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Exploring the word

21 Sep 2014 - Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

TODAY WE'RE ADVISED to seek God where the Holy One may be found. That's fine as far as it goes—so long as God isn't someplace we're not inclined to look. That's the problem with God, isn't it? Like King David long ago, we've all built a house for God and then expect the Almighty to live there and to stay put. We have a long list of times and places and sacramental interludes where we've programmed ourselves to seek God. If God shows up outside of our religious schedule, the context may be so alien that we might miss the encounter altogether. We can be sure that no one was looking for God in the person of the eccentrically generous landowner. Here's a fellow who hires workers all day long, even just before sundown, and then insists on paying them all a full day's wage. This makes the folks who actually worked all day really mad. Yes, they were getting the agreed-upon wage, which was acceptable when they first made the deal. But if the slouchers who showed up at closing time get paid for the whole day, shouldn't those who put in the full eight hours get MORE? This parable, of course, is about the virtual unfairness of the forgiveness system. If sinners are to be forgiven in the long run, then what's the point of being good? Those of us who kept to the original contract as faithful, responsible, moral people may feel that we've missed out on the wild side of life for nothing if, in the end, God is going to be distressingly merciful and let the spiritual delinquents share the same heaven with us. At the least, we should get a better heaven, we might think. As if heaven were subject to the same class system as earthly life. On this Catechetical Sunday, we celebrate those teachers and mentors in religion who delivered to us the seeds of instruction in the life of faith. Especially we express our gratitude for those evangelists of the classroom, the pulpit, and the home who insisted that the mercy of God is the central message of our Christian faith. If fairness is defined as eye-for-an-eye retribution and even-steven reward, then no, God isn't fair in the way the world claims to be fair. But happily for most of us, who do show up to shoulder our responsibilities later in the day, God is better than fair. God promises abundant life to everyone who comes to claim it, no matter when their great need drives them to ask for it. The self-righteous will always be irritated by this story. Sinners will always find it to be their delight. Related scripture links Kingdom values: Matt. 5:3-12, 43-48; 9:13; 10:39; 19:30; 20:26-27; 23:11-12 Kingdom autobiography: Matt. 1:1-16; 2:1-12; 3:7-12; 4:18-22; 10:1-4; 11:2-19 Strange religious leader: Matt. 5:17-42; 9:14-17; 10:34-36; 11:18-19; 12:1-14 Catechism links Kingdom: CCC 440; 541-556

Authors Alice Camille

Forgiveness catechetical sunday parable of the workers in the vineyard unfairness

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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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Prudent choices

Funeral, Sacrament-based, Holy Day, Holiday, Special Occasion - Sample homilies to be adapted for your use

Occasion: Catechetical Sunday Readings: Amos 8:4-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16:1-13 or Luke 16:10-13 DOES GOD want you to be prudent? At first glance, that would seem to be Jesus’ message. But look a little more closely at the context. Just last week we heard of the prodigal son who returned home destitute and in disgrace. His father responded very imprudently, as the older son pointed out. In the first reading today, the grain sellers seem to be acting prudently, looking for ways to maximize their profits. But they are not praised; they are warned that God will not forget their actions. So why does the dishonest steward in the gospel receive praise? Why does Jesus seem to hold up the dishonest steward as an example to be followed by the children of the light? Does Jesus really mean that, when we are desperate, it is good for us to act in the same sordid, calculating way as dishonest people do when they are desperate? Is that how the world will recognize that we are children of the light? By our cleverness? The absurdity of that kind of thinking becomes even more bizarre when we imagine trying to teach it to others. We have several catechists among us today. It is the job of the catechists to find the faith message in this story and teach it to the rest of us in a way that it draws us closer to God. Do we really intend to send the catechists out from here to teach that Christians are to “make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth”? Do we want parents, who are the primary catechists of the domestic church, to teach our children that swindling people is the way to gain God’s favor? Amos, in fact, tells a very different story of how God deals with those who swindle the poor whom God loves. WHEN JESUS tells the disciples to be prudent in the ways of the world, he seems to have a slightly sarcastic undertone, much like the parent who responds to a teenager’s request to attend a weekend party at a friend’s house. “Will your friend’s parents be home?” Dad asks. “I don’t know.” “Will there be alcohol there?” “I don’t know.” “Then, I don’t see any reason why you can’t go.” “Really? I can go?” “When hell freezes over.” Jesus most certainly does not want us to mimic the ways of the world. Jesus himself was completely imprudent about the ways of the world. He ate with people he shouldn’t and forgave people who didn’t deserve it. He comforted the poor and challenged the powerful even when it became clear it would lead to the cross. Jesus did not give in to the ways of the world because he knew we cannot serve two masters. To give in a little here and there is to try to have it both ways. He had to make a choice. In this parable, he is telling his disciples they need to make a choice. Jesus did not give in to the ways of the world because he knew we cannot serve two masters. To give in a little here and there is to try to have it both ways. We also have to make a choice. In our homes, in school, at work, we can choose to do the prudent things. We can choose the security and the “eternal dwellings” of this earth. Or we can choose to be lavish in our generosity. We can choose to forgive each other even when we were right all along. We can choose to stand up to the powerful in this world for the sake of the poor even if it means rocking the boat a little. That is the choice we make every Sunday when we come to the eucharistic table. When we say “amen” to the broken Body of Christ, we are choosing to be broken ourselves. When we say “amen” to the Blood of Christ, we are choosing to get bloodied ourselves. By saying “amen,” we choose to be heedless about what it will cost to end poverty and injustice. We choose to be indiscreet in giving our compassion. We choose to share our love and our joy of life with others. We absolutely choose the imprudent reality of God’s reign, right here, right now, in this very place. When we make that choice, we are teaching our children to choose. We are teaching the catechumens to choose. We are teaching each other to choose. When we leave here each week, you catechists must continue to teach us how to choose. You must teach us to be as imprudent as Jesus was for the sake of gospel. You must teach us how to go to the cross.

Authors Nick Wagner

Special occasion catechetical sunday Amos 8:4-7 1 Timothy 2:1-8 Luke 16:1-13 Luke 16:10-13

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An invitation to new life in Christ

Funeral, Sacrament-based, Holy Day, Holiday, Special Occasion - Sample homilies to be adapted for your use

Occasion: Catechetical Sunday Readings: Isaiah 55:6-9; Philippians 1:20c-24, 27a; Matthew 20:1-16a "FOR TO ME life is Christ and death is gain," Paul writes to the Philippians from prison. He is facing a very real possibility of being put to death for preaching the gospel. Paul muses whether it is better for him to die and have the joy of being with Christ, or to continue living and to work for the gospel. He concludes it is better to remain in the flesh and to labor for the Philippians! What commitment to his vocation! Paul has fully embraced the sacred call from Christ begun on the road to Damascus. He decides that fulfilling this vocation is more urgent than experiencing the personal happiness of being with Jesus in heaven. And Paul grasps the daunting challenge of his call. Fulfilling his call means becoming Christ for those he serves: "For me life is Christ." In 2 Corinthians Paul gives the striking image of himself as an ambassador of Christ-the one Christ has chosen to embody his presence: "So we are ambassadors for Christ as if God were appealing through us." As Christ's ambassador, Paul must radiate the presence of Christ in all he says and does. In the New Testament no one better articulates the role and dignity of the catechist than Paul. And we catechists could have no better model for our ministry than Paul. We have been called by God to participate in the same mission as Paul: passing on the faith. Our parishes have confirmed God's call and entrusted us with this crucial role. Today's gospel parable of the landowner and the vineyard adds another dimension to our understanding of the role of catechist, "The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard." This parable of the landowner and the vineyard and equal wages for all makes most of us uncomfortable. I have a sense, however, that Paul would be quite comfortable with it. The landowner is God, and the vineyard is the kingdom of God. The parable is about God's goodness and generosity. To grasp this parable it is essential to realize that the parable is not about labor relations; it is about the kingdom of heaven. Paul knows from experience that the invitation to the kingdom of heaven is never something earned or deserved. Paul himself was on his way to persecute the followers of Jesus in Damascus when he received his initial invitation to the kingdom. Paul realized that his invitation was pure gift, pure grace-who could be more undeserving! And God the landowner invites laborers into his vineyard at any time—dawn, nine, noon, three, and five o'clock. The invitation is extended to everyone and always comes as pure gift, unearned and undeserved. And for all, accepting God's invitation to the kingdom brings with it the same wages, the same reward: life in Christ! For Paul this experience of new life in Christ was so overwhelming that in 2 Corinthians he compares it to a new creation: "Whoever is in Christ is a new creation." And for all, accepting God's invitation to the kingdom brings with it the same wages, the same reward: life in Christ! Through God's grace we catechists are already experiencing this new life in Christ. Our awesome vocation is to pass on what we have been given. So the task of the catechist is not simply to inform others accurately of the gospel message, nor even to witness to the power of the gospel in their own lives, as important as these are. The real task of the catechist is much more daunting: to invite others to experience this new life in Christ. We become catalysts—yes, even living sacramental symbols—of the new life Jesus promises to believers. By word and example we help others open themselves at an ever deeper level to the Holy Spirit of Jesus so they, too, can enjoy with us this new life in Christ. Catechetical Sunday is a good time to ask ourselves whether we are fully embracing our call as catechists. Do we thank God for the gift of our vocation? Do we realize that our call to serve is from Christ and so Christ has chosen us also to be his ambassadors? Do we trust that Christ who chose us will also empower our ministry, allowing his presence to radiate through us so we may draw others to deeper commitment to him? Can we say with Paul, "For me life is Christ" and be catalysts for passing on that life to others?

Authors Father Richard J. Hauser S.J.

Special occasion catechetical sunday Isaiah 55:6-9 Philippians 1:20c-24, 27a Matthew 20:1-16a parable of the workers in the vineyard

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Who do we say that we are?

Funeral, Sacrament-based, Holy Day, Holiday, Special Occasion - Sample homilies to be adapted for your use

Occasion: Catechetical Sunday Readings: Isaiah 50:4c-9a; James 2:14-18; Mark 8:27-35 WHEN I WAS A KID, my sisters, cousins, and I liked to shout in wide, empty spaces, from the top of a mountain, or in a tunnel, in order to hear an echo. We found it fascinating that our own voices could sound so funny, as if they regained strength—at least for a while. It seemed as if someone else, down there, were responding, returning the sound to us. Sound experts tell us that for a sound to be so, it needs to enter a medium. Therefore, a sound is not a sound if it is not received. That seems to be the same case with catechesis. Catechesis is an echo of the living Word. What happens when the word is a question? The echo would, naturally, return only the question, and not the answer. Today Jesus asks, "Who do you say that I am?" And the echo keeps on repeating: who, say, I am? There is a new question in the echo. Jesus asks who he is, and the question to Jesus: Who do you say that we are? Then there is a new wave of sounds, with Peter's answer: "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." And here, again, the echo gives the response. That is, Jesus asks us who he is, we ask him who we are; we tell him our belief that he is the Son of the Living God, and he tells us the truth about ourselves: You are the children of the Living God. Jesus' question is not only for himself. The question seems to be a very frequent one. Everyone wants to know what other people think of them. What do people say about us? What do they think? When we answer Jesus, we hear the answer to the question in our very depths: You are a child of God. It is not a question only about Jesus' identity, but about who we are or who we become in answering Jesus. This could never happen if we did not hear the question and the echo. That is, if there is no catechesis, not only we would never know who Jesus is, but we will not know who we are. Echoes, however, repeat themselves until there is no more energy, and then they die. The living Word, however, cannot return empty until it has given fruit. The echo needs to continue. And it has practical consequences. Echoes, however, repeat themselves until there is no more energy, and then they die. The living Word, however, cannot return empty until it has given fruit. The echo needs to continue. And it has practical consequences. Today's first two readings speak first of the consequences of finding one's identity and then of identity itself. Then Jesus wraps it up, as a good teacher would. No one could simply be. That would be a sound without a medium—that is, no sound. The Christian identity by definition is being for others. People receive an identity for a mission, a work. In Isaiah's reading, the identity is that of a servant. A suffering servant, to be exact. Someone who assumes the consequences of this identity knowing that she or he will be protected. James reminds the readers of his letter that having only faith is like having an identity without an echo. That is almost equivalent to not having an identity. Faith without works is dead. Jesus himself picks up the theme at the end of today's passage, as if saying: You have told me who I am and in me, you are the children of God. Holding on to that, however, without works, without suffering, without being for others, will be equivalent to losing everything. Taking up the cross is just another way of saying putting faith into action, because that action will have consequences. Taking up the cross is looking at all of life as a Christian. Taking up the cross is being for others, with whatever consequences of pain and sacrifice that might bring. Taking up the cross is reflecting, mirroring or echoing the life and the identity of Jesus. It is taking up the mission of Jesus, the work for justice and peace. A cross is painful and difficult by definition. But it is only in that echo that we can find true life, our true identity. Holding on to our own being would mean putting an end to the sound and therefore not being able to listen to the answer. Surrendering it, the sound waves will continue, so that all can hear the questions and the answers: Who do you say that I am? You are the Son of the Living God. We are the children of the Living God.

Authors Carmen F. Aguinaco

Special occasion catechetical sunday Isaiah 50:4c-9a James 2:14-18 Mark 8:27-35

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Learning for life

Funeral, Sacrament-based, Holy Day, Holiday, Special Occasion - Sample homilies to be adapted for your use

Occasion: Catechetical Sunday Readings: Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-32 It's almost funny to read the author of Timothy saying he received mercy because he was ignorant—on a day we celebrate catechists and teachers! Because of their work, may none of us be able to make the same excuse. But seriously. We have chosen this day to celebrate the teaching and learning of our faith as well as those who do the teaching and learning, whatever their season of life: the teachers and young people in our community's religious education programs and school; the leaders and members of our Rite of Christian Initiation process; our pastors and pastoral associates who help to form us in our faith; those who organize our adult education programs and those who take part in them; and all of us who try to teach others through word and example and who seek to learn about our faith. The church celebrates these people and activities because it's vital for us to realize the importance of learning our faith. For one thing, teaching the faith to one another is the way we keep it alive. The word tradition means "something handed on." Without teachers—and without those willing to learn—our tradition would wither. But our faith has to do with much more than passing on information. The first disciples went out both to teach and preach and to bring healing and forgiveness, serve others, and start new communities. They showed us our faith is not merely taught; it is lived. It is more than information, more than doctrine alone. We need to live out what we know or else our knowledge becomes a dead letter. Our faith has to do with much more than passing on information. The first disciples went out both to teach and preach and to bring healing and forgiveness, serve others, and start new communities. They showed us our faith is not merely taught; it is lived. Knowledge also needs another thing for us to live it. It needs faith. In fact, faith and knowledge need one another. Faith reminds us that all knowledge is really knowledge of God's creation. And without faith to guide it—without wisdom—what we know can take us into dangerous territory where the possibility exists for destroying rather than helping. At the same time, we can't only believe; we have to believe in something, and in this way faith needs knowledge. Our teachers are the ones who help to bring us both faith and knowledge. It's also good to remember how personal teaching is—how it's something that happens between people. And scripture today reminds of this fact. The dialogue between God and Moses in the Book of Exodus was a personal conversation: Moses asked God to remember God's promises, and God relented. The person writing in the name of Paul in the Letter to Timothy also spoke of his relationship to Jesus in personal terms—Jesus was patient with him. Only people can be patient with one another, and how often do both teachers and students need patience, with themselves, with one another, and with what they are teaching and learning? In the end, teaching and learning about God and creation and our tradition is a lifelong task, both because there is so much to learn and also because the more we know—the more we take in about scripture, church history, church teaching, our worship, our traditions, our people—the deeper our faith will be and the stronger we will be as a community. All of us, whatever our official teaching position, or lack thereof, have the vocation to teach and learn through what we know and how we live. That is part of our mission to witness to the Good News. Our gospel reading today tells of the joy of finding the one who was lost. Through teaching and learning from one another, we can make sure no one gets—or stays—that way.

Authors Joel Schorn

Special occasion catechetical sunday Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14 1 Timothy 1:12-17 Luke 15:1-32

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Exploring the word

20 Sep 2009 - Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

My 5-year-old nephew is already playing Mass, as Catholic children are wont to do. He holds up his cup with both hands at the supper table and delivers a string of words culled from the liturgy but arranged most creatively. “The mystery of God forever!” he’ll cry out with great solemnity. “The holy love in the church cup!” Does he have any appreciation of what he’s saying? His manner suggests he knows these words are important, that these actions are to be taken with gravity. He’s aware it’s an attention-getting sign, because a church full of folks stop and stare each week when it happens. Then they burst into song acclaiming their response to this message. Even when we don’t mean to be teaching our children, they are most surely learning from us. So it’s Catechetical Sunday, the day we draw attention to those who teach us about our faith. We honor religion teachers, DREs, and catechists, as well as parents—our primary instructors by word and example. But we also lift up the catechetical enterprise as a whole and highlight the need for all of us to approach the spiritual life as an ongoing occasion of learning. We may have imagined we heard everything there is to know about religion in parochial school or through sacramental prep programs. Even those who were college-educated by Jesuits (or who enjoyed the advantage of seminary and theological school) still need to grow and develop in their understanding of faith, discipleship, and the mission of the church. Once the disciples quarreled about who was the most important in their company. Jesus embarrassed them by drawing a child into their midst and taking that little person into his arms. He invited his glory-seeking disciples to put the child at the center as well, and we might consider this sign on two levels. One is that the smallest person should always enjoy our greatest welcome, whether that “smallness” is measured by youth, strength, political visibility, or authority in a given situation. But the other meaning is that we must acknowledge the child at our center: that aspect of ourselves that must continue to be open to growth and change, embracing instruction without arrogance, retaining the innocence of doves while seeking to dispel ignorance at every opportunity. Children are remarkably eager to learn more about the world and how things work. They delight in new information, feel wonder at all there is to know, and are not threatened by the idea that some things are beyond their understanding at this time—or, perhaps, for all time. If we could recover this spirit, there is much the Holy Spirit might still reveal to us Related scripture links Images of the kingdom: Matt. 13 The peaceable kingdom: Isa. 11:6-9 Nonviolent resistance to evil: Luke 6:27-36 Laying down your life: Luke 9:23-26; John 15:12-25 Catechism links Meekness and power: CCC 520; 544; 1825; 2544-2547 Beatitude and paradox: CCC 1716-1717; 1720-1724 Peace and violence: CCC 2302-2306

Authors Alice Camille

catechetical sunday disciple parochial schools

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Exploring the word

17 Sep 2017 - Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

I teach 10-year-olds their catechism. It’s the hardest job in the world, or so it seems each week as I prepare to face the children. After a lifetime as an adult religious educator—a cakewalk by comparison—I feel thrown into the lion’s den as a parish volunteer. You know what a parish volunteer is? Someone who couldn’t get away fast enough from a swirling drain of need and got sucked down. Catechetical Sunday (today) might sound like the booby prize for “volunteers” like me. We may earn brief applause from the assembly this Sunday. We may receive a cheap plastic cross or prayer card from our grateful parishes. Still, I’ve never been so proud to claim any position in the church. I teach our children. I’m preparing the future church that will one day replace us all. Like most catechists, I plan careful lessons, spend far too much time creating original props I can’t find in any catalog, and watch each week as plans to teach the heck out of some religious concept get derailed by factors beyond my control. One child’s elbow intersects another’s ribs, and there goes the group’s fragile attention for the hour. I’ve finally determined the only good lesson plan boils down to One Big Idea. If I just say one thing across the hour—write it, say it, make them repeat it, sing it, dance it, pin it to a donkey—with any grace it may stick. Jesus had days like this. Three years’ worth, to be exact. How many times, in how many ways, did Jesus teach the forgiveness lesson? He told parables about seeking out wandering sheep or misplaced coins, receiving home a disgraced child, dismissing huge debts. He preached that prostitutes would go to heaven in advance of more pious folk. He taught his disciples to pray: “Forgive us our trespasses—the same way we forgive.” Jesus modeled forgiveness by eating with disreputable people, choosing the hospitality of Zacchaeus the Roman collaborator, even including Matthew (another tax collector) among the privileged 12 apostles. In the end, Jesus hands over his body and blood, then mounts a cross in the name of forgiveness. Could any lesson be more poignantly brought home? And Jesus still has to put up with primal-scream-inducing questions like Peter’s: “How often must I forgive someone for hurting me? Is seven times enough?” By the tone, Peter seems convinced that seven times is six too many. Yet every good catechist learns the drill: If a lesson is important enough, write it, say it, sing it, dance it. Bake it into bread and serve it. Pin it to a cross, do what’s necessary—until finally, your students know it by heart. Related scripture links Guilt through the generations: Exod. 20:5-6, 34:6-7; Num. 14:18; Deut. 5:9-10; Jer. 32:18 Loosing and binding: Matt. 16:19, 18:18; John 20:23 God does not recall our guilt: Ps. 25:7; Isa. 43:25; Jer. 31:34; Heb. 8:12 Habits of thanksgiving, not wrath: Eph. 4:26, 31-32, 5:4, 19-20; Col. 3:8, 12-17 Catechism links Forgiveness of sins: CCC 976, 977

Authors Alice Camille

catechetical sunday Catechism volunteers catechists Forgiveness seventy times seven

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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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