While the origins of the word “catechesis” are drawn from Greek roots somewhat related to “instruction by word of mouth,” the term is often used interchangeably with a more general sense of Christian formation.
It is clear then that this is not essentially an instructive sharing of mere information, but a holistic relationship that echoes in a contemporary ecclesial setting God’s offer of self-communication that Christians have traditionally referred to as revelation.
As Saint Paul asks rhetorically in the letter to the Romans: “How then shall they call on him, in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear, without someone to proclaim him?” (Rom. 10:14).
Every Christian, whether baptized as an infant or making the decision to profess faith as an adult, enjoys the mystical revelations of public witness to Christ through a process of reception. From our formal entrance into the faith, and very often even before it, we are then both the beneficiaries of and radically dependent on others. Someone (or very likely many, many “ones” across the community of believers) has introduced us to the sacramental, intellectual and interpersonal dimensions of religious belonging.
We come to know Jesus Christ inter-generationally after 20 centuries not through some type of osmosis, but rather through a complex nexus of the working of the Holy Spirit, the intercession of the communion of saints, and the ongoing witness and labors of flawed human beings who we encounter in our families, schools, parishes and other arenas of life.
The process of catechizing someone is not then a fundamentally propositional affair, whereby the fledgling Catholic learns to recite the disparate minutia of the Church as if they were filed in an old-fashioned library card catalog, and he or she needs simply to flip the listings through efficiently and repeatedly. As important as they are, we do not need simply to give intellectual assent to the “consubstantial relationship of Father and Son in the Trinity” or to the “communication of idioms as relates to the hypostatic union after the council of Ephesus,” or to the “primacy of the Petrine office as expressed in the modern papacy” and feel that we have then exhausted our responsibilities as contemporary believers.
True catechesis is more than uploading a checklist of phrases that if memorized and recited correctly means that Saint Peter has to allow us entrance into the Pearly Gates when we can parrot them properly after death.
It is for this reason that in 2021, Pope Francis published the motu proprio letter titled “Antiquum Ministerium.” Recognizing the ancient roots of the process, which can be traced to the New Testament period, the pope formalized the institution of the lay ministry of catechist. He connected such a vocation to the “primary catechist” in a Catholic framework, the local bishop in the diocese he serves. But he also recognized that lay men and women “who feel called by virtue of their baptism to cooperate in the work of catechesis” have an authentic role to play in complementing the bishop’s mission, which he of course also shares with his brother priests and with responsible parents contributing to the formation of their children in the home.
In our contemporary context, these lay figures are “co-responsible” for the genuine proclamation and transmission of the faith, alongside these other legitimate authorities.
In talking to the Third International Congress on Catechesis organized by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization, Pope Francis made clear, “The Lord calls us all to make his Gospel resound in the heart of every person.” Rather than a “school lecture,” he encouraged those in attendance to present “a living experience of the faith that each of us wishes to pass on to new generations.” At essence, this work is a lived expression of a culture of encounter, whereby the catechist is both called and privileged to “make visible and tangible the person of Jesus Christ, who loves each one of you.”
At the heart of the process lies not a torrent of theological words and theorems, but rather an introduction to a Person – one who unceasingly calls us to overcome our severely limiting horizons and to live, and potentially die, for others and for the transcendent Other who remains ever beyond the fumbling human attempts to comprehend, control, or categorize the divine.
Originally from Collingswood, Michael M. Canaris, Ph.D., teaches at Loyola University, Chicago.
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