What Benefit is Your Catechesis Selling?

Why do you catechize? What is the purpose of your catechesis?

You might say it’s to teach people Catholic doctrine or to pass on the Catholic Faith to your children.

It’s true, you are doing those things, but they are not the goal.

So what is the reason you teach students the Catholic Faith?

Life After Sunday

I found an awesome website called Life After Sunday: Intimate Path Catechesis. According to them, “The purpose of catechesis is to learn how to become a great lover.” It continues:

Who can teach us how to love in the only way that will satisfy the human heart? Only Jesus Christ. Allowing ourselves to be drawn into a deeper intimacy with him is the purpose of all catechesis.

I love this because it gives a benefit to catechesis that’s beyond just learning the facts of the Faith. A benefit that people could care about.

Let’s face it, knowing about God is not generally seen as an urgent need. There are so many things competing for people’s attention, religion often gets pushed to the side. It’s not that it’s not important, it’s just that other things have more priority in most people’s lives.

So how do we get people to make knowing about God more of a priority?

Your Unique Selling Position

There’s an old saying in real estate, you don’t sell a house, you sell the lifestyle buying that house will bring.

So, you emphasize the great neighborhood, proximity to schools, nice community, playmates for your kids. Anything that will help people visualize themselves living in that home.

You should not be selling the doctrine your students are learning. You should be selling the benefits of deeper intimacy with Jesus Christ because that’s where everything should lead. But it goes even deeper than that.

Catholicism and the fully human life

We are made to live in union, in friendship with God. Life just does not work apart from him. Transformation in Christ is the path that leads to this human fulfillment. Catechesis is a necessary part of this path.

Life After Sunday says this:

The path to an amazing, fully human life is the path of intimate friendship. Every enduring relationship follows this path of authentic intimacy—most especially, the relationship between each human person and the Triune God.

This most original relationship—for which every human person was created and finds fulfillment—naturally follows these stages to deep, intimate union. This is the witness of the saints. This is the unique glory of the human person fully alive.

Catechetical Takeaway

Part of the trick in catechesis is getting your students to care about what you are teaching. Your have to evangelize as well as catechize!

Good salesmen emphasize benefits not features. What should you emphasize so people will want to “buy” your catechetical message? What are you “selling” for your particular catechetical lesson?

Think about what being Catholic means to you. What benefits do you get from it? How does Catholicism enhance your life? What benefits do you think your students will get by believing what you’re teaching?

Paint a picture of how your students lives, and the world in general, would be better if everyone believed this teaching.

Then, end your lesson with concrete applications that emphasize the benefits because that will get your students to care.

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