Franciscan at Home

Matthew concludes his Gospel with Jesus commanding his apostles in these words, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (28:19-20). This command, which later became known as the Great Commission, comprises the main mission of the Church (see Evangelii Nuntiandi 14). It is for this mission that the Holy Spirit is poured upon the disciples gathered in the upper room on Pentecost morning. Strengthened by the Holy Spirit, the early Church fulfills Jesus’ Great Commission by proclaiming the Gospel, calling people to conversion, baptizing, and teaching. I would like to take some time to reflect more deeply on Christ’s call to “Go” – that is the initial evangelization activity of the Church.

Jesus’ mandate “constitutes the essential mission of the Church” both yesterday and today (EN 14). Reflecting on Jesus’ command, the General Directory for Catechesis states:

“Primary proclamation is addressed to non-believers and those living in religious indifference. Its functions are to proclaim the Gospel and to call to conversion.… Primary proclamation, which every Christian is called to perform, is part of that "Go" (183) which Jesus imposes on his disciples: it implies, therefore, a going-out, a haste, a message.” GDC 61

There are three fundamental aspects of Jesus’ commission that call for our attention if we are going to understand clearly what Jesus is asking of his disciples. These three include a going forth, a haste, and a message.

Recognizing the essential role parents play in the lives of their children and seeing the challenges parents face today, I wish to address parents in this column.

It is good to recall words taken from the Declaration on Christian Education from the Documents of the Second Vatican Council, in which the Council reminds us that ‘the primary and principal educators’ are the parents in the family who set the example of what it means to be a Catholic for their children.

‘…[P]arents ...are bound by the most serious obligation to educate their offspring and therefore must be recognized as the primary and principal educators…. Parents are the ones who must create a family atmosphere animated by love and respect for God and man, in which the well-rounded personal and social education of children is fostered. Hence the family is the first school of the social virtues that every society needs. It is particularly in the Christian family, enriched by the grace and office of the sacrament of matrimony, that children should be taught from their early years to have a knowledge of God according to the faith received in Baptism, to worship Him, and to love their neighbor.’

On the day of their children’s baptism, parents promise to ‘accept the responsibility of training’ their children ‘in the practice of the faith.’ This responsibility is to be their ‘constant care.’ Parents are to ‘see that the divine life which God gives them (their children) is kept safe from the poison of sin, to grow always stronger in their hearts.’ Let us reflect on these words to understand what they mean for parents today.

On Feb. 22 2007, the Feast of the Chair of Peter, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, published his post-synodal apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (On the Eucharist as the Source and Summit of the Church’s Life and Mission). In no. 64 of this apostolic exhortation Pope Benedict XVI takes up the topic of the character of ongoing catechesis on the Eucharist to enable the deeply interior dispositions required for a fruitful participation in the Holy Eucharist. It addresses what is required for a personal eucharistic piety which is deep and constant. This is a topic which has suffered from some neglect during the first decades of the liturgical reforms that followed upon the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.

Dear Catechists,

May the peace of the Lord be with you!

In my first year of service to the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, in the Congregation for Clergy -- which also has catechesis entrusted to it -- I wish to extend to you my cordial and fraternal greeting.

I ask almighty God, who is good and great in his love, and rich in mercy, to bless you in a very special way.

I do this on the feast day of St. Luke the Evangelist, recalling his foundational contribution to the universal proclamation of Jesus Christ dead and risen, and of his kingdom.

All share in the Priesthood of Christ

Dear friends in Christ, at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we celebrate the priesthood of Christ through the Church in which we all share. The Fathers who assemble around the altar participate in that priesthood in a ministerial sense. We all share in it by virtue of our baptism. Nevertheless, together we all work toward a common end—the salvation of souls, by carrying out our particular roles in accordance with the graces that Almighty God has endowed each one of us; the graces that come with our particular vocations.

The topic of sacred architecture is both timely and timeless. Timely because of the contemporary crisis that surrounds the sacred. Timeless because God never ceases to call man to himself. In the revelation of the divine economy of salvation, God never neglects time and space. As the eternal, invisible, and infinite God, whose dwelling place is in Heaven, he reveals himself, and encourages mortal, visible, and finite human beings to call upon his name. As he makes known the hidden purpose of his will, he summons us to a sacred space in an acceptable time.
There are three practical and grounded guiding principles the cardinal reflects upon concerning the vocation and mission of the architect and artist in the life of the Church.

This brief paper is entitled, ‘The Dramatic Nature of the Christian Life.’ For devotees of the eminent theologian, Hans Urs Von Balthasar, this topic calls to mind his multi-volume volume work, Theo-drama[i], in which he engages the world of theatre as a way of understanding the truly original drama. By that I mean the drama of the inner life and love of the Trinity, the hidden counsels wherein the Triune God freely elected to create and redeem – thus setting the stage for the drama we call ‘salvation history’.

More than 500 years after the Gospel was first proclaimed in the New World, America again needs to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

That Gospel is more than a philosophy of life. It’s a divine person—with a face and a name, and a heart that beats with the very love of God. So the purpose of our catechesis must always be to bring about an encounter with Jesus Christ—to help all our brothers and sisters come to know and love Jesus.

But how do we catechize a culture that has grown indifferent to religion, a society in which more and more people live as if God does not exist? Lately, I’ve come to believe that in our catechesis there is much we can learn from our country’s first evangelization.