I hear it on Catholic radio from time to time: the lamentation that many Catholics reject cardinal truths of the faith, such as the Church’s teaching on transubstantiation and firm stance against abortion. This unfortunate state is blamed on poor catechesis. While it is safe to say that there is some truth to this, the real problem is that poor catechesis gets all the blame for the problem. This is an oversimplification that is not helpful. Poor catechesis is only the tip of the iceberg. Other reasons lie under the surface, reasons we may find too chilling to face (and that could be the reason they are overlooked).
The hard truth of the matter is that a major reason why anyone—Catholic or not—does not learn the truth or even rejects it, is that they are not passionate about it. And why are we not passionate about it? Could it be that we just don’t love God, the Source of all truth? I’m not trying to be judgmental here, but let’s face it: If we love God, we will want to learn more about Him; in fact, we will keep wanting to learn more about Him, not being satisfied with just a few morsels of truth but wanting to go ever deeper. It comes down to what I call the five Ls:
If you
Love the Lord, you will
Look for His truth,
Learn it,
Listen to it, and
Love it.
What we must face is that perhaps many people in the Church have no love for God. Could it be that there are many weeds growing up with the wheat (Matthew 13:24–30)? If so, then charity demands that we do our utmost to turn them into wheat (only with the help and grace of God, of course).
And that takes us back to the subject of catechesis. If it is true that many unconverted people attend Catholic parishes, then our catechesis should heavily emphasize the Gospel message. Why? That message is the divinely established norm (see Rom. 10:14–17, 1 Cor. 1:21) through which people come to faith and become true disciples of Christ. Genuine discipleship will not come about if that Gospel is not taught, preached, and emphasized frequently and consistently. That precious Good News should dominate the instruction in OCIA programs and parish religious education.
Sadly, it is not. I have taught children in a Catholic parish, and I observed that the catechesis of children places heavy emphasis on the practice of the Catholic faith, that is, the externals, such as making the sign of the cross, genuflecting, bowing, and memorizing prayers like the Our Father, Glory Be, and Hail Mary. They are taught the seasons of the liturgical calendar, how to pray the rosary, the hierarchy of Church leadership, the lives of saints, and other aspects of the Catholic faith. These things are important and should not be omitted, but neither should the Gospel. Sadly, from what I have seen, the Gospel message receives little attention in such catechetical materials. For example, in a workbook given to students in my church’s Parish Religious Education Program, the Good News was barely mentioned, perhaps on just one page and in passing. This should not be! The Gospel message should take up at least half of that workbook, and it should have that emphasis in every year of catechesis—even into adulthood!
If we are going to blame poor catechesis for ignorance and rejection of the truth, then we must fix what is broken about our catechesis, or, to put it more precisely, we must include what is missing from our catechesis: the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
About the Author
The author of this blog, Jeremy (Jehanne), is a Catholic who strives to think God's thoughts after Him and obey Christ's exhortation to take up the cross daily and follow Him on the way to Golgotha. He likes reading theology, evangelizing, and, of course, writing.
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