Wherever we are, we listen for the eternal echo

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

"I love you... love you.... love youuu!"

Have you ever stood at the top of a canyon and shouted so you could hear an echo?

There, with heaven above and earth below, you can imagine the voice of eternity answering as you speak.

This is Catholic Schools Week. Our Catholic schools provide an excellent all-around education. But the reason our schools started was to teach our Catholic faith, passing on the values and teachings of our only, true teacher: Jesus Christ.

The word catechism, the instructions we use to explain that faith, comes from the Greek, katechein, which means "to echo."

Passing on our faith in Christ is similar to an echo - except that we, as the Church, are the canyon and what we echo is Christ's message. That is the whole purpose of Christian teaching - passing on Christ's words.

Jesus' command

Teaching our faith started with the apostles. Christ told them to teach "what I have commanded you" (Mt 28:20). Spreading the Good News - echoing Jesus - became their task. That teaching began orally, but, before long, was written down - first in letters, such as those of Paul, and then in the Gospels. Later, writers of the early church added their insights: saints such as Cyril, Ambrose and Augustine. Later authorities like Thomas Aquinas followed. To this, the instructions of the Church councils such as Nicea, Trent and Vatican II were added.

Just as a canyon remains the same, but appears differently over time - red with morning sun, shadowed by night, awash with rain or muffled by fog - so does church teaching reflect the life around it, while still faithfully returning the eternal echo.

As Pope John Paul said in, On Catechesis in Our Time, "Catechesis is intimately bound up with the whole of the Church's life... (It) needs to be continually renewed by a certain broadening of its concept, by the revision of its methods, by the search for suitable language, and by the utilization of new means of transmitting the message." (no. 13-17).

Reflecting the changes of human history with the unchanging eternal truths, official catechisms became more common as technology allowed for their distribution. This was especially the case after the invention of the printing press. Martin Luther's Large and Small Catechisms were among the first, produced in 1529-1530. However, Ss. Peter Canisius and Robert Bellarmine also produced popular catechisms in the 16th century.

Since they are teaching instruments, catechisms often follow a pattern of questions and answers. One of the most famous of these styles is the great work of St. Thomas Aquinas - the Summa Theologica (ended in 1273).

Trent's teaching

However, what could be called the first universal catechism of the Roman Catholic Church was that of the Council of Trent (1566); more popularly called The Roman Catechism. Another well-known catechism in this country is The Baltimore Catechism of 1885. Many of us are familiar with its teaching style: "Why did God make me? To know him, love him and serve him in this world and to be happy with him forever in the next."

Since the purpose of a catechism, as the Holy Father noted, is "to advance in fullness and to nourish day by day the Christian life of the faithful, young and old" (n. 20), this form of question and answer instruction remained popular for decades. However, by Vatican II, one of its inherent weaknesses also became apparent: that a side effect of memorization is lack of attention - the echoes of a canyon become more a sound than an experience. As John Paul said, "(memorization) can .... lend itself to insufficient or at times almost non-existent assimilation, reducing all knowledge to formulas that are repeated without being properly understood" (n. 20).

Living experience

Knowledge grows best through experience. Our need for catechisms - clear expressions of our faith and traditions - did not end. However, the need to hear again, with the ears of lived experience, was recognized.

To that end, The Catechism of the Catholic Church was issued in 1992. As with all great catechisms - which group teachings around certain timeless matters, such as the commandments, the creed and prayers - this catechism is arranged in the four main parts of Christian life: our profession of faith; the sacraments; living the Christian life; and prayer.

Within each of these areas, are subsets - like caves and ledges in a canyon - where we can stop to explore specific elements of our own lives and times in light of the Gospel message. As John Paul said in issuing the 1992 catechism, it is meant to "illumine with the light of faith the new situations and problems which had not yet emerged in the past."

With this perspective, we can understand that all catechisms are living documents, growing and changing, yet rooted in the timeless teachings of Christ. They are also valuable tools in the hands of faith-filled teachers.

Perspective changes

Catechisms change because our perspective changes; new events and ideas present themselves and need to be addressed by the living body of Christ, the Church. But Christ does not change; the Good News does not change. The echo remains, but the canyon off which it echoes does change. As we teach, we must always remember both canyon and echo.

As the Catechism of Trent said, "The priest (the teacher) must not imagine that those committed to his care are all on the same level, so that he can follow one fixed and unvarying method of instruction to lead all in the same way to knowledge and true piety; for some are as new­born infants, others are growing up in Christ, while a few are, so to say, of full maturity" (Preface).

At this, our Catholic schools and religious education programs, as well as our adult education and formation classes, excel. All of us are part of the canyon. To each of us, the Gospel call comes. Through the teachings of the Church, we are able to echo that message and turn our ears - and hearts - to the one who calls out to us in love.