Lecture 2 - Evangelization & Catechesis

Christ is the GoalChrist is the Content

In Catechesis… Christ is the Teacher

Presented by James J. Bitting Jr. M.A.

• I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,of the Gospel I preached to you,which you indeed received and in which you also stand.Through it you are also being saved,if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures;that he was buried;that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures;that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. (1 Cor 15:1-5 emphasis added). *See also Rom 1:16

Jesus is the “first and supreme evangelizer” -GDC 34

• In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God…And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth (Jn 1:1-2, 14 emphasis added).

Jesus continues to act through His

Church.

Jesus in Luke His Body, The Church in Acts

HS descends on Jesus 3:21-22 HS descends on the Church 2:1-4

Jesus preaches to the Jews 4:14-21 Peter & Paul preach to the Jews 2:14-40; 13:16-41

Jesus’ ministry begins with His sermon 4:16-30

Church’s ministry begins with Peter’s sermon 2:14-40

Jesus heals a paralytic 5:17-26 Peter & Paul heal a paralytic 3:1-10; 14:8-10

Sick are brought to Jesus to be healed 4:40 Sick are brought to be healed 5:15-16; 28:9

Jesus is put on trial by the Sanhedrin 22:66-71

Paul is put on trial by the Sanhedrin 22:30-23:10

Jesus prays for forgiveness of his persecutors 23:24

Stephen prays for forgiveness of his persecutors 7:60

Evangelization

• What is evangelization?

– “proclaiming Christ to those who do not know Him, of preaching, of catechesis, of conferring baptism, and the other sacraments…Evangelizing means bringing the Good news into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new” (EN 17-18; see also 2 Cor 5:17, Rev 21:5).

– “The Church evangelizes when she seeks to convert, solely through the divine power of the message she proclaims, [the people, activities, & lives]”(EN 18 emphasis mine).

The Message• The Content of Evangelization is the Gospel

message aka The Kerygma.

– Often the word Kerygma is used to refer to the initial proclamation of the Gospel.

– The substance of this message can be expressed in a variety of ways, longer or shorter but the substance always remains the same:

• Jn 3:16; Eph 1:3-10; 1 Cor 15:3-5,21-23; 1 Jn 4:9-17; CCC 1

• “When sharing the Gospel, you focus on the basic Christian message, the core of the Good News – Who Christ is, what he offers us, and why we need what he offers…That is the Kerygma, the essential Christian message” (Hahn, Evangelizing Catholics pgs. 39-40).

• “All people have a right to know Jesus Christ and his Gospel: and Christians, all Christians – priests, religious and lay faithful – have a corresponding duty to proclaim the Good News” (Pope Benedict XVI emphasis added)

Synod on the New Evangelization Oct

2012

• “The vocation and the mission proper to the lay faithful is the transformation of worldly structures, to let all human behavior and activities be informed by the Gospel” (Proposition 45 of Synod on the New Evangelization)

• What is the New Evangelization?

New Evangelization

• What does “New” refer to?– Ardor, Methods, Enthusiasm, Dialogue

– NOT New Content

• The Call for this is not so new– Spirago 1901, Jungman 1936, Paul VI

1975, JPII 1983 to Latin Bishops & most explicitly in RM 33 given Dec 1990

• Who is the Audience?– “the baptized who have lost a sense of

the faith…and live a life far removed from Christ” (RM 33)

– See also BXVI Homily to open Synod Oct 7, 2012

Evangelization continued• It is “as it were a matter of upsetting

through the power of the Gospel, mankind’s criteria of judgment, determining values, points of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration and models of life, which are in contrast with the Word of God and the plan of salvation” (EN 19).

• If it is in contrast with the Word of God it is in contrast to you!

• “The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light…Christ…fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear” (GS 22).

• It is in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man becomes clear (CCC 359).

Importance of Evangelization

• “We wish to confirm that the task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church. It is a task and mission which the vast and profound changes of present-day society make all the more urgent. Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ's sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious resurrection” (EN 14 emphasis mine).

• See GDC 46-51

5

• Catechesis falls under the umbrella of evangelization.

• So what is catechesis?

Evangelization

1-Witness of a Christian life lived out in the world

2-Proclaim Christ through words

4-catechetical instruction

5-Mass media & social communication

6-Person to Person conversation

7-Celebration of the Sacraments

3-Liturgy of the Word & Homily

Catechesis

• From the Greek word “katecheo” meaning:-To echo down, resound-To charm with resounding sound-To teach orallySee Luke 1:4; Acts 18:25; 21:21; 21:24; Romans 2:18; 1 Cor 14:19; Gal 6:6.

Why Should Catechists Study the Nature of “Evangelization & Conversion”

• The aims of catechesis are two-fold

– Deeper Understanding of the Person of Christ

– Ongoing Conversion to Christ

• “Catechesis aims therefore at developing understanding of the mystery of Christ in the light of God's word, so that the whole of a person's humanity is impregnated by that word. Changed by the working of grace into a new creature, the Christian thus sets himself to follow Christ and learns more and more within the Church to think like Him, to judge like Him, to act in conformity with His commandments, and to hope as He invites us to” ( Catechesitradendae 20) see also GCD of 1971 para 18).

Deeper Understanding

Reason & Cause of Conversion

Conversion to Christ

Catechesis is a Moment in Evangelization• Ideally evangelization would have

already taken place and those to be catechized would have already committed their whole lives to Christ, – “But in catechetical practice, this

model order must allow for the fact that the initial evangelization has often not taken place…This means that "catechesis" must often concern itself not only with nourishing and teaching the faith, but also with arousing it unceasingly with the help of grace, with opening the heart, with converting, and with preparing total adherence to Jesus Christ on the part of those who are still on the threshold of faith. This concern will in part decide the tone, the language and the method of catechesis” (CT 19 emphasis mine; see also GCD 18).

Catechesis is a Moment in Evangelization• “Within the whole process of evangelization,

the aim of catechesis is to be the teaching and maturation stage, that is to say, the period in which the Christian, having accepted by faith the person of Jesus Christ as the one Lord and having given Him complete adherence by sincere conversion of heart, endeavors to know better this Jesus to whom he has entrusted himself” (CT 20 emphasis mine, also GDC 85).

• “The ‘moment’ of catechesis is that which corresponds to the period in which conversion to Jesus Christ is formalized, and provides a basis for first adhering to him” (GDC 63).

Catechesis and the New Evangelization

• “One cannot speak of the New Evangelization if the catechesis of adults is non-existent, fragmented, weak, or neglected” (Prop 28)

• “Good catechesis is essential for the New Evangelization…all catechists, who are at the same time evangelizers, need to be well prepared” (Prop 29)

• Formation that is “spiritual, biblical, doctrinal, and pedagogical” should be provided.

• “Personal witness to the faith is itself a powerful form of catechesis” (Prop 29)

Catechesis is NOT theology -Cardinal Schonborn

• “there is a vital need to understand the difference between doctrine and theology”– Doctrine is salvific; it leads to holiness– Theology is for some; Doctrine is for all– The CCC contains doctrine NOT theology

(see also GDC 124)

– Theology is the activity of reflecting upon doctrine

– It is doctrine [not theology] that is the province of catechesis

– Catechists proclaim the Church’s doctrine…they do not teach theology

– The CCC is situated at a level that precedes theological concepts and that provides their foundation

– Theologies are many; the Faith is one

Catechesis & Theology

• Cardinal Schonborn also notes that St. Thomas Aquinas held that the articles of faith are not theological conclusions but rather the axioms or presuppositions for all theological reflection

Josef Jungmann S.J. (d. 1975)

• [With Doctrine] we find a simple message, a graphic picture…[with theology] we find a complicated structure of concepts, divisions, distinctions (p. 27)

• Confusion of theology and catechesis may be the reason for the “separation between religious knowledge and religious life” (p. 28)

• A mistake to think the proclamation of Christian doctrine should be determined by scientific theology (p30)

Jungmann• the work of theology “is found in

those areas where light wrestles with darkness, where God’s word encounters human knowledge and seeks a solution in the human mind” (P. 31)

• “Theology is primarily at the service of knowledge; hence it investigates religious reality to the outermost limits of the knowable and struggles here for the last little piece of truth that can be grasped, without asking in each instance about the significance such effort may have for life” (p. 33)

Jungmann• “the proclamation of

the faith, on the other hand, is entirely oriented toward life…the proclamation itself is always the message of salvation; for the meaning of Christianity is not knowledge but life, not theology but holiness” (pgs. 33-34)

Jungmann• “from the standpoint of content,

questions about the inner life of God will come less to the fore than those which lead to a recognition of God as the source and true home of man…hence the economy of salvation will, above all else, be the central theme” (p.34 emphasis added)

• “Above all else there should be central unity: Christ as the bearer of grace and grace as life in Christ…this is the fruitful seed it will plant in the souls of men” (p. 35) i.e. Christocentricity, Primacy of Grace, Dignity of the Human Person

Discussion Board Questions

• 1) Discuss how you might go about increasing the understanding amongst pastors and catechists that all evangelization is not catechesis but all catechesis should be evangelization. ….OR

• 2) What consequences do you see coming about if priests, catechetical leaders, and catechists do not have a clear understanding of the difference between theology and proclaiming the faith in catechesis?

Catechesis is NOT Theology!

• See pg. xxxi in The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Craft of Catechesis and Jungman 30-37, 96, Hofinger pgs. 301&307-308, CT 61, Pedagogy of God pgs. 172-173; Kevane in the Deposit pgs. 263-265