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Catechesis at the service of ongoing
formation in the faith
Continuing education in faith within the
Christian community
69. Continuing or on-going
education in the faith follows upon basic education and presupposes it. Both
fulfil two distinct but complementary functions of the ministry of the word
while serving the process of continuing conversion. Initiatory catechesis lays
the basis for the Christian life of the followers of Jesus. The process of
continuing conversion goes beyond what is provided by basic catechesis. In
order to encourage this process, it is necessary to have a Christian community
which welcomes the initiated, sustains them and forms them in the faith:
"Catechesis runs the risk of becoming barren if no community of faith and
Christian life welcomes the catechumen at a certain stage of his
catechesis". (210) The accompaniment which a community gives to
the initiated is eventually transformed into their being totally integrated by
the same community.
70. In the Christian community
the disciples of Jesus Christ are nourished at a twofold table; "that of
the word of God and that of the Body of Christ". (211) The Gospel
and the Eucharist are the constant food for the journey to the Father's House.
The action of the Holy Spirit operates so that the gift of
"communion" and the task of "mission" are deepened and
lived in an increasingly intense way.
Continuing formation in the faith is
directed not only to the individual Christian, to accompany them in their
journey towards holiness, but also to the Christian community as such so that
it may mature also in its interior life of love of God and of the brethren as
well as in its openness to the world as a missionary community. The desire of
Jesus and his prayer to the Father are an unceasing appeal: "May they all
be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may also be
in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me".
(212) Approaching this ideal, little by little, demands of the community
a great fidelity to the action of the Holy Spirit, the constant nourishment of
the Body and Blood of Christ and continuing education in the faith, listening
all the time to the word.
At this table of the word of God, the homily
occupies a privileged position, since it "takes up again the journey of
faith put forward by catechesis and brings it to its natural fulfilment, at the
same time it encourages the Lord's disciples to begin anew each day their
spiritual journey in truth, adoration and thanksgiving". (213)
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