Fr Billy Swan
On Wednesday of this week in St Patrick's College Maynooth, the new document on the Ministry of Catechist in Ireland - 'FAN INTO A FLAME' - was launched with representatives from the Irish Council for Catechetics and people present from dioceses all over Ireland. I was invited to give a talk at the launch with the title: 'THE MINISTRY OF CATECHIST AND THE NEW EVANGELIZATION'. Below is the text of my talk that follows a presentation by Bishop Kevin Doran, bishop of Elphin, explaining the context and scope of this new ministry of catechist.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH AND LISTEN:
Dear friends. I am delighted to be with you here today for the long-awaited launch of ‘Fan into a Flame’ – on the ministry of catechist in the Catholic Church in Ireland. I am also proud to have played a small part in the drafting of this document and the production of the video that we have just seen. I thank all those who worked hard to produce these resources that will encourage and guide the invaluable contribution of catechists to the building up of faith communities in Ireland whether that be catechists who work professionally in dioceses or the parent at home who teaches his/her child to bless themselves and explains the reason why.
I am also excited and hopeful for the Church in Ireland that the implementation of ‘Fan into a Flame’ will encourage existing catechists, call forward new catechists, train them and formally institute them and so will raise up a new army of the baptised who have the desire, the confidence and the language to do what St Peter asks us to do in his first letter, namely to “always be ready with an answer when people ask you a reason for the hope you have” (1 Pet. 3:15). I believe that the launch of the ministry of catechist in the Catholic Church in Ireland will do what the title of this document promises, namely to “Fan into a Flame” the gift of faith that God has given to his people. The gift of faith is unique in that the more it is shared, the stronger it gets or to stick with the symbol of fire, the flame of faith loses nothing of its own brightness when it lights a fire in the lives of others.
The first paragraph of ‘Fan into a Flame’ recalls the legendary scene on the Hill of Tara when St Patrick lit the Easter fire — a symbol of the Christian faith that gives light and energy. A prophecy was made at that time that this fire, once lit, would never be extinguished (Muirchú , Life of Patrick I, 15). In recent decades, the fire of faith has certainly dimmed in the Irish Church. Though it may seem at times to be reduced to embers, it still burns. Today we pray as a Church that these flames of faith may burn strongly once more, ignited by a New Pentecost that will lead to a renewed Church of conviction and not just convention.
The topic of my talk today is entitled ‘The Ministry of Catechist and the New Evangelization’. Here I would like to deal primarily with the second part of this title: ‘The New Evangelization’ and explore how the institution of the ministry of catechist finds it context and meaning in the wider call to the whole Church to evangelize which is her first task.
As evidence of this, I think it is highly significant that the ‘Directory for Catechesis’ published in 2020, came from the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization’ in contrast to the previous ‘General Directory for Catechesis’ that was published by the Congregation for the Clergy in 1998. The Council for the New Evangelization is a dicastery in Rome that Pope Benedict XVI founded in 2010 on the Vigil of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul with the desire to re-propose the Gospel to peoples in countries where the Christian faith had waned – seeking to recover the Gospel’s freshness, distinct colours and prophetic edge.
Yet it was Pope St John Paul II who first used the term ‘New Evangelization’ back in 1992 during an Apostolic visit to Haiti when he called the Church to a new evangelization that was new in ‘ardour, methods and expression’.
Then, shortly after his election in 2013, Pope Francis published ‘The Joy of the Gospel: an Apostolic Exhortation on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s world’. From all the wonderful themes contained in this document such as freshness, joy, creativity and mission, Pope Francis’ core message is a summons to the Church to return to that first kerygmatic announcement and evangelical zeal of the first witnesses to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. For Francis, on the lips of every catechist and in his or her heart must be the message: “Jesus Christ loves us; he gave his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you’ (EG 164). For Francis, this proclamation of God’s gift of his love and indeed Himself must precede “any moral and religious obligation on our part” (EG 165).
Here Francis takes us back to what it means to evangelize. He identifies this evangelical impulse as the key to the success of all the Church’s missionary endeavors. But here I raise the question: what does evangelization mean? How can I evangelize better and train others to do the same?
In November last year, I was part of a two-day conference in the North of Ireland as part of a team from Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire. The first day was mainly with lay people, the second day with priests and deacons. From the two days, the main question and answer to emerge was the following: “Why do more people not evangelize? The answer? Because most don’t know what it means to evangelize”. And as long as this is the case, the Church’s mission is seriously impeded.
For most of us, an ‘Evangelical Christian’ is someone who is not part of us or part of a denomination separated from Rome. Perhaps it reminds us of films like ‘Leap of Faith’ or T-shirts worn by some of the Brazilian football team that read ‘I love Jesus’. The truth however, is that to be a Christian of any denomination is to be evangelical by nature. To be Christian is to be evangelical. It means that we have a fire within us to share the gift of faith, to bear the Good News of the Gospel in every situation and to live in such a way that attracts others to friendship with Christ. It is to bear witness to the unshakable hope that flows from our faith in Christ’s victory over every form of sin and darkness.
In fact, the term to ‘evangelize’ comes from the Greek word evangelion which is found at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel where it states: ‘The beginning of the Good News (the Gospel) about Jesus Christ the Son of God’ (Mark 1:1). Then at the end of the Gospel of Mark, the risen Lord says to his disciples: ‘Go out to the whole world; Proclaim the Good News to all creation’ (Mark 16:15).
Mark’s Gospel was written in Rome and he borrows the term evangelion or Good News, from the Roman Imperial usage of the announcement of the good news of a military victory. The armies had won, the enemies of Rome had been defeated and the emperor was Lord. Mark turns this on its head in a subversive way and announces the superior victory of Christ over sin and death and instead of ‘Kaiser Kyrios’ or ‘Caesar is Lord’, he announces ‘Christos Kyrios’ or ‘Jesus is Lord’. Here is the ‘Good News’ – Christ’s victory of life over death, light over darkness, goodness over evil and hope over despair. Here is the victory of Christ for all time and places that we Christians share in and that Pope Francis wants us to proclaim at every turn.
In the paragraph from ‘the Joy of the Gospel’ he quotes:
“We have a treasure of life and love which cannot deceive, and a message which cannot mislead or disappoint. It penetrates to the depths of our hearts, sustaining and ennobling us. It is a truth which is never out of date because it reaches that part of us which nothing else can reach. Our infinite sadness can only be cured by an infinite love” (para. 265).
Here is the treasure that we possess that we must not keep for ourselves but share and offer for if we don’t who will? Allow me to give you three examples of this evangelical spirituality in action – one personal, one liturgical and one social.
A friend of mine is currently in hospital and gravely ill. We recently had a conversation about hope. With the inspiration of the Spirit, I shared something like this: “I believe that Christ is with you and goes ahead of you in this dark place of suffering. Because he loves you and suffers with you, he goes ahead of you on the road, leaving a space for you to move into where there will be light and peace. Whether you reach that place in the road before you die or after, with the Lord, he will take you there and all will be well”.
The second example comes from the Eucharist and the dismissal at the end of Mass when the priest, deacon or bishop says: “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord”. In other words, let you whole life announce what is true, namely that Christ is alive and his kingdom is near at hand.
The third example is inspired by Pope St John Paul II visited his native Poland in 1979. When Pope John Paul II stood up to address the crowds in Victory Square in Warsaw, Poland, on 2nd June 1979, to say that he knew his audience is an understatement. He was a loyal son of Poland who knew the history and struggle of his own people intimately.
When the pope stood up to speak, he recalled the Christian history of his native land on the ninth centenary of the martyrdom of St Stanislaus. He recalled the memory of the unknown soldier of Poland, saints such as St Maximilian Kolbe and the sacrifice of martyrdom in concentration camps and in prisons. But his most subversive words were about Christ and therefore about the truth of humanity. To a people denied religious liberty and oppressed by an atheistic regime, John Paul II stated emphatically: “The exclusion of Christ from the history of humanity is an act against humanity. Without Christ, it is impossible to understand the history of Poland”.
For George Weigel, the biographer of John Paul II, these words amounted to a revolution of identity that said to the Poles: “You are not who they say you are…Let me remind you of who you really are” (Witness to Hope). The crowds responded to those electrifying words with a chant of “We want God, we want God”. Fourteen months later the Solidarity movement was born and nine years after that Poland became an independent and free nation again. Few historians argue that this homily of Pope John Paul II was instrumental in a new social order that began that day.
But what of Ireland? I think its true to say that after the first proclamation of the Gospel by St Patrick and the first missionaries in the fifth century, and during the centuries after Christianity became established through monasteries and parishes, the original evangelical spirit was eclipsed by the institutional element that became dominant. That’s not to say that the institutional structure is unimportant; rather it is meant to serve the charismatic and evangelical energy of the Church that precedes it.
It is this evangelical power of the Gospel that we hope and pray ‘Fan into a Flame’ will recover. It is this original conviction and missionary spirit that possessed Patrick, Brigid, Columba, Columbanus and the other Irish saints that a New Pentecost will revive once again. In this sense, The ‘New Evangelization’ in Ireland is not so new after all but is rather a return to the original evangelization of the Irish people that transformed them, in Patrick’s words, from a people who “worshipped idols and unclean things to become sons and daughters of God and co-heirs of Christ”.
It is this evangelical confidence in Christ and his power that will transform our understanding of what it means to be a catechist as Bishop Kevin explained earlier:
To be a witness of faith and announcer of the Good News; to keep the memory of God whose presence and power is active in the present; to teach in a way that gives life and opens up new horizons of hope and meaning; to be a mystagogue with the conviction that Christians are made not born and to help each other live in the mystery of his death and resurrection; to accompany people as friends and companions on the journey and finally to educate in the ways of faith and to live a life that is coherent and beautiful once Christ is at the centre.
Friends, I would like to conclude with a reference to a story from the Book of Numbers in Scripture where God met Moses at the tent of meeting along with seventy elders and promised: ‘I will take some of the spirit which is upon you and put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself, alone’ (Numbers 11:17ff).
May the gift of faith be fanned into a flame in us here today and through us may the Lord raise up a whole army on fire with the desire, the confidence and the language to share the gift of faith that St Patick referred to as “That great and health-giving gift” (Confess. 36). With the inspiration and prayers of the Irish saints, may we become who we once were – a Church of ‘Spirit filled evangelisers’ and a community of people who are not just content to remain disciples of Christ but burn to make disciples of Christ too. May this document ‘Fan into a Flame’ a New Pentecost and a new future of hope for the Irish Church.
Comentarios