[This is a part of the Evangelization Basics Series. Have you read the other parts?]
Ever wonder why some students seem to get it and others don’t?
Why are some people on fire for God and interested in learning everything but others you couldn’t pay to care?
The burning question in my mind after I came back to the Church was how could I so easily leave it all?
I went through nine years of CCD, heard the stories of Jesus and learned about the Church, but it was still just a lot of nothing to me.
This is at the heart of why evangelization is so important for all parish ministry.
The Lights Are On But No One’s Home
After my re-conversion I was so excited to share the Faith, I volunteered to teach seventh grade CCD. I was going to knock their socks off with my awesome theological connections. All I got was stares.
I’m sure that’s never happened to you right? 🙂
That seventh grade class was penance for all the torture I inflicted on my teachers. Of that I’m sure! But it got me thinking. I had to know why all this great stuff just fell on deaf ears.
The answer: my students weren’t prepared to hear the content of the Faith because they didn’t have an active, living faith.
On Faith and faith
So what’s going on?
The Faith (upper case) is the dogmas, doctrines and teachings of the Church. This is the content of what we believe.
The virtue of faith (lower case) is the ability to believe what God reveals as truth. It’s the means by which we believe. Confusing I know, but bear with me.
The virtue of faith is infused at Baptism. However, to put it simply, faith is not active unless it’s animated by hope and love. That’s why we must evangelize.
Hope is the desire to have God’s truths fulfilled in your life. Love is the response of friendship, a giving of self, toward God who reveals these truths.
General Directory for Catechesis 62 says, “Only by starting with conversion, and therefore by making allowance for the interior disposition of ‘whoever believes,’ can catechesis, strictly speaking, fulfill its proper task of education in the faith.”
The gift of conversion awakens the proper interior attitudes, or dispositions in a person. Evangelization is about helping people to believe God’s saving power is real, desire it for themselves and then take steps to make it a reality in their lives.
This is faith formed in hope and love; a living and active faith.
The alternative, a “deformed faith” is a merely human understanding of God’s truth. This breeds an apathetic attitude toward God and the Church. It doesn’t last, and it doesn’t save!
Evangelization Is the Key
Evangelization is the foundation and key to everything.
If you can convert them, they will want to learn what you teach. The problem is, most of the time, we’re trying to teach without converting. Then we wonder why they don’t care. We have to shift their perspective first, get them to want to believe (because it’s so awesome) and then teach them the content.
Think how vibrant and effective our parishes would be if even half the people were truly converted. If we all worked at evangelization, there’s no telling how much we could accomplish.
What do you think? Have you ever seen the lights go on for a student? Tell me about it in the comments!
[This is a part of the Evangelization Basics Series. Have you read the other parts?]
Hi Marc. Just catching up on these posts and finding them to be really focused and helpful. I have definitely struggled by assuming the conversion and trying to teach based on that. In campus ministry, you encounter people volunteering to lead other students, or working on their masters or PhD in Theology or whatever and you assume they are there. Not always the case…
Anyways, thanks!
Thanks for the comment Josh! I appreciate it!
I can certainly identify with what you’re saying! When I was studying theology, a priest told me a very wise thing. Being educated in theology and being holy are two very different things. Don’t think one equates to the other! I think it’s easy to think that way but it’s definitely not the case. I always try to catechize with an eye towards evangelization and conversion. You just don’t know where your students are at and you can’t assume anything. It’s harder but it works much better.