On Catechesis: Love and Common Sense

February 12, 2014 by Jennifer Fitz

Continued from Page 1

And then, icing on the cake: It's a chance to evangelize. An hour a week talking about Jesus? I'm not seeing the problem here.

Soul-at-a-Time Discipleship

The fallacy that plagues us on both sides of the debate is in ascribing to catechesis too much power. Some swear that everything's just fine, or that it would be fine if only the class were a little bit more this, a little less that. Others kindle awe in the negative: Recognizing that catechetical classes can't fill every void, they conclude such classes can't fill any.

Formal religious education programs are a tool in the box. A good tool. But I sure hope you've got a pile of other tools, because the project you're working on is nothing less than the forming of human souls.

It's not an assembly-line job. If you want disciples rather than cogs, you've got to know, love, and equip each and every person who crosses your threshold. One at a time. A nine-month class doesn't cut it. It takes a life lived together. In person. Hour after hour, day after day, year after year. Listening, answering, serving and being served.

Discipleship is a life poured out

How much is the Lord asking of you? The whole amount. Everything. However much it is, that's how much you bring. All your piety, all your liturgy, all your affection, all your theology, all your firm-but-gentle insistence on the truth, all your organizational skills, all your works of mercy.

You bring it all.

And you don't mind, because you're in love.

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