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Recovering the Spirit of Mystagogy in the Contemporary Churches

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Recovering the Spirit of Mystagogy in the Contemporary Churches Recovering the Spirit of Mystagogy in the Contemporary Churches Ronald J. Lewinski The restoration of the catechumenate in the Roman Catholic tradition since the promulgation of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) in 1972 has been a most surprising pastoral success. Given its size and complexity one might have predicted that the RCIA would simply be ignored or dismissed as irrelevant. On the contrary, what has occurred is a widespread interest and enthusiasm for rethinking our pastoral care in the making of new Christians. The ecclesiology under­ lying the RCIA has excited theologians, pastors, and baptized faithful by stimulating and stretching their understanding of Christian life and their image of what the Church is all about. One can find today parishes throughout the United States and Canada where parishioners have taken respon­ sibility for the initiation of new members into the community. These are not professional church personnel but lay men and women who have caught the spirit of what the RCIA is all about and have committed themselves to making the catechumenate a viable process of Christian formation. You will see these men and women by hundreds at initiation workshops and institutes throughout North America. And, of course, the interest in a more wholistic formation of new church members is not just a Roman Catholic phenomenon, as this fine institute proves. The restoration of the catechumenal process and the dynamics of Church and conversion it represents has not come any too soon for the contemporary churches. There has been for a number of years a growing dissatisfaction with catechism class type learning and a growing need for new ways to interpret what Christian conversion means in contemporary society. There continues to be as well an alarming concern about the decline in active Church mem­ bers, leaving pastoral prophets warning us that we've got to find new ways to communicate our timeless message because something doesn't seem to be working. Page 71 Although it may still be too early to judge whether the RCIA or its equivalent is here to stay, its initial recep­ tion and influence on many levels of Church thinking practice has thus far been a great success. Nevertheless, there is one aspect of the catechumenal process that has not been successful: mystagogy. In the many workshops and institutes on the RCIA I have facilitated over the last few years there is always that most difficult question continuing to surface: "What can we do to make the period of mystagogy or the post­ baptismal period more appealing and fruitful?" The ques­ tion arises out of a frustration pastoral teams have experienced in trying to continue the formation process after the paschal vigil. Apparently, once people have celebrated the sacrament of initiation at the vigil they lose motivation for continuing with anything else. In their own minds they have evidently received what they wanted and so do not perceive a need for anything further. Even in communities which have been successful in drawing neophytes back after the vigil there seems to be some doubt about what to do with them. All of this brings us to the matter before us today: recovering a spirit of mystagogy in the contemporary churches. Is it in fact a reasonable expectation for us to recover a spirit of mystagogy? What does it mean? What is its value? Without jumping too far ahead at this point I believe it is fair to say that we have lost the sense of mystagogy which the early church, especially in the fourth through fifth centuries, seemed to take to so naturally. Let me also say that any attempt to recover a spirit, let alone a practice, of mystagogy cannot be considered outside of our own historical and cultural context, which subsequently presents us with a number of obstacles. Let me add that not all of what we might find in the mystagogy of the early Fathers is something we will want to employ. We will need to construct or shape our own experience and style of mystagogy. Nevertheless, we need to return to that early period of the Church to hear for ourselves what the early Fathers were preaching. We must pay attention not only to the Page 72 content of these patristic writings but also study the style, method, and context of their delivery. After a brief walk through some of the mystagogical literature, I would like to address the cultural problems we face in doing mystagogy today and then conclude with some hints of where we might begin to move in recovering the art of mystagogy for the contemporary churches. Patristic Period The most highly developed form of mystagogy dates to the fourth and fifth centuries. In this early period of the church mystagogy is equated with Easter, with the "mysteries" celebrated in the rites of initiation at the great vigil: baptism, chrismation, and eucharist. The mystagogical homilies or lectures were delivered primarily during Easter week by the bishop or on occasion by a deacon appointed by the bishop. These mystagogical addresses attempted to reveal in depth what the neophytes experienced in the actual cele­ bration of the mysteries. The bath of regeneration brought enlightenment so that now the neophytes could sec more clearly what they could not grasp before. Cyril of Jerusalem put it this way: For some time now, true and beloved children of the Church, I have desired to discourse to you on these spiritual and celestial mysteries. But I well knew that visual testimony is more trustworthy than mere hearsay, and therefore awaited this chance of find­ ing you more amenable to my words, so that out of Page 73 your personal experience I could lead you into the brightfr and more fragrant meadow of Paradise on earth. We have to presume in all of this that the vigil and the rites of initiation were substantial enough to be remembered, and that the vigil was a true vigil, a night watch, and not just a little longer Saturday evening Mass. We must picture water, lots of water; chrism filling the whole church with its perfume; candidates shivering naked in the darkness, hungry and tired from fasting and pray­ ing, and frightened about being plunged beneath the water; a eucharistic table with bread that looks like bread; and wine, perhaps the fruit of local labor. Note the joy and excitement of the vigil as Gregory of Nyssa (+394) describes his experience: What have we seen? A light like a cloud of fire of the candles burning during the night. All night our ears have resounded with psalms, hymns, and spiri­ tual chants; it was like a river of joy running through our ears to our soul and filling us with blessed hopes. And our heart, delighted by what we heard and saw, was marked with ineffable joy, con­ ducting us by means of the visible spectacle to the invisible. Those blessings which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man are shown to us in replica by the blessings of this day of rest; they are a gu~rantee for us of the ineffable blessing we hope for. 1. Cyril of Jerusalem, "Mystagogic Catechesis," Sermon 1: The Prebaptismal Rites. In Edward Yarnald, S. J., The Awe-Inspiring Rites of Initiation (Slough, England: St. Paul Publ. 1971) 68. 2. Gregory of Nyssa, Sermon Ill: On the Sacred Feast of the Pasch and on the Resurrection. In Andre Hamman, 0. F. M., The Paschal Mystery, Ancient Liturgies and Patristic Texts (Staten Island, N. J.: Alba House, 1969) 96. Page 74 Already we have the first test to our own attempts at mystagogy. Is our liturgy worth remembering the week after? Were the sights and sounds strong enough to preach about later? What is consistent in these early writings is the constant reference to the liturgy and the beautiful poetry used to communicate the depth of meaning behind all the signs and symbols, words and gestures, of the vigil. There is a beautiful interweaving of biblical events and personages related now to the baptismal event. The writ­ ings of the Fathers, especially during this Golden Period, are filled with rich imagery, metaphor, and allegory. Again from Cyril of Jerusalem: Then you were conducted by the hand to the holy pool of sacred baptism, just as Christ was conveyed from the cross to the sepulchre close at hand. Each person was asked if he believed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. You made the confession that brings salvation, and submerged yourselves three times in the water and emerged: by this symbolic gesture you were secretly re-enacting the burial of Christ three days in the tomb. For just as our Savior spent three days and nights in the hollow bosom of the earth, so you upon first emerging were representing Christ's first day in the earth, and by your immersion his first night. For at night one can no longer see but during the day one has light; so you saw nothing when immersed as if it were night, but you emerged as if to the light of day. In one and the same action you died and were born; the water of salvation became both tomb and mother for you. What Solomon said of others is opposite to you. On that occasion he said: 'There is a time to be born, and a time to die', but the opposite is true in your case--there is a time to die and a time to be born.
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