Franciscan at Home

While magisterial documents on catechesis refer to parents as a child’s primary religious educators,[1] many parents and parish religious educators misunderstand the import of this statement. Parents are not expected to do a formal classroom-type catechesis. Instead, the parents’ role is one they are uniquely positioned to fulfill: their vocational responsibility to inculcate the faith on a day-to-day level through prayer, liturgical celebration, and moral formation. Unlike catechists, who might have one hour per week with children, parents are with their children daily throughout their formative years, with the potential to establish habits of prayer, foster participation in the liturgy, and direct real progress in moral formation. While parish and school catechists can provide guidance and support, as well as teach doctrine, parents and family members are essential to the actual living of the faith. Good formation within the family, therefore, provides a solid foundation for formal catechesis so that both can be mutually enriching.[2]

Parents are indispensable in the development of moral conscience and virtue. This is because, as the National Directory for Catechesis explains, “Moral catechesis involves more than the proclamation and presentation of the principles and practice of Christian morality. It presents the integration of Christian moral principles in the lived experience of the individual and the community.”[3] The family is the child’s first and most important community for this essential aspect of moral formation. The National Directory for Catechesis confirms that parents are responsible for the moral formation of children, according to the natural law. “Parents are catechists precisely because they are parents. Their role in the formation of Christian values in their children is irreplaceable.”[4]

What is Virtue?  What is Goodness?[5]

Virtue is a habit or habitus. The Latinized form is more suitable here because our familiar understanding of the word ‘habit’ doesn’t quite fit when considering virtue. As habitus, virtue occupies a position between the powers of the soul and the acts of the person. It is not simply a repeated action; it is a dynamic ability for growth toward the good in human action. A habitus is required for human powers that have more than one way of being activated. While each physical sense, for instance, has one particular function: the eyes see, the ears hear, and the tongue tastes, the will can desire many things, needing a habitus to give it form; a good will, a weak will, malice all describe the habitus of a particular will. Habitus itself is a neutral term, simply referring to a pattern of growth in a particular human power towards certain kinds of action. For example, the good willed person has a growth-pattern of virtue, but the malicious person has a growth-pattern of vice. Virtues develop through properly human action and the working together of choice and intellect, which affects not simply the resulting actions but also results in the moral development of the human person. The virtue of courage helps to perfect the movements of the irascible power of the soul to actions that embody seeking the good in difficult circumstances. The truly human capacities of knowing and loving require virtue to function well. Further, the moral character of the person is changed through virtue, so that the person with virtue is a good person.

Goodness is an analogous concept. Each thing possesses or displays goodness in a manner that is specific to the kind of thing that it is. A good pen writes well, a good chair is constructed so as to support the person sitting in it. For a person to be good, the powers of the soul, emotions, and passions must be guided by reason to the purpose or goal of life. Christian parents are leading their children to the loftiest of goals: union with God, by imitation of Christ. This is the goodness that comes about through virtue.[6]  Growth in virtue, therefore, means growth in goodness, consistently good action that brings joy to the agent.

“I guess we’ll all get to see how well our pandemic plans actually work.” The moment my dad said that to me is the moment I realized that none of us were prepared for COVID-19. Even businesses that developed a pandemic plan never really tested it. And I do not know of a single parish that planned ahead for the complete interruption of normal operations. Now that we experienced “Corona Time,” as my pastor likes to call it, we have learned much about virtual ministry, found best practices, and discovered its unique benefits. Corona Time has forever changed our parish’s formation strategy and disaster preparedness for the better.

Our Virtual Ministry

The key for our Faith Formation Team was to establish a schedule, both for working from home and for our digital presence. When we first started, we all struggled with throwing together some content and slapping it on the parish Facebook feed whenever it was finished. Within a week, we settled into a programming schedule that kind of felt like running a TV station. We continued emailing specialized content to specific groups—we emailed First Communion Preparation content to second graders’ families and Sunday reading worksheets to every family every Sunday—but most of our content was posted to social media at designated times.

Un proverbio chino dice, “el hombre sin virtud es el inhumano”. Esta es una declaración muy radical, una que es políticamente incorrecta. Es una afirmación que escandaliza a nuestra obsesión igualitaria. Sin embargo, aunque la declaración sea bastante inofensiva para nuestros oídos, parece resonar en lo profundo de nuestra alma. ¿Por qué? Joseph Pieper, en su libro titulado Faith, Hope, Love (Fe, esperanza y amor) sugiere la respuesta al declarar que la virtud es “el mejoramiento de la persona humana”, “lo máximo de lo que puede ser el hombre”. “Es el reconocimiento de la potencialidad del ser de la persona. Es una perfección de su actividad”, y “la constancia de la orientación del hombre hacia la realización de su naturaleza, es decir, hacia el bien”.[1] En otras palabras, tanto un sabio chino como un filósofo contemporáneo están de acuerdo en afirmar que la virtud hace de la persona que la posee un ser humano realizado, un ser humano que está plenamente vivo. Por otro lado, una persona que no está creciendo en la virtud es una persona cuyo ser moral y espiritual está atrofiado.

Todos deseamos ser plenamente vivos. Si tal es el caso, necesitamos aprender más acerca de las virtudes y practicarlas con celo. Entre todas ellas, la magnanimidad y la humildad son de la mayor importancia. Se habla sólo raramente de estas virtudes. No obstante, Aristóteles decía que la magnanimidad (literalmente, “la grandeza del alma”) es “la corona de todas las virtudes”, mientras que, para los cristianos, la humildad es la raíz de todas las virtudes. Sin la magnanimidad, las virtudes no alcanzan la plenitud de su potencial y sin la humildad, las virtudes se degeneran, convirtiéndose en vicios de autosuficiencia. La magnanimidad y la humildad son dos lados de la misma moneda, la cual se llama liderazgo cristiano. Siguiendo la iniciativa del erudito francés Alexandre Havard, quisiera presentar a la magnanimidad y a la humildad como dos virtudes que constituyen la esencia del liderazgo. Las virtudes naturales de la prudencia, la justicia, la valentía y la templanza son los cimientos del liderazgo; y las virtudes teologales de la fe, esperanza y caridad dan estructura a nuestra capacidad para dirigir. La magnanimidad y la humildad, en palabras de Havard, son “las virtudes de la grandeza visionaria y de la devoción al servicio.” [2]

Hace poco conocí a un líder de esta índole. Soy profesor de seminario y miembro del equipo formador. Hace un mes, fui con catorce seminaristas en un viaje misionero a Perú. Pasamos una semana en una parroquia llamada Santísimo Sacramento. Nuestro anfitrión es el rector de esa parroquia. Su nombre es P. Joseph y es originario de Wisconsin, pero fue ordenado en Perú y ha servido a su comunidad por más de veinticinco años. Llegar a conocer a P. Joseph fue un verdadero placer. He aquí un hombre lleno de celo apostólico, visión y humildad. La filosofía de vida de P. Joseph se podría resumir de esta manera: “No hagas pequeños planes porque no tienen el poder para inflamar a los corazones humanos”. A menudo repetía esa frase y vivía de acuerdo a ella. Es un volcán de ideas y programas nuevos. Sin embargo, lo que más desea es que “su” gente cumpla con la vocación que Dios les ha dado para alcanzar “el estado de hombre perfecto y la madurez que corresponde a la plenitud de Cristo”.[3] P. Fr. Joseph es un gran hombre y hace de todos los que se asocian con él mejores personas. Exhibe las cualidades del liderazgo cristiano: la magnanimidad y la humildad.

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It happens more than we like to admit: after a joy-filled Easter Vigil, many new Catholics skip out on the post-baptismal catechesis sessions. Our best plans for a riveting exploration of the rich theological and historical meaning of the sacred signs of our faith serve only a few.

Like other RCIA directors, this trend in my own parish has given me much cause for reflection. Was it something I did or didn’t do? There may be any number of reasons why someone does not attend mystagogy, but there are also good reasons why people do show up. Last year, our sessions after Easter were better attended and more appreciated than in years past, due to some changes that helped. This article will share with you a few observations and ideas from that experience.

“Fear not little flock”- Luke 12:22
To begin, we started our RCIA with a smaller group than usual. This, of course, was not a freely chosen change! While I, and the RCIA team, mourned the lower numbers and searched for any reasons for it, we soon discovered something important. This smaller group of people (about 10 candidates and catechumens plus their sponsors) bonded with each other seemingly better than any of our other groups before. The retreats and minor rites also went better. There was simply more time to devote to each person, and more impetus for each one to get to know the others. The friendships that formed among the catechumens and candidates helped inspire the improved attendance of mystagogy, I’m sure. Call it positive peer pressure.

Other little changes also helped improved attendance. For example, during the Lenten season, we mentioned mystagogy at almost every turn. It was presented as something important and exciting that we looked forward to doing with them. Part of the reason we could be so positive involves the new elements we included. I will speak of those later.

In battling the business of everyone’s schedule, we conceded a few things to the rhythm of the secular calendar. For example, on Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day, we did not ask them to participate in a mystagogical session apart from attending the Mass of their choice. They appreciated the break and the time with their families.

When we gathered together to unpack the sacraments, the sacred signs, and their layers of significance, the sessions were heavily driven by discussion. They each had an opportunity to speak about what was most meaningful to them in each sacrament. This was a welcomed change in rhythm from our more didactic catechumenal sessions on the sacraments. At times, their insights were amazing! One young man shared his experience of “being made totally new” by Jesus in Holy Communion.

Finally, when the concluding celebration of mystagogy took place on Pentecost, to help encourage attendance, we included a special thank you brunch prepared by the new Catholics for their sponsors. No one wanted to miss it!

Altogether, having a smaller group who got along well together was the first of several changes that God made during our RCIA last year. Sensitivity to family and more dialogical catechetical sessions helped to reinvigorate our RCIA process. However, there was still one more change that we made last year, which everyone appreciated: we discovered and engaged our local Church community (beyond our parish), experiencing the joys of warm hospitality and service.

Introducción

Agnolo Gaddi's Mercy Seat Trinity paintingDurante las últimas décadas, los teólogos que enfocan la evangelización en general, y en particular, al momento de la catequesis – que es una parte de la evangelización- han puesto esfuerzos considerables de pensamiento y atención al tema del kerigma, y con justa razón. El kerigma puede entenderse aptamente como el resumen del Evangelio; y, como tal, siempre merece estudio de mayor cercanía, particularmente en una época cuando el catolicismo está menguando en muchos lugares. En esta serie de tres partes, explico lo que es el kerigma y porqué es importante. En esta primera entrega, les ofrezco una visión general del kerigma, examino su significado hoy en día, y ofrezco una visión más estrecha de uno de sus componentes más relevantes a la labor de la catequesis en nuestro tiempo.

La importancia del kerigma

Veamos primero la importancia del kerigma en la obra de la evangelización de manera general, y en la catequesis, en particular. La comprensión del kerigma es esencial por dos razones. Primero, la pregunta, “¿Cuál es la Buena Noticia de Jesucristo?” tiene, obviamente, importancia. En el Evangelio según San Marcos, las primeras palabras de Jesús son, “El tiempo se ha cumplido: el Reino de Dios está cerca. Conviértanse y crean en la Buena Noticia” (1,15). Sus primeras indicaciones son de arrepentirnos de nuestros pecados y creer en la Buena Noticia, el Evangelio. Claramente, éste es un asunto de suprema importancia; y, por lo tanto, es esencial que tengamos una comprensión clara de la naturaleza del Evangelio.

La segunda razón por la que el kerigma es tema esencial se relaciona estrechamente con la primera. Considerando lo importante que es el Evangelio para nuestra fe cristiana y nuestra vida como Sus discípulos, los estudios han demostrado que demasiados cristianos (incluyendo a muchos católicos) no saben qué es el Evangelio. De hecho, se podría argumentar que no solamente muchos creyentes ignoran el contenido auténtico de los Evangelios, sino que es probable que lo consideran ni Buena, ni Noticia. Y si esto es verdad en cuanto a los católicos y demás cristianos, ¿cuánto más se aplica de verdad entre los demás pueblos del mundo, de quienes Jesús nos dijo que hiciéramos discípulos?

Comprendiendo al kerigma, el contenido nuclear del Evangelio, es, entonces esencial: primero, por su centralidad al cristianismo; y segundo, por lo poco que se conoce en realidad en el mundo actual, entre los católicos, los demás cristianos, y la población en general.

El kerigma: una proclamación

Abordemos ahora lo que es el kerigma, al considerar lo que la palabra “kerigma” significa y al proporcionar una visión de conjunto de su contenido.

En cuanto al primer punto, el término kerigma en sí es una palabra griega que significa “proclamación”, y se relaciona estrechamente con los términos griegos que significan “proclamar” y “anunciar”. El kerigma, entonces, es la proclamación o el anuncio de algo. Como se notó arriba, el kerigma es el mensaje básico del Evangelio, el núcleo de la Buena Noticia. “Noticia”: considere esa palabra en su sentido cotidiano. Cuando escucha, lee, o mira “las noticias”, ¿qué significa la palabra? Se refiere a alguien que le cuenta acerca de algo que ha sucedido, o está sucediendo. Es lo mismo en cuanto a la Buena Noticia, el Evangelio y el kerigma: es el anuncio, la proclamación de algo que ha pasado (y, como veremos más adelante, sigue sucediendo).

Este punto en cuanto al kerigma como proclamación de algo que ha pasado es increíblemente significativo: pero, por ahora, quisiera destacar solo una manera en la que esto es cierto. Cuando hablamos de nuestra fe cristiana, a menudo tenemos la tendencia de hablar acerca de los aspectos de “cómo hacer”: aquí tiene cómo vivir, cómo orar; cómo estudiar o aprender la fe; cómo convertirse en un mejor cristiano, un mejor hombre, una mejor mujer, un mejor padre o madre de familia, etc.; y por encima de todo, aquí está cómo asegurarse que esté en el camino correcto, el camino que va al cielo. En otras palabras, hablamos acerca de lo que hacemos. Hablar acerca del “cómo hacer”, o hablar acerca de lo que nosotros hacemos no es la proclamación de algo que ha sucedido; y aunque sea Bueno, no es la Buena Noticia, sino Buenos Consejos.

Otramente dicho, cuando compartimos nuestra fe con los demás, muchos de nosotros nos saltamos involuntariamente a la Buena Noticia y nos vamos directamente a los Buenos Consejos, a los “cómo hacer”, al qué hacemos. El problema con esto no son las indicaciones “cómo hacer”: es absolutamente necesario hablar de esas cosas. El problema es saltar la Buena Noticia; ¡ya que la Buena Noticia (y su núcleo, el kerigma) es lo que hace que los Consejos sean Buenos, hace acogedora, atractiva e incluso posible aquella invitación a cómo hacerle!

La Buena Noticia, por lo tanto, es una proclamación de algo que Dios ha hecho, algo que Él ha cumplido, a la que respondemos.

A Proclamation of Salvation

Introduction

Over the last several decades, theologians who focus on evangelization in general, and the moment of catechesis within it in particular, have given considerable thought and attention to the topic of the kerygma, and rightly so. The kerygma can be aptly understood to be the summary of the Gospel; and, as such, it is always deserving of closer study, especially so in an age when Catholicism is waning in many places. In this three-part series, I’ll explain what the kerygma is and why it’s important. In this first installment, I’ll provide a basic overview of the kerygma, examine its significance today, and offer a closer look at one of its components more relevant to the work of catechesis in our time.

The Importance of the Kerygma

Let’s first look at the importance of the kerygma in the work of evangelization generally, and catechesis particularly. Understanding the kerygma is essential for at least two reasons. First, the question, “What is the Good News of Jesus Christ?” is obviously an important one. In the Gospel according to St. Mark, Jesus’ very first words are, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (1:15). His first directions are to repent of our sins and to believe in the Good News, the Gospel. Clearly this is a matter of supreme importance; and, therefore, it is essential that we have a clear understanding of the nature of the Gospel.

The second reason that the kerygma is an essential topic is closely related to the first. Considering how important the Gospel is to our Christian faith and to our life as his disciples, studies have shown that far too many Christians (including many Catholics) do not really know what the Gospel is. In fact, it could be fairly argued that not only are many believers ignorant of the actual content of the Gospels, they probably don’t even see it as either Good or as News. And if that’s true of Catholics and other Christians, how much more true must it be of the peoples of the world, all of whom Jesus told us to make disciples?

Understanding the kerygma, the core content of the Gospel, is essential then: first, because of its centrality to Christianity; and second, because of how little it is actually known in the world today, among Catholics, other Christians, and the general populace.

Psalm 42:1, “Like a deer thirsting for running water,” illustrates the soul touched by the grace of God. The enthusiastic catechist needs to be confident that God is already at work in the student. However, amid the increasing isolation of youth in the secular culture, it is easy to be less than confident.