Mary Immaculate School has begun classes. The ATSU students have been going for a month now and I recently met with a group of med students who want to plan a monthly faith formation group. This weekend marks the return of Truman students to our community. Already some of the university students have committed to teaching in our parish school of religion on Wednesday evenings, and we will be recruiting more to ensure that we have at least two catechists in each classroom. While Catechetical Sunday is the third Sunday of September, I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight the role of the catechist in the Church and how important they are for our faith community.
Last May 11, our Holy Father Pope Francis issued an Apostolic Letter on his own initiative establishing the new Lay Ministry of Catechist for the Catholic Church. Entitled Antiquum Ministerium (ancient ministry), the document invites all the baptized to recognize their responsibility to engage in the teaching mission of the Church. The urgency of this invitation is clear in that Pope Francis has taken the rare action of instituting a new lay ministry, that of the catechist, who will be duly trained and instituted by the Bishop. In making this lay ministry available to the universal Church, Pope Francis is fulfilling the vision of the Second Vatican Council for the laity to assume their proper and distinct role in the mission of evangelization in the world. So you might think, “What’s so new about this? After all, haven’t we had catechists in the Church all along?” Yes, it is true that we call those who teach our children the faith “catechists”. But this isn’t just a case of “a rose by any other name”. In fact, the Church has always emphasized that discipleship can’t be described by the functions we carry out. In the same way that a disciple is not what one does, but who we are in relationship to Jesus Christ, so the ministry of a duly instituted lay catechist will necessarily be an expression of their identity in Christ. A true catechist can never just be a part time job, something that one does among many other things. The ministry can rightly be understood as a particular vocation, a personal call from Christ and a charism of the Holy Spirit. As such the stability of both the catechesis and the catechists themselves will be of great value to the Church. The catechist will be affirmed in their response to Christ call to service, and the community will be assured that there are among them teachers who can be relied on to assist in providing authentic, orthodox, and legitimate faith formation.
In regard to the ministry of teaching, the New Testament uses several different Greek words. Didache and its cognates, usually translated as the teaching, emphasizes the teacher and the content of the teaching. But certain verses use the word katecheo. This particular Greek word means teaching for sure, but in a way that emphasizes the process or method or act of teaching. The word’s root is Greek for “sound”. Hence our English word “echo”. Putting the prefix “kata” on this word intensifies the root. Catechesis isn’t just one sound among many, but a resounding echo of the Word of God that is given person to person, face to face which leads to a shared communion of instructor and instructed. Christ’s teaching in the synagogue of Nazareth to me is a powerful example of catechesis. The Word of God resounds in the ears of those who hear Christ read from the scroll of Isaiah. The passage is fulfilled “in your hearing” as Christ says, emphasizing the dynamic and personal nature of evangelization which is a true and authentic encounter with Christ himself.
A duly instituted lay catechist will more effectively teach the faith, especially in areas such as the Diocese of Jefferson City where there are relatively few priests and deacons, no large religious houses, nor Catholic institution of higher learning. For many years, the formation of religious educators has been a major challenge for most parishes because of the scarcity of teachers with advanced degrees in biblical and theological studies. Mary Immaculate was blessed for so many years with the ministry of Pat Lehr, one of the few catechists in the diocese with advanced degrees. Most catechists, their teachers, and their mentors have had to struggle to overcome the challenges that the distance between parishes poses to holding effective classes and continuing education. If there are to be duly formed and commissioned catechists, then the Diocese will have to provide an effective and appropriate catechetical institute, staffed with qualified teachers and solid catechetical discipline. This will be a great benefit to the catechists in Catholic schools of the Diocese and the parish schools of religion who have the faith and the desire to share their faith, but often lack the experience and expertise that come through specialized study. The Franciscan at Home program for training catechists is a great resource to have, but it is only a first step in training dedicated catechists.
That the catechist is a lay ministry is significant. Pope Francis quotes Lumen Gentium 33, a key passage on the role of the laity in the Church: “In their daily life, interwoven with family and social relationships, the laity come to realize that they ‘are given this special vocation: to make the Church present and fruitful in those places and circumstances where it is only through them that she can become the salt of the earth.’” With a particular charism and mode of service, and especially grounded in a local community, the lay catechist promotes a fuller expression of the local church of an area. They would especially assisting the local bishop directly in areas and circumstances that traditional parishes are hard-pressed to serve. This is especially true of the marginal inhabitants of a community, like those in prisons, the homeless, the transient, the migrant worker, and those in the armed forces.
The ministry will also be a boon for adult faith formation. The renewal of catechesis will come only through the transformation of our expectations and prejudices which relegate catechesis only to the young, the candidates for acceptance in the Church or inquirers and catechumens. Pope Francis envisions catechists who are equipped to teach all disciples in whatever stage of life they are in. And he is telling us all that we need a catechist in our lives from the moment of our conception to the very hour of our death, and that the Church is preparing to provide them.
My final word is for the hundreds of lay religion teachers that I have known in my life. In no way should they look on this new ministry as a back-handed compliment. Sort of like, “well what have we been doing all these years then?” The apostolic letter celebrates the witness that countless catechists have already sacrificially given, even to the point of shedding blood. I think of one of the catechists I met while studying Spanish in Cuernavaca, Mexico. His classroom was the shade of a large tree near the sprawling central market of the city of 1,000,000 people. He taught the children of the vendors whose families traveled from town to town each day to a different market. These children had little formal schooling and their itinerant lifestyle meant that they could not participate in the stable religious education programs provided by the parishes. This catechist said, “They can’t come to me, so I will go to them. They deserve to know the light of Christ. They deserve to flourish as they respond to their baptismal call. They deserve to know the truths of our faith and be properly disposed to receive the grace of the sacraments.”
This catechist had no books for the children. He had no handouts for them to fill in. He only brought with him a Bible, the Catechism, and a small white board. I asked him how could he teach in such circumstances. He reminded me that when Christ sent his disciples out, they were only lightly equipped. But they carried the one thing with them that would make all the difference. They had known the Lord himself and they wished to bring others to him.