Franciscan at Home

In our first article on the Feasts of Israel, we saw how the four spring festivals of Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and Weeks (Shavuot) foreshadow the mysteries of Christ’s First Coming, namely, his redemptive death, his sinlessness, his resurrection, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. In this second article, we will see how the fall feasts anticipate the events surrounding Christ’s Second Coming at the end of human history.[i] The Feasts of the Seventh Month Just as the Passover season in the first month (March-April) includes three distinct feasts, so the festive season of the seventh month (late September-October) includes three festivals: The Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. These fall feasts differ from the spring festivals, however, in their messianic fulfillment. Whereas Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits are fulfilled in Christ’s Paschal Mystery, and the Feast of Weeks in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, it would appear that the fall feasts have yet to be fulfilled. The Jewish calendar hints at this; while the spring feasts are only seven weeks apart, the fall feasts come much later in the year, after the dry summer months. This long, barren period between the spring and fall festivals foreshadows the history of the Church, whereby the spring feasts mark the initial stages of Christ’s work of redemption and the fall feasts its consummation. In other words, the fall feasts have an eschatological significance.

Although the word "evangelization" has gained greater notoriety among Catholics in recent years, it still gets confused pejoratively with its ugly step-cousin “proselytization.” To proselytize is to apply undue pressure on someone to convert, using unethical means like bribery, threats, or deception. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith offered this comment: “More recently, however, the term has taken on a negative connotation, to mean the promotion of a religion by using means, and for motives, contrary to the spirit of the Gospel; that is, which do not safeguard the freedom and dignity of the human person.”[1]

A good example of this happened during the Irish famine, when Catholics were starving. English landlords would prepare a huge stewpot for all the poor of the estate or village. There was only one catch: in order to get the stew, the person had to renounce the Catholic faith. You can imagine how great a temptation that was, especially during those years of famine and starvation. Pope Benedict XVI said, “The Church does not engage in proselytism. Instead, she grows by ‘attraction.’”[2]

There are a number of legitimate means of evangelization that are sometimes confused with proselytism: going door-to-door, standing atop the proverbial "soap box," or handing out tracts. Not everyone is comfortable with this kind of evangelization because it involves initiating spiritual conversations with strangers, something most of us don’t excel at. However, some people are really good at it!

But the Catholic vision of evangelization involves much more.

Los católicos en los Estados Unidos hemos comenzado un proceso de cuatro años de reflexión, evangelización y consulta llamado el Quinto Encuentro Nacional de Pastoral Hispana/Latina (desde el 2017 hasta el 2020). Al centro de este proceso se halla un modelo catequético que parte de la convicción de que la evangelización y la catequesis son dinámicas íntimamente relacionadas.

El proceso del V Encuentro involucrará, directa e indirectamente, a varios millones de católicos en cerca de 5.000 parroquias en la mayoría de las diócesis católicas de los Estados Unidos. El proceso es una oportunidad perfecta para evaluar de qué manera el marco conceptual de la Nueva Evangelización, aplicado a la catequesis, puede conducir a una apreciación renovada de esta importante actividad eclesial en comunidades de fe católicas. Al mismo tiempo, el proceso es una ocasión para sacar a la catequesis de la “esquina programática” en donde parece residir en muchas comunidades de fe (ej. programas pre-sacramentales, “escuela dominical”) y reposicionarla para que tenga un papel más integrado en los esfuerzos evangelizadores de la Iglesia, una meta que muchos de los documentos eclesiales sobre la catequesis han formulado pero que no siempre logra.

En este ensayo parto de siguiente premisa: la manera como una comunidad entiende la evangelización influencia de manera significativa el cómo se concibe la catequesis al igual que los compromisos pedagógicos y curriculares asociados con ella.

Catholics in the United States are currently engaged in a four-year process of reflection, evangelization, and consultation called the Fifth National Encuentro of Hispanic/Latino Ministry (from 2017 to 2020). At the core of this process is a catechetical model that builds upon the conviction that evangelization and catechesis must explicitly go hand in hand. The V Encuentro process will engage several million Catholics, directly and indirectly, in about 5,000 thousand parishes in most Catholic dioceses throughout the United States. The process is a perfect opportunity to assess to what extent the conceptual framework of the New Evangelization applied to catechesis can lead to a renewed appreciation of this important ecclesial activity in Catholic faith communities. At the same time, the process provides an occasion to take catechesis out of the “programmatic corner” where it dwells in many faith communities (e.g., pre-sacramental programs, “Sunday school”) and reposition it into a more integrated role in the Church’s wider evangelization efforts—a goal envisioned by most contemporary Church documents on catechesis but not always accomplished. In this essay, I propose that a community’s understanding of evangelization significantly influences how catechesis is conceived as well as the pedagogical and curricular commitments associated with it.

Is there such a thing as Catholic culture in America anymore? And if there is, is it capable of producing religiously committed Catholics across generations? Or would we have to consider it simply a fading vestige of ethnic or familial identity? From John Paul II to Benedict XVI to Francis, the renewal of Catholic culture in Western societies has been considered an intrinsic dimension of the New Evangelization. With regard to a so-called “Catholic culture,” however, the movement from ideal to real—from exhortations to concrete renewal—is sobering and presents many practical questions. Are there any social mechanisms by which new generations of Catholics can acquire a strong sense of Catholic identity, an entire worldview animated by Christian intuitions regarding humanity and society, and the will to remain committed to these principles over the long term? Can such reinvigoration occur anywhere at an appreciable scale?

If Dr. Christian Smith, a prominent sociologist of religion at Notre Dame, is correct, any reply to these questions must take special account of one institution: the household, with its deep interpersonal bonds, its wealth of practices, and its highly compelling power to impart identity. In his landmark National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR), Smith studied the specific religiosity and spirituality of millennials, observing the widespread drift of these young people from any substantial notion of religious identity or practice. However, he also realized that the religious outcomes of these young people were not at all a generational anomaly. Rather, the single greatest predictor of emerging adults’ eventual level of religious commitment was the religiosity of their parents.

Consider that, of the most religious quartile of NSYR young adults ages 24-29 (individuals whose religious attitudes Smith had been tracking since high school) an impressive 82% had parents who reported each of the following: that their family regularly talked about religious topics in the home, that faith was “very important” to them, and that they themselves regularly were involved in religious activities. By comparison, only 1% of the least religious quartile of Smith’s young adults had parents who reported this combination of religious attitudes and practices. Thus, according to the NSYR, the single most decisive difference between Millennials who remained religiously committed into adulthood and those who didn’t was the degree of religiousness exhibited by their parents.

Riding along quietly, perhaps daydreaming in the warm Umbrian sunshine, Francis suddenly reined his horse to a standstill. He was in shock. There, right in his path, stood a leper. In his novel on the life of St. Francis of Assisi, Felix Timmermans describes what happens next: Francis felt his hair standing on end from horror. Fear of infection gripped his throat. He quickly gave his horse the spurs and galloped away. He did not dare to look back. His hat fell off, but he paid no attention. Yet as he rode on, he remembered the message of Christ’s gospel: despise all that you formerly desired, and cherish all that you formerly despised.

There is a powerful verse in Isaiah that is particularly appropriate for all of us who are catechists: “The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught” (Is 50:4a). We need a tongue to speak, and we want the tongue to reflect what we ourselves have been taught. It sounds obvious. How could we teach in any other way than through being taught ourselves? Perhaps it is nonetheless a striking saying because it reminds us of the things that can go wrong in this simple process of receiving and giving.

For Others And For Ourselves

On the one hand, we can think that the formation we receive is for ourselves alone, rather than for transmission to others. We can forget that what we receive in terms of our formation is always both for ourselves and for others. We hear the echo in order to re-echo. A catechist is always for the other, and so in our Christian lives we receive not only for the building up of our own knowledge and understanding, in order to deepen our own relationship with Christ, but also to better discern the ways in which our formation may be of service to others.

On the other hand, we can think that what we receive is for others alone, forgetting ourselves. To use the well-known image of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, we think of ourselves primarily as channels, through which all that we have received flows, rather than as reservoirs that must fill up so as to spill over. St. Bernard counsels:

…do not try to be more generous than God. The reservoir resembles the fountain that runs to form a stream or spreads to form a pool only when its own waters are brimming over. The reservoir is not ashamed to be no more lavish than the spring that fills it.[i]

It was a warm, sunny day at the end of spring. Instead of spending the beautiful Saturday according to their own wishes, our students were reluctantly settling into their seats in a classroom. I saw looks of boredom on the faces of the youth and noted the variety of ages among those present. I glanced over at the two other members of our team: a young, enthusiastic priest and a very energetic woman who taught children much younger than those gathered before us. We had been recruited to deliver a day-long Confirmation retreat for a Native American community. On our three-hour drive to reach the reservation, Father had emphasized the fact that the culture from which these participants would be coming might present different challenges from those to which we were accustomed. Looking around the room, I began to understand what he had been describing. The ages of the confirmandi ranged from 5th to 11th graders; and some parents or family members also requested to attend the retreat. The sisters who ran the catechetical side of the mission church located on the reservation had already informed us that many of these students failed to attend any kind of courses regularly, and thus their level of catechesis was inconsistent.

Whether it be Captain America and Iron Man fighting over whether or not the Avengers should submit to governmental authority, or the constant slew of stories that portray the bad guy as the good guy, Hollywood loves moral ambiguity. “The Walking Dead” is still popular not only because of the horror of zombies but also because of the constant moral dilemmas the protagonists must face: if a child is bitten by zombies and will become a zombie in a few days, should we kill the child before she becomes a zombie or should we wait until she might kill us? Such questions seem unanswerable.[i]

This continual barrage of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” scenarios is symptomatic of an ethically relativistic society, and leads young people to the conclusion that there is no “right” answer to moral dilemmas— whatever the person decides is best. Like all heresies, there is a measure of truth in that statement. People of good conscience can still make bad decisions. However, we do teenagers no favors by posing the most difficult of moral situations, when the vast majority of their day to day decisions have far clearer answers to questions as: “Should I cheat on this test or lie to my parents?”

“The truth will set you free” (Jn 8:32). A large, prominently displayed banner with this proclamation greeted my high school students every semester that I taught Morality class. I spent many of the ensuing months unpacking this verse and its implications. What is truth? Or better, who is truth? What does it mean to be free? Crucial to this inquiry was a thorough study of the Church’s teaching regarding conscience. Any catechist would agree that we do not want to train our students to blindly follow a set of rules; instead, we want to be the conduits for them to develop a dynamic freedom to choose the ultimate good. This is the importance of properly teaching about conscience, which is “present at the heart of the person” and “enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil.”[i] If we merely memorize a list of laws and then try by our own power to live by them, we will always fail. New, unique moral challenges arise every day. However, if we have a well-formed conscience, then we have the ability to choose the good in every situation.