Catechesis and the
Initial Proclamation of the Gospel
19. The specific character of catechesis, as
distinct from the initial conversion-bringing proclamation of the Gospel, has
the twofold objective of maturing the initial faith and of educating the true
disciple of Christ by means of a deeper and more systematic knowledge of the
person and the message of our Lord Jesus Christ.(49)
But in catechetical practice, this model
order must allow for the fact that the initial evangelization has often not
taken place. A certain number of children baptized in infancy come for
catechesis in the parish without receiving any other initiation into the faith
and still without any explicit personal attachment to Jesus Christ; they only
have the capacity to believe placed within them by Baptism and the presence of
the Holy Spirit; and opposition is quickly created by the prejudices of their
non-Christian family background or of the positivist spirit of their education.
In addition, there are other children who have not been baptized and whose
parents agree only at a later date to religious education: for practical
reasons, the catechumenal stage of these children will often be carried out
largely in the course of the ordinary catechesis. Again, many pre-adolescents
and adolescents who have been baptized and been given a systematic catechesis
and the sacraments still remain hesitant for a long time about committing their
whole lives to Jesus Christ-if, moreover, they do not attempt to avoid
religious education in the name of their freedom. Finally, even adults are not
safe from temptations to doubt or to abandon their faith, especially as a
result of their unbelieving surroundings. This means that
"catechesis" must often concern itself not only with nourishing and
teaching the faith, but also with arousing it unceasingly with the help of
grace, with opening the heart, with converting, and with preparing total
adherence to Jesus Christ on the part of those who are still on the threshold
of faith. This concern will in part decide the tone, the language and the
method of catechesis.
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