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Catechesis: “Teaching What God Has Taught Us”

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Catechesis: “Teaching What God Has Taught Us” Catechesis: “Teaching What God Has Taught Us” Evangelization and Catechesis Church is built up through sacramental com- Freely out of love God the Trinity created munion with the Son of God who was sacrificed human beings with the intention of calling them for our sake” (Pope John Paul II, On the Eucharist to become the children of the Father through [Ecclesia de Eucharistia] [Washington, DC: Christ, his Son, in the Holy Spirit. Human United States Conference of Catholic Bishops beings are the privileged object of God’s love (USCCB), 2003], no. 21). and have been created from the beginning with a Because the Church is founded on com- supernatural vocation to share in God’s inner life, munion with the Son of God, the origin and to enter into communion with the Trinity. (See the final goal of the Church lie in the mystery Eph 1:3ff.; Col 1:15ff.; Gal 4:4ff.; 1 Jn 4:7ff.1) of the Trinity. This reality—the Church as the In God’s plan of salvation, the Church is the community of humankind called into and actu- mystery of the personal union and communion ally sharing in the communion of the Triune of human beings with the divine Trinity initi- God—was planned by God from eternity. The ated by faith. This means that the Church is Church is foreshadowed from the very creation an organically structured communion brought of humankind, because the human race from the together by a sharing in the unity of the Trinity, first moments of creation has been called to com- which endows the Church, as a communion, munion with God by “adopted sonship” (see Eph with invisible and visible elements, and thus cre- 1:3ff.; Col 1:15ff.; Gal 4:4ff.; 1 Jn 4:7ff.). The ates her to be the “sacrament of salvation.” Church is then intrinsic to the salvation of the The union with the life of the Trinity that human race, that is, to fulfillment of the unique creates the communion of the Church comes supernatural vocation to which human beings as about through the Eucharist, where Christ gives creatures of God are called—to communion with us himself to form us into his Body, the Church. the Trinity. This vertical communion (with the It is the vertical communion of the Church with Trinity) happens in and through the horizontal the Trinity, brought about in the Eucharist, that communion (the Church) that it brings about. in turn creates the horizontal communion among The act of faith, brought about by God’s grace, the members of the Church. The Church is in that initiates human beings into communion with essence a communion created by participation in the Trinity comes through hearing the Word of the life of the Trinity through the Eucharist: “the God (see Rom 10:17). It is for this reason that Jesus Christ, the “One sent” from the Father to fulfill the Father’s saving plan, commissioned the 1 See also Second Vatican Council, Pastoral Apostles as his emissaries: “go . and make dis- Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium ciples of all nations . teaching them to observe et Spes), no. 22, in Vatican Council II: Volume 1: The all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20). Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, new rev. ed., ed. Austin Flannery (Northport, NY: Costello Publishing Through them and their successors, under the 1996). (All subsequent citations from the conciliar guidance of the Holy Spirit, Jesus continues his documents are taken from this edition.) 1 saving mission in time until the end of the world. that human beings are capable by their nature The missionary mandate of Jesus concerns not of arriving at the certainty of God’s existence. only the unique apostolic ministry but also the “God, who creates and conserves all things by Church’s fundamental mission to make disciples of his Word, provides men with constant evi- all the nations. dence of himself in created realities” (Second The essence of the Church’s mission, then, Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine is the evangelization of all peoples. The entire Revelation [Dei Verbum] [DV], no. 3; see also Wis Church and those who exercise apostolic minis- 13:1ff.; Rom 1:19-20). But although creation try within the community of the Church are to does bear witness to a personal and benevolent make known the saving Truth, God’s Word that God, it does so in an impersonal manner. It Jesus came to reveal in his person and mission. offers knowledge of God, but it is incapable of The proclamation and transmission of the saving providing a full knowledge of who God is. In his Word of God takes place through the Church’s providential plan God desired to reveal himself mission of evangelization. From the early his- fully to us so that we could attain personal com- tory of the Church, the name given to the total munion with him. This divine personal disclosure process of making disciples and imparting the and call to divine communion happened in time teaching of God’s Word has been “catechesis” and human history. It began with the creation (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], 2nd ed. of the first humans, unfolded in the history of [Washington, DC: Libreria Editrice Vaticana– Israel, and reached completion in the Person USCCB, 2000], nos. 4-5). “Evangelization and mission of Jesus Christ (see Eph 1:3-14). As and catechesis are among the principal means the Catechism observes, the plan of Revelation by which the Church hands on the faith” “involves a specific divine pedagogy: God com- (USCCB, National Directory for Catechesis [NDC] municates himself to man gradually. He pre- [Washington, DC: USCCB, 2005], § 15). In both pares him to welcome by stages the supernatural evangelization and catechesis, Divine Revelation, Revelation that is to culminate in the person God’s self-communication in history that cul- and mission of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ” minates in Jesus Christ, has a primary place. In (CCC, no. 53). God’s self-revelation happens in essence, Divine Revelation is the Truth that God the events of human history and in the inspired has taught us. “The source of catechesis is found words that both accompany and interpret these in the word of God revealed by Jesus Christ” events. Revelation then unfolds in history (NDC, § 18). At the basis of God’s teaching one through “deeds and words, which are intrinsically can discern a process or “divine pedagogy.” An bound up with each other. the works per- examination of the nature of God’s self-revelation formed by God in the history of salvation show makes this process evident. Thus, ultimately, the forth and bear out the doctrine and realities sig- passing-on of God’s teaching in evangelization and nified by the words; the words, for their part, pro- catechesis should correspond to God’s own peda- claim the works, and bring to light the mystery gogy in his self-revelation. they contain” (DV, no. 2). God’s Revelation through deeds and words Revelation: God’s happened in stages, preparing human beings Self-Communication in for his full self-disclosure in Jesus Christ. These Time and History stages began with God’s Revelation to the first humans (Gn 1–3); continued in the history of Israel through the covenants with Noah, A. The Nature of Divine Revelation Abraham, Moses, and King David; and progressed The teaching of the Church has always affirmed in the teaching of the judges, priests, prophets, that God reveals himself in created reality and and biblical writers until the fulfillment of God’s 2 Revelation and covenantal promises in Jesus B. The Transmission of Christ, the Incarnate Son. Because of the provi- Divine Revelation sional nature of the various stages of Revelation in the divine pedagogy, their enduring elements The Holy Spirit continues to guide the trans- are able to be discerned only in light of the mission of the definitive deposit of Divine fullness of Revelation in Christ. Thus, in the Revelation given in Christ, through the Sacred unfolding of Revelation, God the divine teacher Tradition coming from the Apostles and the continued to draw human beings to a more Sacred Scriptures of both Testaments under the profound comprehension of his divine plan. In authoritative interpretation of the Magisterium of this process God at later stages often had to cor- the Church. Catechesis must turn to these means rect misunderstandings that had arisen at earlier of transmission in order to access its source, the stages due to human pride and sinfulness (see deposit of Revelation. The forty-six books of Mk 10:1-11; also see Aidan Nichols, Lovely Like the Old Testament and the twenty-seven books Jerusalem [San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2007], of the New Testament were written under the 37, 85-86, 116-119). The process of Revelation inspiration of the Holy Spirit and constitute involves written witness (the Books of the Old the written expression of the revealed Word and New Testaments) and communal tradition of God. Because of Divine Inspiration, these (Israel and the Church). In Jesus—God and books “firmly, faithfully and without error . man, the perfect mediator of Revelation—God’s teach that truth which God, for the sake of our self-disclosure to humankind reaches its fullness. salvation, wished to see confided to the sacred This means that the Revelation in all the other Scriptures” (DV, no. 11). stages of God’s pedagogy must be interpreted and The books of the Old Testament provide us understood in light of the fullness of Revelation with the written expression of the provisional in Christ.
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