Daily Reflection

CATECHESIS, SPIRITUAL GROWTH OF CATHOLIC CHARISMATIC RENEWAL (CCR) AND HER CHILDREN MINISTRY
Amobi S. Omeayo   (A Priest of the Catholic Diocese of Enugu)

Introduction
“You should be teachers by this time, but in fact you need to be taught again the basic elements of God’s teaching. You need milk, not solid food. Those fed with milk are still infants: this refers to those who have not been tested in the way of righteousness. Solid food is for adults who have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (Heb 5:12-15).”
Indeed, the above statement culled from the Letter to the Hebrews brings to our consciousness the fact that nutrition is an indispensable requirement for any type of growth whether physical or spiritual.  From experience, we know that it is not possible to sustain life or expect any form of growth in a living organism if such a being is not constantly fed with the appropriate material food. The same applies to our spiritual growth whose nourishment has been identified above as teaching. Right from her earliest days the Church has treasured teaching as a necessary diet and instrument of nurturing faith and transmitting it from one generation to the other. According to General Directory for Catechesis  (henceforth GDC) “Adhering to Jesus Christ…, sets in motion a process of continuing conversion, which lasts for the whole of life.”  Coming to faith, therefore, is “like a new born child, who, little by little, will grow and change into adult, tending towards the state of the ‘perfect man’ and to maturity in the fullness of Christ.”   Every one of us, therefore, always has little more steps to cover in our vocation to attaining the full stature of Christian growth.
Accordingly, the emergence of Teaching Ministry in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (henceforth CCR) lends credence to this point, and so, should bring to our consciousness the fact that we are yet to attain the status of a ‘fully grown man’ as demanded by our Christian vocation. However, to talk of a Teaching Ministry in the CCR which is not open to the material resources for catechetical formation in the Church is simply to rob the Renewal of its mission which has to do with renewing the Church. Actually, the Church is not born, nor does it exist, nor does it grow, if it is not constantly nourished by the Word of God.


Catechesis
Catechesis, therefore, is that form of the ministry of the word which nourishes faith and grows it. In the process of evangelization, it belongs to the third concern of the missionary mandate. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you” (Matt 28: 18-20). Accordingly, the Church has the following as its mission
1.    Evangelical  function– make disciples of all nations
2.    Liturgical function – baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
3.    Catechetical function - teach them to observe all the commands I gave you.
 
The Evangelical Mission of the Church
In its evangelical mission the Church through the action of the Holy Spirit tries to bring all men including non-Christians (Go, make disciples of all nations) to the knowledge of the Gospel.  This evangelical mission has to do with the initial proclamation of the gospel and represents the first stage of faith development. Here, evangelization is known as kerygma and variously designated as the following: call to conversion, proclamation, planting the seed of the gospel, heralding the goodness, preaching, et cetera.
At this stage of faith development, the gospel message is presented in a very simple way. What the people need to hear is that the Son of God became man, suffered, died and was raised to life again. And that he seats at the right hand of the Father from where he will come to judge the living and the dead. This is the stage at which people are invited to baptism and repentance.
 At this point, it might just be enough to tell someone to accept Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior.  Here, neither those who proclaim the gospel nor those who listen to them could really be said to have been converted to the way of Christ. The Apostle Peter is an example of a Christian who proclaimed the gospel, performed so many miracles and won a lot of converts to Christianity without actually getting fully converted to the Christian way of life. (Read the following biblical verses:  Acts 10, Gal 2: 11-21).
This is the stage at which many of us in CCR find themselves after Life in the Spirit Seminar (LSS). Hence, because of the various spiritual gifts we are endowed with at this point, there is usually this tendency we have to begin to think that we have reached the full stature Christian perfection. Accordingly, we begin to assume that the spiritual gifts which are mainly given to us for evangelical purposes are a measure of Christian spirituality.

The Liturgical Function of the Church
In its liturgical function, the Church is involved and indeed principally promotes the communal worship of God. Anyone who has become a member of the body of Christ, the Church, through baptism (baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit) is a bona fide member of this worshiping assembly. The liturgical function of the Church, therefore, begins with baptism and spans through the other sacraments and as well as those other sacred functions which the Church here on earth performs in anticipation of that great assembly of worship that will eternally function in heaven.
The Catechetical Function of the Church
The catechetical function is the teaching function of the Church (“and teach them to observe all the command I gave you”) and as such has to do with the third concern of the missionary mandate.  According to the New Concise Catholic Dictionary, it has to do with “a personal sharing of faith by committed Christians so that the entire people of God may be continually converted to a fully Christian way of life- that is, a life turned away from sinfulness, centered on the risen Jesus, and living in hope for the everlasting reign of God.” At the catechetical stage of evangelization, the Church instructs her children on how to distinguish right from wrong. As a matter of fact, the evangelical and the liturgical functions of evangelization would be left in a flux and confusion without the catechetical function.
Without catechesis, the evangelical strength of the Charismatic gifts can become a source of spiritual danger to the person that possesses them.  If the person is not catechetically trained, the gifts can lend themselves to the triple tempting fascinations of the Evil One viz. pleasure, posterity and power (See temptations of Jesus in Matt 4. 1-11). This is also what St. John summarizes as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of senses (cf. I John 2:16)
Without catechesis, any of the charismatic gifts could be faked or even entirely given away to the Devil. Prophecy can turn into a wicked attack against a perceived enemy. It can even become divination or a mere instrument of playing to the public gallery. Other miraculous powers like healing, speaking in tongues, visions et cetera can become a mere show of human strength which the Church refers to as vainglory. A charismatic who falls into this demonic trap does not listen to anyone. He only listens to voice of the tempter who tells him to disregard the Cross of Christ and pursue wealth, fame and pleasure. This may be the reason why so many ‘charismatic priests’ and lay persons are angling to establish private ministries and some are only interested in climbing the administrative ladder of CCR starting from their prayer group and moving up to the national level, all without the corresponding spiritual growth. If anybody continues in this way, the Apostle Paul may have to blame the person for bringing to completion in flesh what he has begun in the spirit (cf. Gal 3.3).
Without catechesis, the sacraments and the sacramentals can become superstitious. For instance, holy water, medals, crucifix could be turned into amulets by Catholics. Without catechesis other liturgical celebrations like Holy Mass and Office of the Hours can become only perfunctory and may not make much spiritual difference to those who participate in them. Without catechesis so many charismatic will not understand the reason for some traditional practices of the Church like the honour given to Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints, the use of images in the Church, et cetera.
Without catechesis, our knowledge of the scriptures remains only at the level of chapter and verses. Unfortunately, chapter and verses are mere instruments of direction. They do not take flesh. It is the spirit of the Word that actually takes flesh. This is because the words of God are life and spirit (Cf. John 6:63).
Why Catechetical Ministry?
For a very serious reason, this paper is advocating for a change of name for the Teaching Ministry in the CCR. The CCR in order to achieve its purpose of renewing the Church must first of all package itself well in order to be presentable in all respects to the Church. The term Teaching Ministry if replaced with Catechetical Ministry will show that the CCR has come of age in the Catholic church and so ready to take is proper position. It will show again that the members of the renewal have come to understand that the Church has a certain deposit of faith (fidei depositum) which goes far beyond the content and the teaching materials of the Pentecostals. It will show that the CCR is not set to teach heresy but the authentic teaching of the Church.
Again, this paper is an appeal to the national leaders of CCR to change its position which now replaces Evangelical Ministry with Teaching Ministry.  The fact is that we can have Evangelical Ministry separate from Teaching Ministry. We can as well have an Evangelical Ministry without teaching Ministry. But it is not possible to have a Teaching Ministry without an Evangelical Ministry. The reason is that every evangelical action can be teaching but not all the teaching actions can be evangelical.



CCR Embracing the Catholic Deposit of Faith
As it is, this deposit of faith has been summarized in what we know today as Four Pillars of Catholic Catechism which include creed, prayer, commandment and liturgy. That is why we have what we call lex credendi, lex orandi, lex vivendi and lex cerebrandi. What it means is that the Church believes what she prays, what she lives out and what she celebrates. The first is theoretical and so evangelical. The credendi is the theoretical aspect of the fidei depositum. As articles of faith, they take flesh in the orandi, the vivendi and the cerebrandi. The first is at the level of faith while the last three are at the level of good works. Do not forget that faith without good work is dead.
At this point in the life of the Church, it is not only recommended for the Renewal to embrace these teachings, it is even imperative for her to quickly revitalize those aspects of faith that seem to have gone comatose and present them anew to the modern world in the spirit of New Evangelization which in the words of Pope St. John Paul II is ‘new in zeal, new in method and new in expression.’ The fact is that the Renewal has only little time to do this or risk losing her relevance. As a child of the new Pentecost, the Renewal is endowed with the zeal and dynamism which is required to achieve this target. Actually there is no other group in the Catholic Church which has these evangelical qualities as much as the Renewal.
CCR Pursuing Its Task through Massive Education of Her Members
It is indeed heartwarming that a good number of us now understand that it is important to study a bit of theology in other to be well equipped for the work of evangelization. We congratulate our members who have formed alliance with the Church by presenting themselves for training in various institutes of evangelization we have today in the country. However, serious effort must be made to see that our study of the faith is not over-intellectualized.  Excessive intellectualism has been the bane of the old method of catechizing which has only to do with rote memorization of catechism.
The Church as well as the Renewal must employ the findings of educational technologists in this catechetical apostolate.  This is where the Renewal can bring her dynamism into play and become a pathfinder in this project. The three domains of educational objectives as propounded by Benjamin Bloom must also be considered in order to achieve this purpose. The Renewal must move ahead of the church’s hierarchy in going into these areas.
Bloom’s Domain of Educational Objectives Juxtaposed with the Four Pillars of Faith
1.    Cognitive Domain: this Domain is rational and has to do with the intellectual aspect of the faith knowledge. It is under this domain that we learn the articles of faith (the credendo). Meanwhile, faith cannot be sufficiently studied under this domain and that is why we must now talk of the other two domains. Actually, the problem of the old method of catechizing in the church is that it has been largely dominated by the concern of this particular domain of educational objective.
2.    Affective Domain:  the affective domain is the domain of the heart. It is emotional. This is where we study prayer by praying and also morals by practicing them in social life.  That is why we have here the Orandi and the Vivendi of faith.
3.    Psychomotor Domain: this domain of educational objective has to do with acquisition of educational skills. It includes physical movement, coordination, and use of the motor-skill areas. Development of these skills requires practice and is measured in terms of speed, precision, distance, procedures, or techniques in execution. The psychomotor domain is the domain which has to do more with the cerebrandi (the liturgy). The various celebrations we do in liturgy require the acquisition of some motor skills. Such actions as handling of various musical instruments like guitar, piano, trumpet, drums and evening the actual singing itself are the areas whose study has suffered a lot of negligence.
As it is, getting the CCR pioneer an experience in which each of these domain could be given serious attention in a catechetical action is another trust of this paper. Accordingly, we strongly recommend to the CCR in the province to seek the permission of the provincial bishops to establish her own institute or institutes in which the members of the Renewal will on their own pursue a more holistic formation of its members with the aim of providing a better catechetical formation of the laity in the Church. This will also provide her with a better disposition to pursue catechesis at the grassroot level of children and adolescent apostolate.

CCR and Her Children Catechetical Apostolate
In his Apostolic Exhortation, Catechesi Tradendae, Pope St. John Paul II explains that catechesis should be a continuous event in the life of children and adolescents in order to bring them to maturity in Christ.  Accordingly, “From infancy until the threshold of maturity, catechesis is thus a permanent school of the faith and follows the major stages of life, like a beacon lighting the path of the child, the adolescent and the young person.”  Following this recommendation the Congregation for the Clergy recognizes the importance of such catechesis which should be both continuous and systematic.  This is a type of catechesis that is not geared towards any sacramental preparation. It is a form of catechesis in which all the features of formal education is brought together to ensure faith formation of children and adolescents. Actually, children should be engaged in this type of catechetical training as early as possible in order to be brought to a basic education in faith at the end of the adolescent period.




Conclusion

As a matter of fact, neither the Church nor her daughter movement, the Renewal, can progress in spirituality unless she is nurtured and nourished through serious catechetical actions. Any attempt to cling tenaciously to the first stage of faith development because of its comfort without thinking of the spiritual progress which only serious catechetical effort engenders is only but cowardly and self-defeating. Right now Christianity in Nigeria is ambushed by all forms of aggressors. Secularism is already with us. It is made more and more pervasive by Pentecostalism. For instance, our prayers, and in fact, other supposed spiritual exercise have been given away to materialistic end.  Judging from history, atheism and if fact total Islamization of the country or region are the possible outcomes of the present situation of things in Christianity in the country. The Renewal should at this point in time come to terms with its name and save the Church from these looming dangers. Serious attention must be given to children/adolescent catechesis.  The Renewal without throwing away its spontaneous style of prayer should make it mandatory to its members to once again go back to traditional prayers of the Church.  Prayer booklet of such traditional prayers should be made available for use in family and prayer group gatherings.
Indeed, catechesis is “an essential moment in the process of evangelization.” It is a moment “that corresponds to the period in which conversion to Jesus Christ is formalized, and provides a basis for first adhering to him.”  The Congregation for the Clergy also states that “Without it (Catechesis) missionary activity lacks continuity and is sterile, while pastoral activity lacks roots and becomes superficial and confused: any misfortune could cause the collapse of the entire building.”
It is, therefore, a task that must be pursued by any meaningful organization in the Church. And CCR is one of those organizations.