Today is Catechetical Sunday, when we kick off the year in religious
education in our parish. As I read
through today’s Gospel, I thought about how sometimes we hear a very
comforting, comfortable, and “warm and fuzzy” Gospel reading, but that
certainly is not the case today. Today’s
Gospel is probably very familiar to most of us, but it contains a challenging,
“hard-hitting” message. And we hear this
Gospel message in the midst of today’s theme for Catechetical Sunday –
“Catechists and Teachers as Agents of the New Evangelization.” Jesus tells the crowds today that if they
wish to follow him, they must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow
him. His followers must lose their lives
for his sake and for the sake of his Good News in order to save their lives.
Yet, how do we implement such a daunting task in our lives in taking up Jesus’
cross? And what exactly is this “New
Evangelization” that we are called to undertake today as we kick off our year
of religious education?
In thinking of Christ’s
cross, I thought of St Francis of Assisi, a man who was born in Italy back in
the late 12th century. When
he was a youth, he lived a very comfortable, affluent lifestyle full of riches
and pleasure, but it was a life that was not centered upon God. One day, he had a vision of Christ on the
cross. Francis saw Christ calling out to
him directly: “To be my follower, Francis, you need to deny yourself, take up
your cross and follow me.” In front of
his father and the bishop, Francis denied his family and his inheritance. Francis told them that his true Father is his
Father in heaven. Francis then devoted
his life to reaching out to the poor and to seeing God in all of creation. Francis denied himself in the context of
denying his family, since in the Mediterranean world of his day, his
understanding of himself was tied very closely to community and family. We in the modern Western world most often see
ourselves in terms of our self-reliance and individualism, but in the
Mediterranean world, identity was integrally tied to family and community; they
couldn’t perceive themselves outside the context of those close ties.
Throughout the Gospels, we see
Jesus leaving his family and village to preach the Good News, traveling here
and there, leaving the place to which he was born. Jesus tells us to deny
ourselves, to see ourselves as members of his Father’s family, as members of
our community of faith. We take up the
cross and journey on the path of faith as true brothers and sisters in
Christ.
Francis of Assisi rebelled about
what he saw going on in the world of his day, so much of which was against the
Gospel that Jesus’ preached. We are
faced with the same situation in the world today. We see our society become more secular; we
see so many people turn away from the Church. All that we Christians face in
the world today is why both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI saw such an
opportunity for a new evangelization.
Many of us Christians saw evangelization as necessary for those who had
not yet accepted Christ into their lives, or for those who lived away in
faraway lands where Christ’s Gospel was something new. But right here in our
own city, our catechists and our teachers - and all of us as followers of
Christ - are challenged by the pope and our bishops to bring a new evangelization
to the world. And to whom might this new evangelization be directed?
(1)To the baptized who were never effectively evangelized before, as all
children and youth need a strong foundation on our faith, and many of them are
not getting it on a consistent basis.
(2) To those who have never made a personal commitment to Christ and the
Gospel. It’s one thing to hear the
Gospel or to agree with its message, but if we don't live out our faith and
commit to it, then it never really penetrates our lives.
(3) To those formed by the values of our secularized culture. So many in our society live by the values
that they see in movies, on the TV, and on the internet, that they hear in
popular music and see lived out on the streets.
We are competing with many other messages in the world today.
(5) To those who have lost a sense of faith. A crisis or hardship can shake our faith. Or
we can start down a road that leads us away from our faith. Sometimes, we lose our faith along the way
and never come back to it.
(6) To those who are alienated, who feel that there is not a place for
them in the Church, who feel unwelcome or that they don’t belong.
(7) To all human cultures, so that they might be open to the Gospel and
live in harmony with Christian values.
We’re called to be teachers, witnesses, and catechists to the world by
the example we give, by our words, our actions, and our accomplishments.
Our reading from the letter
of James gives us further insight as to what it means to carry our cross and
follow Jesus. James wants us to move our
faith from our intellect into our hearts and minds, to move beyond thoughts and
words into actions and an integrated lifestyle that reflects our faith. James gives us the example of a believer who
wishes peace on his brother or sister, but does nothing to help him if he’s
hungry or in need. We’re called to put our faith into action as part of
carrying the cross and having a personal relationship with Christ. We can begin by simply reaching out to Christ
for that relationship and then acting with him in mind.
Today's Gospel story was a
turning point for Peter and the disciples.
Peter declared Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, but he still envisioned
the Messiah as a triumphant and powerful nationalistic leader, not a suffering
servant. We can only understand Jesus as
the Messiah by seeing him as the Son of God who suffered, died on the cross,
and was resurrected. Otherwise, Jesus, who performed great miracles and
healings, who taught and proclaimed the kingdom of God, would be nothing more
than a great teacher and miracle worker.
We’re excited about the new
year of religious education ahead of us.
It is going to be a lot of work, but we have a lot of wonderful
activities ahead of us as well. In just
a few weeks, we will kick off the Year of Faith, which will celebrate the 50th
anniversary of the Second Vatican Council.
We hope to revive a lot of the traditional devotions that we have in our
Catholic faith and to breath new life into the way we practice our faith here
at our parishes in Yazoo City and Belzoni. We hope to evangelize ourselves in
the traditional ways of our Catholic faith, and to evangelize our community at
the same time. We give thanks for all of our teachers and catechists who are
going to journeying with us this year.
We give thanks for all of the children, youth, and adults who will
participate in our religious education programs. We are excited about the year ahead of us,
and we want to ask for the Lord’s blessing as we celebrate Catechetical Sunday. We will now have a special blessing for our
teachers and catechists, and we will have them make a special prayer of
commitment after they receive their blessing:
Blessing
and Prayer for Catechists:
O God, our Heavenly Father, you have
given us the gift of these catechists to be
heralds of the Gospel to our parish family.
We lift them up to you in thanksgiving
and intercede for them concerning their
hopes and needs.
May we be attentive to the presence
of your Word in them, a Word that lifts up
and affirms, calls forth and challenges, is
compassionate and consoles.
We pray that our parish family will always
be blessed with those who have responded to
the call to share in Christ’s prophetic mission
as catechists.
May we too be open to the
universal call to service that Christ addresses
to all of his disciples, contributing our gifts to
the communion of faith, the Church.
We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Prayer
of commitment for teachers and catechists:
As we prepare to witness to your message with our teaching,
give us vision, imagination, inspiration, and enthusiasm
to reach the hearts and minds of our students.
May they hear in our classes what you want to tell them,
and may we tell them what you want them to hear.
Keep us faithful to the mission entrusted to us
and embrace us with your eternal love, the Holy Spirit.
We ask you this in Christ’s name. Amen.
