In dioceses across the country, parishes reserve one Sunday a year to remember in a special way the staff and volunteers who participate in the teaching mission of the church. Catechetical Sunday is what it is called. St. Ignatius of Loyola Church celebrates Catechetical Sunday this weekend. To be sure, those who will be blessed and recognized this weekend will include the catechists and religion teachers in our school and church programs. But the list continues from there to include youth/young adult ministry leaders, RCIA team members, homeschooling parents who teach religion, sacramental preparation presenters, Bible study leaders, and many others whose work involves teaching the faith to others, be they young or old, Catholic or otherwise. Almost fifty years ago in his apostlic letter Evangellii Nuntiandi (“Evangelization in the Modern World”), Pope St. Paul VI spoke to the necessity of handing on our faith not only to our loved ones, but also to those who have not yet had the Good News introduced to them. The pope knew that handing on the faith had to be more than matter of providing information; rather, it also needed to be formational, even transformational. To that point, he makes a profound point about the relationship between teaching the faith and evangelizing the faith to others. In paragraph #41 in the document, he writes…
“Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”
Without downplaying the role of catechisms and catechesis in the life of faith, Paul VI knew that an embodied and living faith came prior to our ability to both understand it and teach it. I think all of our catechists would agree with the pope’s observation, and look to spread their faith with the witness of their lives. For this we give thanks. We might also consider catechesis and evangelization in relation to the sacramental life of the church. We often view sacraments as graces we receive in order to help us on the path of salvation. This is certainly the case. But beyond being received, sacraments are meant to be lived. They are meant to be embodied in our everyday lives such that we become the sacraments we receive. In doing so, it is not only ourselves who are drawn to greater communion with God, it also those whom we encounter.
Thank you to all who serve the Lord by imparting our faith both in word and in deed.
