus for years on end and never really make his acquaintance. If eight years of religious instruction—or 12 or 16—were enough to make Christians of us, we might close all the parishes and put all of our resources in parochial schools. But instead we keep preaching, in season and out of season, through the significant mileposts of each new birth, every developmental point of passage and vow, in sinfulness and sanctity, in sickness and in health, till death; because we know that our conversion to Jesus Christ and the will of his Father is ongoing, and like all meaningful relationships, it continues to grow and deepen and widen as we move together through the years. Applying the Word Faith and works As a religious educator, I love learning and believe wholeheartedly in its value to the person of faith. But as a catechist, I know in my heart that learning about Jesus is never enough to make the transformation between pupil and disciple. If we don’t encounter the God who loves us, the Jesus who saves, the Spirit who inspires, then the sum total of our faith remains stuff we’ve memorized and accept based on the word of others. We’ll come to church on Sundays and put our dollar in the basket and check the “Christian” box when it comes time to register our religious affiliation. “You are the Christ,” we’ll say, and go about our business without thought for the sister who has no food for the day, or the brother who has no place to sleep. Once we vitally encounter Jesus the Crucified and Risen One, who is teacher and healer and Lord and savior, everything changes. Everything has to. Related scripture links Isaiah’s faithful servant poems: Isa. 42:1-9; 49:1-7; 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12 Personal confessions of faith: (Peter) Matt. 16:13-20; (John the Baptist) John 1:29, 36; (Nathaniel) John 1:49; (Nicodemus) John 3:2; (Samaritan woman) John 4:19, 29, 39; (Samaritans) John 4:42; (Man born blind) John 9:35-38; (Martha) John 11:27; (centurion) Mark 15:39; Matt. 27:54; (Thomas) John 20:28 Catechism links Catechesis: CCC 4-10; 282; 426-429; 904-907; 1074-1075; 1696-1698; 2033; 2221-2226; 2688

Authors Alice Camille

catechetical sunday religious education catechesis faith and works

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