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From the Pastor’s Desk
Catechetical Sunday
“Enlisting Witnesses for Jesus Christ”
Today is “Catechetical Sunday” in the Dioceses of the United States – a day set aside to recognize and bless those who serve in our parishes and schools in the ministry of religious education. Besides classroom teachers, this also includes those who serve as primary catechists in the formation of those who come to us seeking to become members of the Catholic Church through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.
This year’s theme – “Enlisting Witnesses for Jesus Christ” – is both for those who serve as catechists and religious education teachers along with those they serve. The Most Rev. Robert Barron, Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles and Chair of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, reminds us that true witnesses are those who are fully living the Catholic-Christian faith, not in some kind of “watered down” version, but totally, even when it means sacrificing for the truth.
Our Church asks that its catechists, teachers and those who assist in faith formation be fully committed to Christ and His Church. But that also is true for the primary teachers of children in the faith – parents. When parents who are not fully engaged in living the Catholic faith, this tends to only confuse their children. One commentator likened it to playing charades which is only a game. Faith, and its practice in religion, is not a game, but the very stuff of life, and we must, in turn, remember Jesus words: “I came that they may have life and have it fully!” (cf. John 10:10)
All of us are catechists in some manner. Are you witnessing to Christ and His Church fully? Each of us can always do that little bit extra to witness to the power and glory of God’s love and salvation for our world.
Love,
Father Tom