Franciscan at Home

“Life is what happens when you are making other plans.” How often people have said this with a wry smile as they cope with an untimely interruption to their well-ordered (or not-so-ordered), scheduled events.

Evangelization is a primary function of Catholic schools. Although they provide quality education in a variety of subject areas, as agents of the Church, they share the larger mission of the Church: forming disciples of Jesus Christ. Catholic schools should and must be more than public schools that also happen to have religion classes. Speaking about the role of the Catholic school, the Vatican II Declaration on Christian Education, Gravissimum Educationis states, “But its proper function is to create for the school community a special atmosphere animated by the Gospel spirit of freedom and charity, to help youth grow according to the new creatures they were made through baptism as they develop their own personalities, and finally to order the whole of human culture to the news of salvation so that the knowledge the students gradually acquire of the world, life and man is illumined by faith” (8). A key role of the Catholic school, then, is as an agent of evangelization.

Schools can live out their mission to evangelize in a number of practical ways, including evangelizing students, evangelizing the family, and preparing students and families to evangelize the community.

Catholic Schools Evangelize the Student

Providing religious education is a key priority in the Catholic school, but religious education must be different than education in mathematics, science, history, or other subjects. If our objective is to form disciples, the Catholic Faith cannot be simply approached intellectually. Religious education in the Catholic school must be an immersive and formative experience that begins with an encounter with Jesus Christ through the proclamation of the kerygma.

Knowing Jesus is different from simply “knowing about” him. As we draw closer to Jesus, our lives are changed—we find the joy of becoming who we were made to be, we are challenged, and we are called to places we might have never gone before. A Christocentric catechesis—one that focuses on the person of Jesus Christ—facilitates an environment in which learners can get to know Jesus and draw closer to him.

Help learners become acquainted with the Gospels, particularly the Paschal Mystery: Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. Periodically choose a passage from the Gospels that is developmentally appropriate for your learners, both in length and content. Invite your learners to relax, close their eyes, and imagine themselves somewhere within the Gospel story. After meditating on the Gospel passage, invite learners to reflect on their experience. What did they hear Jesus saying to them, and how does it connect with their lives today?

¿Siquiera es posible la santidad hoy en día?

Antes de que nos casáramos, mi esposo, Curtis, y yo cada uno por su parte nos habíamos encontrado con nuestro Señor a través de unas conversiones profundas y ambos ya éramos muy comprometidos con seguir a la voluntad de Dios en nuestra vida matrimonial. Dios nos invitó a vivir nuestra fe en la arena pública a través de la pastoral universitaria donde estudiábamos, The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (La Confraternidad de Estudiantes Universitarios Católicos) (FOCUS), y de manera más íntima en nuestro propio hogar. Curtis y yo hemos estado casados desde hace más de treinta años y bendecidos con nueve hijos y cinco nietos. Dos de nuestros hijos tienen necesidades especiales: uno de nuestros hijos tiene autismo y otro tiene el Síndrome de Down. El esforzarnos por vivir nuestra fe con júbilo no siempre ha sido fácil, pero Dios sigue dándonos la gracia que necesitamos cada día para vivir según Su voluntad. A veces me desanimo y clamo a Dios preguntando si la santidad es siquiera posible. Luego me viene a la mente la Palabra de Dios, y creo que Él sigue hablando estas palabras a cada uno de nosotros en la actualidad:

“Yo soy la verdadera vid y mi Padre es el viñador. El corta todos mis sarmientos que no dan fruto; al que da fruto, lo poda para que dé más todavía. Ustedes ya están limpios por la palabra que yo les anuncié. Permanezcan en mí, como yo permanezco en ustedes. Así como el sarmiento no puede dar fruto si no permanece en la vid, tampoco ustedes, si no permanecen en mí. Yo soy la vid, ustedes los sarmientos El que permanece en mí, y yo en él, da mucho fruto, porque separados de mí, nada pueden hacer. … Si ustedes permanecen en mí y mis palabras permanecen en ustedes, pidan lo que quieran y lo obtendrán.” (Juan 15,1-5.7)

Cuando forcejamos con la pregunta de la santidad real vivida por personas ordinarias, Jesús siempre nos enseña el camino. En este pasaje, Él nos invita a permanecer en Él. Si permanecemos en Jesús, entonces daremos mucho fruto en nuestra vida y alcanzaremos la santidad. Jesús nos está diciendo que necesitamos permanecer cerca de Él si queremos ser santos en esta vida. Esto es en verdad bastante sencillo. Necesitamos conocer a Jesús, encontrarlo en la Palabra, en la oración, y en los sacramentos. Yo creo que las personas que han encontrado a Jesús personalmente, que lo han hecho el centro de su vida, y están viviendo una vida de acompañamiento con Jesús, tendrán un deseo profundo de compartir a Jesús con todos los que estén en su vida.

Jesús nos está invitando a cada uno a un encuentro más profundo, nos está pidiendo que vivamos en una relación íntima con Él para compartir con los demás esta Fe transformadora de vida. Como padres de familia, nuestra primera responsabilidad es para con nuestros hijos. Cuando aceptamos esta invitación y su gracia, aceptamos la invitación de San Pablo, “Por lo tanto, hermanos, yo los exhorto por la misericordia de Dios a ofrecerse ustedes mismos como una víctima viva, santa y agradable a Dios: éste es el culto espiritual que deben ofrecer. No tomen como modelo a este mundo. Por el contrario, transfórmense interiormente renovando su mentalidad, a fin de que puedan discernir cuál es la voluntad de Dios: lo que es bueno, lo que le agrada, lo perfecto.” (Rm 12,1-2).

Is holiness even possible these days?

Before we were married, my husband Curtis and I each had encountered our Lord through profound conversions and were both very committed to following God’s will in our married life. God invited us to live our faith in the public square through our college campus ministry, The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), and more intimately in our own home. Curtis and I have been married for over thirty years and have been blessed with nine children and five grandchildren. Two of our children have special needs: one son is autistic and one son has Down Syndrome. Trying to live our faith with joy hasn’t always been easy, but God continues to give us the grace we need each day to live in his will. I sometimes get discouraged and cry out to God asking if holiness is even possible. Then I’m reminded of Jesus’ Word, and I believe that he continues to speak these words to each of us today:

Photo of illustration of Grandfather & grandson praying before meal--by Jim Surkamp--Flickr.com image

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already made clean by the wordwhich I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing… If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples." (John 15:1-5, 7 )

When wrestling with the question of real holiness lived out by ordinary people, Jesus always shows us the way. In this passage, he invites us to abide in him. If we abide in Jesus, then we will bear fruit in our lives and holiness will be achieved. Jesus is telling us that we need to remain close to him if we want to be holy in this life. It is really pretty simple. We need to know Jesus, encounter him in the Word, in prayer, and in the sacraments. I believe that people who have encountered Jesus personally, have made him the center of their lives, and are living a life of accompaniment with Jesus, will have a deep desire to share Jesus with everyone in their life.

Jesus is inviting each of us into a deeper encounter, asking us to live in intimate relationship with him so as to share this life-changing faith with others. As parents, our first responsibility is toward our children. When we accept this invitation and his grace, we follow St. Paul’s invitation, “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:1-2).

The matrimony of two of the baptized…is in real, essential and intrinsic relationship with the mystery of the union of Christ with the church…it participates in its nature…marriage is deeply seated and rooted therefore in the Eucharistic mystery.[1]

This spiritual vision of marriage, as articulated by Cardinal Caffara, may appear as novel or even bizarre or “cultist” to many younger members of western culture. The defining characteristic for marriage today is that it has no defining characteristic. It is open and runny and borderless. We decide what marriage is, and hence it has devolved from a sacrament to a “private love.” This “love’s” very meaning is malleable, and its connection to procreation and permanence and the divine is severed. Yet for the Catholic Church, marriage is still the primordial mystery, one which reveals God’s love for humanity. This revelation has been consistent from the beginning of the Bible all the way through to the Bridegroom, Christ, giving himself completely upon the cross for the Bride, the Church (Is 62:5; Hos 2:18-20; Jer 3:20; Ez 15:8-15; Mt 22:1-14; 9:14; 22:1-2; 25:1; Eph 5:32). Marriage reveals that God’s own love is free, faithful, forever covenanted, and always life giving. Deep within the suffering of giving and receiving one another in married love God himself is becoming known to the couple. One cannot live such free self-giving in a permanent life-giving way without glimpsing God even in traces, by those, too, who believe marriage is permanent but not a sacrament. For God’s very nature is love, and all true love seeks to freely self-donate in a permanent life-giving way.

Marriage: An Ongoing Encounter with Christ
For the committed Catholic couple, marriage’s true nature has been revealed specifically in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. And it is into this mystery of Jesus’ own spousal love that all Catholic couples are taken when they consent in Christ to love one another until the end. There is no private meaning to spousal love for Catholic couples as their love transcends themselves from its very beginning. As a sacrament, marriage is an ongoing encounter with the power of Christ’s own life and love. Each couple abides with Christ and is empowered to love through the Holy Spirit. With such a Spirit the couple loves each other with Christ’s own love (CCC 1661).

The cultural and political understanding of marriage as private love is far from this dynamic and sacred understanding of marriage as loving with Christ’s own love. Ending a more superficial and self-defining notion of marriage will only occur through one powerful reality: the witness of Catholic couples who drink deeply of the mystical vision of marriage. By “mystical” I don’t mean a marriage filled with disembodied voices, levitations, or meditative trances. Mystical marriages are grounded in the mysteries of Christ, and these mysteries are communicated most normally and powerfully at the Eucharistic Liturgy. In other words, to live a mystical marriage, which invites the culture to consider a more profound and transcendent understanding of marital love, a couple needs to receive their own marital life from the Eucharist. To have the Eucharist fuel a couple’s love for one another is to be “mystical.”

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Parable of the Paper Cups

Once upon a time, there was a village called “Ville de Soif.” Ville de Soif was located along a river, which was the water source for the whole town. At various times, people came to the river to drink, using their hands. But they didn’t seem to have a way to take water with them when they left. The adults in town busied themselves with work and other activities, but stayed thirsty between their visits to the river.

The children of the village spent more time at the river. They frequently visited with an elder of the village who lived right on the riverbank, a rare adult who was not thirsty all the time. He taught the children how to make origami cups out of paper. The children were excited to have something that could hold water, but when they tried to take water home to their parents, it seemed the paper cups just weren’t strong enough to last. So the adults continued to thirst, and the children continued to get only just a little more water than their parents. It seemed the town was doomed to be chronically thirsty.

As far-fetched as this story might seem, this is exactly the situation we face in adult faith formation in the Church in the United States today. Our culture desperately thirsts for meaning, direction, value, and justice, but the distractions of daily life keep many from going to the source. For those who do come, often the children, we do our best to offer something to satisfy their thirst, but it’s never quite enough, and the “paper cups” our catechists teach them to make often don’t even reach their homes in one piece.

And so our culture continues to thirst: for meaning, for direction, for value, for justice. Our society has become increasingly polarized and unkind. We have forgotten how to dialogue with one another. Our Catholic faith offers us a roadmap for renewing our own lives and the culture around us, but we must drink freely of the living water Jesus offers us before we can share it with others.

How can we get more adults involved in forming their faith, becoming intentional disciples, and thus renewing their families, our parishes, and the world in which we live? Here are some tips for helping parents and other adults form their faith.

“Evangelization is the fundamental mission of the Church. It is also an ongoing process of encountering Christ, a process that Hispanic Catholics have taken to heart in their pastoral planning. This process generates a mística (mystical theology) and a spirituality that lead to conversion, communion, and solidarity, touching every dimension of Christian life and transforming every human situation.”[1]

On the occasion of this important milestone marking the publication of the USCCB’s seminal document on adult faith formation, Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us (hereafter “the document”), issued on the cusp of the new millennium, it is worth reflecting on its impact and influence on Hispanic ministry in this country. Much has taken place since that time, while significant ongoing challenges remain.

Some Pertinent Principles
Although the document does not explicitly address the Hispanic or other specific cultural communities, a number of its organizing principles do speak to some noteworthy realities. These principles will be the touchstones for this reflection. First, persons will always prefer to worship where they feel comfortable and at home. Second, faith as it relates to the family is a critical factor in any religious tradition. And lastly, social customs and popular devotion in harmony with the Gospel are to be respected, affirmed, and celebrated.

First Things First - Welcoming and Hospitality
While data are generally lacking regarding the number of Hispanics who have left the Catholic Church, current information suggests that a significant number of Hispanics who were baptized as Catholics join other Christian denominations and religious traditions every year; including fundamentalist groups and “storefront” churches—many of which maintain Hispanic cultural traditions that might otherwise be considered to be “Catholic,” including quinceañeras (fifteenth birthday blessings) and Epiphany celebrations. New arrivals often find the structure of the parish and the style of worship to be very different from what they experienced in their native country. In this unfamiliar environment, they are frequently targeted for what could be considered aggressive proselytizing by non-Catholic groups, and are offered transportation, many kinds of assistance, skillful scriptural preaching, as well as a friendly community to which to belong.

All this highlights the compelling need for Catholic parishes to provide a welcoming and hospitable atmosphere to newcomers, including Spanish-language and/or bilingual worship, ministries, parish pastoral leaders, and personnel whenever possible. In addition, Catholic parishes must be aware of several factors that can make Hispanics feel unwelcomed in the Catholic Church and make them more open to seeking a home in other faith traditions. Among these factors are: an unspoken attitude from parish staff or parishioners that they are “undesirable”; excessive or overwhelming administrative rules and forms; and being required to produce evidence of contribution envelopes before they can receive the sacraments.[2]

The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls the sacraments, “the masterworks of God in the new and everlasting covenant” (1116). The sacraments confer upon us a special grace that assists us in becoming the people God created us to be. Unfortunately, too often the first celebration of the sacraments in childhood is approached as if it were a one-time developmental milestone, rather than the beginning of a lifelong celebration or a further step down the path of continuing conversion.

Both experience and research have shown us that the period of preparation for the Sacraments of Penance and Eucharist is a rare time when even families who are only marginally connected to the parish are willing to spend more time in formation. This can be an opportunity for evangelization, if catechists and catechetical leaders are open to the Holy Spirit and focus their catechesis not only on preparation for the initial reception of the sacraments but also on the ways in which the sacraments can change our lives.