What does an evangelizing catechesis look like?
In my last post, I wrote how the first stage of the catechetical process should be about conversion.
This is how were made to understand God’s revelation. Faith first, then grow that faith through deeper education.
It doesn’t work well if you educate without faith. But this is what we’ve been doing for a long time…long before Vatican II.
In missionary catechesis (and the RCIA), conversion happens in the pre-catechumenate. So, what if we used the pre-catechumenate to structure our evangelizing catechesis?
And…what luck! The Church threw us a bone here. Let’s take a look.
Goals of the pre-catechumenate
Paragraph 42 in the RCIA manual gives criteria for participation in the Rite of Acceptance. This rite is a gateway. It marks the transition from the pre-catechumenate to the next phase of the process, appropriately named, the catechumenate (there’s a lot of “cate-” words in the RCIA…remind me to tell you about that sometime).
To participate in the rite and move to the next phase, a candidate should show these signs:
- Beginnings of the spiritual life
- Fundamentals of Christian teaching have taken root
- Evidence of first faith
- Initial conversion
- Intention to change one’s life
- Intention to enter into deep relationship with God in Christ
- First stirrings of repentance
- Calling on God in prayer
- Sense of the Church
- Some experience of Christian community
RCIA 42 is what the candidate should look like at the end of the pre-catechemenate. But we can, in a sense, reverse engineer these criteria to come up with learning objectives that provide the basis of an evangelizing catechesis.
The objectives of an evangelizing catechesis
1. It teaches the fundamentals of the spiritual life, as well as, Catholic doctrine
Doctrine is not an end in itself. According to the Catechism, it’s a light on the path of faith. The spiritual life is how the Church’s doctrine practically applies to daily living.
You should always work to make the connections between faith and life for your students. They’re not always obvious and people have a tendency to just hear what they want. In some cases, it might be how they need to change.
In essence, the spiritual life is where the rubber meets the road, where doctrine meets life. This is essential.
2. It’s oriented toward faith, conversion, and life-change
Going back to the beginning, the Christian life is all about conversion. Evangelizing catechesis must be as well.
Part of evangelizing catechesis is about persuasion…helping people to shift their perspectives and see things from another angle, the Catholic angle.
If you’re not moving students gradually toward a different attitude and understanding of life, you’re not doing your job.
3. It emphasizes relationship with God through Christ
Relationship with Christ is not just a Protestant thing. The goal of Christian life is to be in inserted into the Trinitarian nature. Our way to God is through Christ.
All divine life flows through him to us. Intimate union with him is the only way to get that life.
4. It introduces a sense of personal sin
One of the greatest obstacles to conversion is lack of a sense of sin…both original sin and personal sin.
Conversion is essentially turning from your old way of life toward God’s way. If your students are plenty comfortable with their old way, they won’t bother with God’s way.
If you can get people to understand how original sin wounds human nature and keeps us from becoming who we’re meant to be, that’s powerful. On top of that, personal sin perpetuates that by keeping us separated from the only thing that can help…God’s life within us.
Repentance is admitting we’re not sufficient and we need Christ’s forgiveness, healing, and transforming power. That’s the beginning of conversion.
5. It teaches prayer
The essential connection to Christ is through prayer. Not only rote prayers but conversational prayer.
An evangelizing catechesis depends on teaching students authentic conversation with Christ.
6. It teaches with reference to the Church
Faith, divine life, and transformation come through the Church.
It’s vitally important for students to be firmly grounded in the Church, and to trust the Church. You must teach students they can never go wrong trusting in the Church.
The mark of great Saints is their unwavering faith and trust in the Church.
7. It’s relational
Catholic spiritual life is communal. All the baptized are connected and we’re all saved together. And faith is transmitted through other faith-filled believers. There’s really no other way.
The relational aspects of evangelization come first and are the foundation. It’s vitally important to establish a personal connection with your students. It’s like a channel through which the Holy Spirit can travel.
If they know, like, and trust you, they’ll listen to what you have to say.
Catechetical Takeaway
The term evangelizing catechesis is actually an oxymoron.
Evangelization and catechesis are by nature two separate things–two stages of catechetical formation that build one upon the other.
But the new evangelization calls for a new catechesis…one that elicits faith at the same time it educates in the Faith.
RCIA 42 gives us the fundamental structure for an evangelizing catechesis. It’s a totally different idea, but not a complete unknown…and totally doable.
It’s the new evangelization from the bottom up, not just evangelizing those who’ve lost their faith and sense of the Church, but building the strong foundation of belief from the very beginning. And that’s vital.
Photo Credit: bourget_82 via Compfight cc
