Why do we need Adult Catechesis?
DECLARATION ON CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: GRAVISSIMUM EDUCATIONIS PROCLAIMED BY HIS HOLINESS POPE PAUL VI ON OCTOBER 28, 1965
Since all Christians have become by rebirth of water and the Holy Spirit a new creature so that they should be called and should be children of God, they have a right to a Christian education. A Christian education does not merely strive for the maturing of a human person as just now described, but has as its principal purpose this goal: that the baptized, while they are gradually introduced the knowledge of the mystery of salvation, become ever more aware of the gift of Faith they have received, and that they learn in addition how to worship God the Father in spirit and truth (cf. John 4:23) especially in liturgical action, and be conformed in their personal lives according to the new man created in justice and holiness of truth (Eph. 4:22-24); also that they develop into perfect manhood, to the mature measure of the fullness of Christ (cf. Eph. 4:13) and strive for the growth of the Mystical Body; moreover, that aware of their calling, they learn not only how to bear witness to the hope that is in them (cf. Peter 3:15) but also how to help in the Christian formation of the world that takes place when natural powers viewed in the full consideration of man redeemed by Christ contribute to the good of the whole society.
Since parents have given children their life, they are bound by the most serious obligation to educate their offspring and therefore must be recognized as the primary and principal educators. This role in education is so important that only with difficulty can it be supplied where it is lacking. Parents are the ones who must create a family atmosphere animated by love and respect for God and man, in which the well-rounded personal and social education of children is fostered. Hence the family is the first school of the social virtues that every society needs. It is particularly in the Christian family, enriched by the grace and office of the sacrament of matrimony, that children should be taught from their early years to have a knowledge of God according to the faith received in Baptism, to worship Him, and to love their neighbor. Here, too, they find their first experience of a wholesome human society and of the Church. Finally, it is through the family that they are gradually led to a companionship with their fellowmen and with the people of God. Let parents, then, recognize the inestimable importance a truly Christian family has for the life and progress of God's own people.
A Plea for Really Committing to Adult Faith Formation by R. Thomas Richard
The Catechism prophetically teaches: The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection (cf., Rev 19:1-9). The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven (cf., Rev 13:8; 20:7-10; 21:2-4). God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world (cf., Rev 20:12 2 Pt 3:12-13). 1
The Church does not have to give the world over, or surrender, to “the revolt of evil.” The Church was sent to “make disciples.” But the Church is drowsy—like the disciples dozing off as Jesus prayed in His agony in the garden—unable or unwilling to grasp the signs of the times. As Church, we can hardly evangelize our own, in spite of the aching exhortations of Saint John Paul II, and Benedict XVI, for a “New Evangelization.” There is little visible zeal for such a great commission. Instead, there is lethargy, a lukewarm-ness, a continuing focus on the affairs of the local parish, at the expense of responding to the desperate needs of the world outside the parish.
There is a world outside of the local parish—a world losing its morality, its culture, its human sensitivity, its human dignity. It is a world of practical atheism, lost in moral relativism, drunk from sexual addictions and materialism, lost in a barren wasteland, alone without truth or love. And inside the parish, what are we doing? What do our cycles of meetings concern themselves with, and what do we accomplish?
We need to awaken. We need to be stirred to action to do what Jesus sent the Church to do: “Make disciples.” This call to make disciples needs to begin in the parishes. We cannot give what we do not have; we do not have a solid formation in the faith that Jesus entrusted to us. We lack the ability and zeal necessary to articulate it. We must take seriously the need for adult formation. We must provide adult formation in the faith for the sake of our marriages and families—now threatened by the advancing culture of death—and for the sake of Jesus, who sends us out to evangelize the world. We have the teachings and concerns of the Church “on paper.” We only lack the implementation.
From “Catechesis of Adults in the Christian Community” (1988): In summary, in order for the Good News of the Kingdom to penetrate all the various layers of the human family, it is crucial that every Christian play an active part in the coming of the Kingdom. The work of each will be coordinated with, and complementary to, the contribution of everyone else, according to the different degrees of responsibility each one has. All of this naturally requires adults to play a primary role. Hence, it is not only legitimate, but necessary, to acknowledge that a fully Christian community can exist only when a systematic catechesis of all its members takes place and when an effective and well-developed catechesis of adults is regarded as the central task in the catechetical enterprise.
In the light of this call for a New Evangelization, that must begin in the Church, among Catholics, we see that the mission of the Church demands of us attention to the crucial ministry of adult catechesis. Adults deserve an adult catechesis, an opportunity to encounter Christ in His Word, and in the teachings he has entrusted to his Church. Adults are called in their lay vocation to be “full, conscious and active participants” in the liturgy of the Church. Hence, they are also called to full and personal living out of this liturgy in the secular world. We cannot give to the world what we do not have in our hearts; we cannot bear witness to what we do not understand, or even know. We cannot raise our children in a faith we do not understand, and love. We cannot bring light to this darkening culture if we ourselves can hardly see it, or articulate it. We need to know the faith, growing in that wisdom, and in that life, for the rest of our lives.
The Role of the Laity: An Examination of Vatican II and Christifideles Laici | Carl E. Olson
Simply put, far too many Catholics have bought into the modern perspective that insists religious beliefs are private and the sharing of such beliefs should not take place in public. According to this sentiment, discussions of such "personal" matters in public are not only insensitive, they are also raw displays of arrogance which decent people cannot tolerate. And this view, quite common in North American parishes, is even held by some as the official stance of the "post-Vatican II" Church.
Most of the laity seem content to go with the flow, limiting their public expression of faith to Sunday Mass and keeping silent the rest of the week. It would seem that they should be doing more with their faith in the "real" world--but exactly what? The Christian who neglects his earthly duties, neglects his duties toward his neighbor and even God, jeopardizes his eternal salvation.
Two temptations can be cited which the laity have not always known how to avoid: the temptation of being so strongly interested in Church services and tasks that some fail to become actively engaged in their responsibilities in the professional, social, cultural and political world; and the temptation of legitimizing the unwarranted separation of faith from life, that is, a separation of the Gospel's acceptance from the actual living of the Gospel in various situations in the world.
While helping the world and receiving many benefits from it, the Church has a single intention: that God's kingdom may come, and that the salvation of the whole human race may come to pass. For every benefit which the People of God during its earthly pilgrimage can offer to the human family stems from the fact that the Church is "the universal sacrament of salvation", simultaneously manifesting and exercising the mystery of God's love for man.
The Church--at both the parish and universal level--is a communion with Christ and each member of the Body whose totality can never be seen in the sum of its parts. And it is this mystery which must be encountered and entered into in order for the role of the laity can be further clarified: "Only from inside the Church's mystery of communion is the 'identity' of the lay faithful made known, and their fundamental dignity revealed.
Most lay people have little understanding or interest in the Church's "single intention" of salvation for all of humanity. Because they do not appreciate the difference between the sacramental and secular realms they miss how those in the ordained priesthood and those in the common priesthood compliment one another in their respective states and should be working together towards the common goal.
This vocation to holiness orients the laity towards their proper role: working in the temporal order for the kingdom of God. It is their duty to engage in a sort of sacred subversion by which they, grounded in holiness and filled with the Holy Spirit, change the world from the inside, permeating it with truth and light. We come to a full sense of the dignity of the lay faithful if we consider the prime and fundamental vocation that the Father assigns to each of them in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit: the vocation to holiness, that is, the perfection of charity. Holiness is the greatest testimony of the dignity conferred on a disciple of Christ.
We can see, in looking at the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the writings of Pope John Paul II (especially Christifideles Laici) that the laity possess a specific and unique vocation that they must pursue and fulfill in order for the Church to grow and to permeate the world. This vocation is rooted in the holiness infused into us at baptism and nourished in the Eucharist; it shows us that we are members of the Body of Christ, the Church, and that we belong to the Head of the Body, Jesus Christ. And so while the laity are often called to help the ordained in various ways within the Church, the central focus of the laity must be the temporal world, the culture and society they live in, of which they are an integral part. If the laity are not changing the kingdom of man, they are failing the kingdom of God: "Therefore, I have maintained that a faith that does not affect a person's culture is a faith not fully embraced, not entirely thought out, not faithfully lived"