As Catholics, many of us were baptized as infants, long before we realized what happened on this most special occasion. At Baptism, we became children of God and members of the Church. Catechesis can be described as the life-long process of growing into what it means to be a child of God and a member of the Church.
The work of catechesis cannot be pawned off onto others. To raise children in the Catholic Faith involves a whole lot more than sending them to a Catholic school or enrolling them in a parish program of religious formation, as important as these actions are.
We were baptized into a Way of Life. The Good News of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ that we celebrate at Mass has implications for how we relate to all facets of living in this world, including our own bodies, other persons, the environment, leisure, money and what it can buy, our attitude toward school, work , suffering, success and death. As we can see, the scope of catechesis is enormous. It is a life-long process. As we take this to heart, we will crave on-going formation in the Faith after we graduate from grade school, high school, college, during the years in which we work and into retirement.
We all appreciate the importance of development in our relationships with one another. As we develop, our parents step more and more into the background. Ideally, our parents relate to us in a manner that enables us to find the Lord’s rightful place for ourselves in this world as adults.
On-going catechesis directs us to accept and relate to the Lord on His terms rather than our own. Some of Christ’s teachings as these come to us through the Church, for example, in regard to how we are designed to relate to our own bodies and those of others, are very challenging. In these and in other areas of our lives, it can be easy to accept God on our terms rather than on His terms. If we give in to this inclination, we will miss the boat in regard to our eternal well-being. In catechesis , we are assured that whenever the Lord calls us to do that which is difficult, He is always willing to equip us for that which He asks of us.
A powerful way in which He would work to equip us can be through the influence that we have upon one another. Regardless of our age, we all have a vital role of supporting one another to enable each to become the person that the Lord wants that individual to be. Our Catechists play a vital role in assisting and supporting parents in the mission to transmit our Catholic Christian Way of Life to children and youth. In no way can our catechists and religion teachers take the place of parents/guardians in sharing our Faith with the children and youth entrusted to them. Our parents/guardians are entrusted with the awesome mission of being the first and primary transmitters of the Church’s Faith to their children. Hopefully, the presence and work of our catechists will inspire each of us to grow into the gift of Faith that we received when we were baptized. In regard to our spiritual development, may we each take to heart that it takes a village to raise a child, and that this process is on-going for as long as we live.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Nelson Beaver – Pastor