Franciscan at Home

En este número, completamos nuestra introducción al documento profético de Juan Pablo II sobre el Evangelio de la Vida.

Una de las iniciativas más importantes del Papa Juan Pablo II fue su llamada a una ‘nueva evangelización’ – un reavivamiento de la misión primaria de la Iglesia, la cual es proclamar, de palabra y obra, la Buena Nueva de Jesucristo a todos los pueblos. Esto incluye la proclamación del Evangelio a las personas y culturas que habían recibido alguna vez el Evangelio en el pasado, pero quienes han ‘desfallecido’: de ahí que se hace necesaria la ‘re-evangelización’.

En el capítulo final del Evangelium Vitae, el Papa Juan Pablo nos recuerda cuál es la identidad de la Iglesia, ‘pueblo de la vida y para la vida… porque Dios, en su amor gratuito, nos ha dado el Evangelio de la vida' (78.2; 79.2). Me trae a la mente las palabras poderosas del Evangelio de San Juan en el que Jesús hace el contraste entre el ladrón que ‘no viene más que a robar, matar y destruir’ consigo mismo, el Buen Pastor, quien dijo, ‘Yo he venido para que tengan vida y la tengan en abundancia’ (Juan 10:10). La mayor parte de esta Encíclica enfoca la lucha monumental entre ‘la cultura de la muerte’, la cual como el ladrón ‘no viene más que a robar, matar y destruir’, y la misión de Jesús y de la Iglesia para traer y proteger a la vida. Esta parte final enfoca la misión positiva de la Iglesia en la promoción de ‘una nueva cultura de vida humana’: ‘…el deber de anunciar el Evangelio de la vida, de celebrarlo en la liturgia y en toda la existencia, de servirlo con las diversas iniciativas y estructuras de apoyo y promoción.’ (79.4)

In November of 1999, the bishops in the United States issued their Pastoral Plan for Adult Faith Formation in the United States, which bears the title: Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us. Part I of this magnificent document contains the following words:

‘The world is being reshaped by technology. Not only are computers transforming the way we live and work, they enable many adults to pursue lifelong learning to keep pace with the rapidly changing workplace. Communication technology has also made the world smaller through e-mail, global networks, and increased contacts with other cultures. This globalization of society increases our awareness of and interdependence with other peoples and societies. Adults are responding to these changes by self-directed learning, on-the-job training, and enrolling in continuing education courses in large numbers.

‘Throughout the centuries the Spirit has guided the Church so that the Word would be spread to each generation. Today that Spirit is awakening a new evangelization and a new apologetics.’[i]

I can personally attest to the impact educational technology has had upon my own faith life, beginning from my days as an undergraduate student at a large public university. At age 19, should a curious soul have asked me to name the four Gospels, to explain the role of Jesus in my personal salvation, or to elaborate upon why Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist, I would have failed to provide an adequate response. When called upon to fulfill these various requests, I floundered before doing what seemed entirely natural; to type Catholic.com into the address bar of my web browser.

That one act led me down a path of virtual adult faith formation. Eventually, I became a regular contributor on several online religious bulletin boards, both Protestant and Catholic. I was engaged in the ‘new evangelization and [the] new apologetics’ before I could begin to articulate what those two terms meant. Immediate, instant access to an online Catholic encyclopedia, a library of well-written, pithy, and organized Catholic tracts, and an electronic collection of the writings of the Early Church Fathers… these and other online resources enabled me to engage in a deep process of ‘self-directed learning’ that eventually brought me to seek out a graduate degree in Catholic theology and catechetics.

On the Spot aims to highlight some of the complex positions, questions and comments experienced by catechists, teachers and parents. It tries to outline the knowledge necessary to be faithful to Church teaching and which will best help those we teach who call us to account for the hope that is in us. This time we look at a question sometimes faced by those who want to respond to the call of the laity to participate more fully in their sharing of the prophetic, priestly and kingly office of Christ.

The young mother at the school gate recognised me and came over to chat. She, a cradle Catholic, had recently attended a parish talk on ministry in the Church, thinking it would increase her understanding of her faith; and now she found that she had been included in the numbers on a course especially to train Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. She was a little puzzled.

‘They didn't ask me if I wanted to be a Eucharistic Minister,’ she said. ‘They just assumed that everyone wants to do this.’

I was reminded of the recent RCIA meeting where two or three of those preparing to enter into full communion with the Church confided to me that they were really looking forward to perhaps being an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist.

Both the reluctant and the enthusiastic would-be Minister of the Eucharist indicate two areas of misunderstanding over the role of the laity in the Church. Firstly, the reality of what it means to act as an Extraordinary Minister; and secondly, the resultant obscuring that can take place of the laity’s true dignity and office.

How, therefore, can we catechize to ensure that the unique role of the laity is brought out?

Alan Schreck completes his explanation of the Encyclical Letter, ‘Ecclesia de Eucharistia’, highlighting John Paul II’s teaching on the Eucharist as a source and deepening of communion with the Trinity and with each other in the Church.

Here we conclude our study of Pope John Paul II’s final encyclical letter, Ecclesia de Eucharistia (on the Church and the Eucharist) published on Holy Thursday, 2003.

Chapter IV of the encyclical focuses on the central theme of the Second Vatican Council: communion. The entire purpose of God’s saving design is to bring humanity back into loving communion with himself and with each other after the original sin disrupted and broke this communion.

The Eucharist is one of the great gifts God has provided to restore and deepen our communion with God and with each other. As the Pope observes: ‘It is not by chance that the term “communion” has become one of the names given to this sublime sacrament… The Eucharist thus appears as the ­­­­culmination of all the sacraments in perfecting our communion with God the Father by identification with his only-begotten Son through the working of the Holy Spirit’ (no. 34). In response to this great gift, the Holy Father urges us to cultivate a constant desire for the Eucharist. He affirms St. Teresa of Avila’s practice of making a ‘spiritual communion’ if one cannot attend Mass (34).

Marlon De La Torre gives pointers from the Church for parents, for catechesis in the family.

Have you ever agreed to take care of something valuable for someone only to realize afterwards that taking care of it is requires significantly more than was expected? Imagine what St. Peter thought when Jesus asked him to cast his nets into the sea, and then told him he would be given a new responsibility – fishing for men (Lk 5:1-11). He received a double responsibility: to care for Christ’s mission and message, and to care for the ‘fish’ he was to catch.

When we teach, we echo the teachings of Jesus Christ. As a teacher in Christ’s Church I agree to hand on only what Christ has entrusted to his Bride, the Church. I agree to ‘guard what has been entrusted to you’ (1 Tim 6:20). I also agree to echo these teachings so that each person can catch the echo. Every audience Christ encountered received a differently crafted instruction. It was the same message – but presented for this particular person. He told the story of God’s love for his children. It is the same story, for each unique person.

Kyle Neilson helps us to find ways to awaken Catholics to their baptismal gifts.

The Spiderman movie provides an evocative analogy for Baptism. Most of us know the story: after Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically-modified spider, he discovers he possesses strange new powers: he can shoot webbing from his wrist, his reflexes and eye-sight are uncommonly sharp, he can climb walls, and more.

I was baptized in the Protestant tradition at the age of 18, and experienced its effects in dramatic ways. To offer but one example, prior to my Baptism I habitually treated my exemplary parents very poorly. Within a few weeks following my Baptism, I realized the gravity of my behaviour; I understood the fourth commandment: ‘Honour your father and mother.’ I also experienced a new desire and capacity to love my parents. After a sincere apology, we enjoyed a beautiful reconciliation and started afresh.

At the time, this change in me surprised all of us. Only years later, after becoming a Catholic, did I come to understand that such a change was, in fact, par for the course. Like Peter Parker, I discovered powers given ‘from above.’ The virtue of faith allowed me to grasp the truth about honouring one’s parents, even though I knew about the commandment since childhood. Through charity, I was given a new heart for my mother and father. I possessed an immediate growing desire and power to love them.

Dr. Alan Schreck begins his commentary on the first part of Pope John Paul II’s Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia, which teaches us of the primacy of the gift of the Eucharist for us individually and as members of the Body of Christ.

‘The Church draws her life from the Eucharist’, which is ‘the heart of the mystery of the Church.’ (EE 1). It is to draw the Church more deeply into this mystery that Pope John Paul II issued his final encyclical letter on Holy Thursday of 2003, a day that the Holy Father traditionally issued a letter to all priests. But on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his pontificate, John Paul wished to ‘involve the whole Church move fully in this Eucharistic reflection, also as a way of thanking the Lord for the gift of the Eucharist and the priesthood’ (7). Especially in this ‘Year for the Priest,’ it is fitting that we should all reflect on this great gift of the Lord to his Church.

The Eucharist, ‘the source and summit of the Christian life’ (cf. Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 11), is one way that Jesus fulfills his promise: ‘Lo, I am with you always to the close of the age’ (Mt 28: 20). The Eucharist ‘contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our Passover and our living bread.’ Christ’s own flesh is ‘now made living and life-giving by the Holy Spirit’ (Vatican II, Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, 5).

In this article Stratford Caldecott explores the faith by which we enter the twelve-gated City of Revelation, the faith that is the beginning of that Light by which we will see what the City contains, and above all the Lamb enthroned at its centre.

The first official summary (or ‘symbol,’ as it was called) of the Christian faith was a simple affirmation: Jesus is Lord. We find this in the Gospels and the Letters of Saint Paul. What we know as the Apostles’ Creed is a slightly later summary, enabling Christians to affirm not only their faith in Christ, but some of the main implications of that faith. Most Christians are also familiar with the so-called Creed of Nicaea, which is later and more elaborate still, being designed to refute the various christological heresies (i.e. mistakes about the nature of Christ) that had arisen in the early centuries of faith.

A Creed is more than a summary of faith, of what is to be believed. Like Scripture, it has a liturgical character. To recite it in the context of the liturgy is a ritual action, a celebration that aligns us with its divine source, making us receptive to grace. As Martin Mosebach puts it, the Creed ‘considered as a liturgical prayer, is not a collection of dogmas that were defined at various councils (and some of which were imposed by main force) but a means whereby the individual plunges once again into the purifying freshness of baptism, the presence of the communion of saints, the Church-creating power of the Holy Trinity.’[i]

In this issue, On the Spot looks at the misunderstandings, which often arise concerning the Sacrament of Ordination, and offers suggestions to enrich our catechesis.

‘Today the word “ordination” is reserved for the sacramental act which integrates a man into the order of bishops, presbyters, or deacons, and goes beyond a simple election, designation, delegation, or institution by the community, for it confers a gift of the Holy Spirit that permits the exercise of a “sacred power”...which can come only from Christ himself through his Church.’ (CCC 1538)

Two frequently heard groups of comments, which arise from two different age ranges, can summarise what would appear to be common misunderstandings about the priesthood, its nature and function.

‘What does Father do all day? Isn’t it boring spending all the time praying and reading the Bible? Does he have another job for weekdays?’
‘Well, the priesthood is dying out. The Church is beginning to see that lay people can do everything a priest does. The Holy Spirit is changing things so we don't need priests; hence hardly any priests being ordained now.’

In the second part of his explanation of John Paul II’s teaching on Faith and Reason, Alan Schreck highlights the importance of philosophy for a sound catechetics and theology.

In the first three chapters of this encyclical letter, Fides et Ratio, Pope John Paul II has affirmed that the quest for truth, especially the truth about ultimate realities such as God, can be attained through reason (e.g. philosophy) and by faith in what God reveals to us, which achieves its climax in the person of Jesus Christ. These two sources of truth are not opposed, but together ‘lead us to truth in all its fullness’ (34).

Chapter IV of Fides et Ratio explores more fully the relationship between faith and reason as it has developed in history. Classical, pre-Christian philosophy sought to ‘purify’ human ideas about God of ‘mythological elements’ and ‘provide a rational foundation forbelief in the divinity’ (36). This is why some of the early Church fathers appreciated and even employed some forms of classical philosophy ‘which offered new ways of proclaiming and understanding the God of Jesus Christ’ (36). However, some Christians like Tertullian rejected philosophy as ‘outmoded in addressing questions about life’s meaning since Christian revelation gave direct and satisfying answers to them’ (37). Others, like St. Justin and Clement of Alexandria, found important truths in philosophy that could be employed to explain and defend the Christian faith (38). Origen employed the philosophy of Plato to shape his theological arguments against Celsus and others who criticized Christianity for being ‘irrational’ (39). Later church Fathers, including the Cappadocians and St Augustine, ‘Christianized Platonic and Neo-Platonic thought.’ St. Augustine produced ‘the first great synthesis of philosophy and theology,’ unsurpassed in Western thought for centuries (40). Pope John Paul summarizes the accomplishment of the early Church Fathers of both East and West: ‘They fully welcomed reason which was open to the absolute, and infused it with the richness drawn from revelation’ (41). Those authors distinguished elements in various philosophies that were consonant with revelation and those that were not.