Franciscan at Home

When we address the topic of peer leadership in youth ministry, the conversation can be all over the board. Some use the term to speak of peer leadership roles, like older teens helping with junior high or the Confirmation program. Others refer to the actual formation of the teens, and still others refer to service projects and empowering teens for social justice. It will be helpful in this discussion to give some definition to what we are actually talking about. To do that, I’d like to look at the overall process of evangelization.

Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses. Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, no. 41

I just returned from visiting my former grade school teacher who is sick in the hospital. He is aging and has been chronically ill for many years. Most recently he’s had surgery to remove some cancer. While my three teenage boys dutifully sat around the hospital room showing quiet reverence to this suffering man, I told my teacher something that surely surprised my boys at least a little. I told him that he was my hero.
A hero doesn’t have to be perfect

The surprise in this comes from their immediate perception of the man to whom I was speaking. This is a guy who does not conform to modern society. He smokes and drinks and makes odd jokes and dresses out of step with the modern world. Today as he sits in that hospital bed, he is no longer particularly handsome or strong or athletic. He is not wealthy, has no spouse or children of his own, and never accumulated many public accolades for all the good things he has quietly done over the course of his lifetime. So how could their father possibly call him a hero? Was it just a white lie to comfort an ailing man? Or was there something more going on?

No lies were being told in that hospital room. This man is a hero to me. I first met him when he became my teacher in seventh grade. I was smart, but I didn’t care about school very much. In fact, I considered it embarrassing that I was pretty bright. My adolescent mind was filled with two things and two things only: sports and girls. The rest of life was simply a necessary inconvenience to endure. He changed all that for me.

A former military advisor illustrates how a small, highly motivated, highly trained group of evangelist "advisors" can affect a disproportionate change in the promotion of the goals of the New Evangelization.

What do you think of when you hear “Special Forces”? Most people think about an elite military team conducting an operation deep in unfriendly territory, appearing from and melting into the dark, still water of some jungle river. Or perhaps they think of a team conducting a hostage rescue in a desert environment with a HALO infiltration, utilizing night vision technology. These images represent only one aspect of Special Operations capabilities, which is direct action. However, another role of Special Forces, and one you might not think of, is that of highly trained advisors that facilitate the work of others, resulting in force-multiplication. Special Operations and the “quiet” professionals who carry them out are particularly suited to this role and its “work yourself out of job” methodology. Earlier in my life, I had the honor of working with men who demonstrated this methodology with profound professionalism, discipline and humility—true quiet professionals.

But what does the advisor role of Special Forces have to do with the New Evangelization? Special Forces advisors are a small, highly trained, highly motivated, well-equipped cadre of teachers who act as force-multipliers by forming the next formators. This role is utilized whether training personnel in small unit tactics, land navigation or combat casualty care. It is extremely effective because in addition to training the first generation of students, the team also establishes the infrastructure for this first generation to form the next ones.

This role is suited to the work of the New Evangelization for three reasons: (1) the limited resources that many dioceses and parishes have at their disposal, (2) our natural reluctance to change, and (3) the dynamic nature of the New Evangelization. Regarding limited resources, it is often easier to support a small group of incarnate-advisors who can multiply their effectiveness, especially in the “ad intra” phase of the New Evangelization. When it comes to the natural reluctance to change, advisors first act as incarnate examples of the change that they are encouraging, allowing a “bottom-up” example that can complement the “top-down” encouragement of the bishop or pastor. And finally, the dynamic nature of the New Evangelization (which parallels the dynamic nature of personal conversion) requires quicker assessment of needs and opportunities. Paired with diocesan structures that are already in place, advisors can be an efficient and effective leaven for them, responding quickly and allowing the mission of the New Evangelization to grow in present structures.

To explicate this approach, I will offer specific examples from my work, as well as best practices from other ecclesial situations. These examples fall into three general categories, which I call the “three P’s”: partnerships, parishes-schools and projects. These parallel the three dimensions of the Special Forces advisor: the subject matter expert, the force-multiplier and the incarnate example.

Just a few weeks ago I left a coffee shop after an hour-long conversation with a Director of Religious Education, a conversation for me that has seemingly repeated itself over recent years. These conversations usually start with catechists saying: “our Mystagogy is flat”; “we had thirty-something in our catechumenate and now we have an average of three in our follow-up adult-ed program”; and worse yet “our neophytes have little interest in being involved in Church life.” All of these comments focus on what they need to change in their Mystagogy and other follow-up adult-education programs, with no emphasis on the need to change their current catechetical programs. (To some degree this is understandable as we all have the tendency to fix the immediate, rather than go a little deeper.)

After discussing with them their respective follow-up formation programs, I redirected their attention back to their catechumenate programs by inquiring into how they approached catechesis in its nature, structure, method, and content. From these dialogues I discovered that they all had one thing in common: their catechesis had lost its sense of vigor and proclamation of faith and failed to summon the catechumenate into a living, spirit-filled relationship with Christ.1 This proclamation that starts with those all-important words “Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.”[2]

For some parish formation programs, zeal for Christ and his message is robust, and it beckons us into a perpetual courtship that is alive and well. For other parish programs, encouragement and reminders are necessary and on going. Collectively, it is imperative we understand that catechizing for discipleship is quintessential to any formation program that is going to be fruitful and life giving.

Evangelizers thus take on the “smell of the sheep” and the sheep are willing to hear their voice. (Evangelii Guadium, 24)

Today when we hear the words disciple or discipleship these words have a specific religious connotation. We would normally not describe an apprentice plumber or student teacher as a disciple. In the world of the New Testament these words had a much wider usage. Among the ancient Greek philosophers, disciples learned by imitating the teacher’s entire way of life and not just by remembering the spoken words of the teacher. This is completely different from our modern lecture based modehttps://thesowerreview.org/sites/default/files/images/reading-torah.jpgl of classroom instruction. The first century philosopher Seneca appeals to the “living voice and intimacy of common life” of the disciple-teacher relationship of many different philosophers:
"Cleanthes could not have been the express image of Zeno, if he had merely heard his lectures; he also shared in his life, saw into his hidden purposes, and watched him to see whether he lived according to his own rules. Plato, Aristotle, and the whole throng of sages who were destined to go each his different way, derived more benefit from the character than from the words of Socrates."
Although there was considerable tension between the influence of Greek culture and Jewish way of life, it appears that the educational methods of the Greeks were taken over and adapted by rabbinic schools. Clearly the rabbinic model of discipleship builds on the Old Testament examples of relationships such as Moses to Joshua, Eli to Samuel, and especially Elisha’s call to “follow” Elijah (1 Kgs. 19:19-20), but it also adapts many features common to the Greco-Roman tradition of philosophers and teachers of rhetoric.

Sam Robson shares practical examples of St Augustine’s model for catechesis.
St Augustine suggests a model for catechesis in which, “loving his neighbour as himself, a man turns the whole current of his love both for himself and his neighbour into the channel of love of God.”[i] Catechesis aims to “promote communion and intimacy” with Christ,[ii] who is true God and true man.[iii] Where this is prompted by a loving impulse of God’s grace, the catechist may be like a party host who is at ease introducing guests, recalling the genuine affection with which each friend is held.

Learning to love God and man more may be both an essential starting point and a lesson to which the catechist should repeatedly return. How might this love of both God and man manifest itself in catechetical practice? Here are a few examples.

“So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?’“ (Acts 8:30-31)

Most parishes have a religious education program for their children. Most parishes have a RCIA process for adults. Most are staffed by volunteer “catechists”—parishioners who are generous with their time, love the Church and who want the next generation to flourish and grow in their Catholic faith. Most have little training. Most parishes don’t require training, because after all, these volunteers are already giving so much. And honestly, if a person is living and breathing and will show up, the DRE is glad to have him. I wish these latter statements were not true; and they are not true for all, but are for many.

As the person who stands at the Confirmation of young people and at the initiation of adults, and testifies in the context of Sacred Liturgy that the people being initiated have been prepared and that the Gospel has been proclaimed, the deposit of faith delivered and conversion begun, I am a little nervous. I would suggest that all of us should be.

I have no lofty solutions, just a few very simple suggestions to help your catechists be just that—catechists who echo the truth: a message that is not theirs, but entrusted to them as the birthright of the sons and daughters of God, who they are catechizing.

On the Spot aims to highlight some fo the complex positions, questions and comments experienced by catechist, teachers and parents. It tries to outline the knowledge necessary to be fatithful to Chruch teaching and which will best help those we teach who call us to account for the hope that is in us (cf. 1 Peter 3:15). This time we consider the challenges of using the Catechism of the Catholic Church and make suggestions on how to use the first part of the Catechism with greater confidence.

“The whole concern of doctrine and its teaching must be directed to the love that never ends… the love of our Lord must always be made accessible so that anyone can see that all the works of perfect Christian virtue spring from love and have not other objective than to arrive at love.” CCC 25

Using the Catechism (all 2865 paragraphs!!) to teach can seem so daunting a task as to be impossible. To a busy teacher, catechist or parent, becoming familiar with the content, layout and organization of the Catechism may appear such a huge and time-consuming task that it is never even attempted. Teaching thus becomes, or remains, reliant on published schemes of work or personal knowledge and understanding, either of which may vary in quality.

This article suggests some points of entry to using the first part of the Catechism which may be of help in moving towards a greater confidence on the part of the one teaching and a greater accessibility to ‘the love that never ends’ on the part of the learner.

“The person who becomes a disciple of Christ has the right to receive the word of faith not in mutilated, falsified or diminished form but whole and entire in all its rigour and vigour.” (CT 30) Therefore to ensure that the person being catechised does receive the whole and entire word of faith, the formation of the catechist must equally be as complete. A well formed catechist will pass on the faith with confidence, knowing that what he or she is handing on is the pearl of great price, the Lord Jesus Himself.

This article sets out the eight key areas in which catechists need formation.

All catechists, parents and adults in a parish are called to teach the faith in various times and circumstances. They all need formation. Adults are called by God to be lay apostles, bringing Christ to the secular realm. Parents are called by God to form their own children. Catechists are called by God to catechize others, especially children, and support parents in their role as “first catechists” to their children. Adults in a parish need continual, ongoing, lifelong formation in order to better perform their mission and be confident to meet their responsibilities as apostles to the world, both as parents and as catechists.

In this article Martha Drennan gives practical answers to the following questions: Who needs formation? What does this formation look like? (11 aspects) Where does this formation take place? When does this formation happen? Why do we need formation? How do you go about this?