A History Of Liturgical Catechesis Part I
The Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults is based on a long tradition of uniting the church's ministry of teaching (catechesis) with its ministry of worship (liturgy). This tradition has been recovered in the past two centuries in what has come to be called the "?liturgical movement.?"
The word catechesis literally means a "?sounding down,?" a "?re-echoing down to another?" (from the Greek katechein: kata [down] and echein [to sound]). Early Christians adopted the word in their follow-up work of teaching the gospel and used it to mean "?instruction given by word of mouth?" (e.g., Luke 1:4; Acts 18:25; 1 Cor. 14:19; Gal. 6:6). The word liturgy literally means "?work of/for the people?" (from the Greek leitourgia: laitos/leitos [of the people] and ergon [work]). In general usage, the word stood for "?an act of the public service.?" Early Christians adopted the word to mean acts of service to others, donations, etc., on behalf of the gospel (e.g., Phil. 2:30; Rom. 15:27; 2 Cor. 9:12), the offering of Christian life as a sacrifice (e.g., Rom. 15:16), and acts of public worship (e.g., Acts 13:2; Heb. 8:2, 6). For the early community, there was an obvious continuity and flow from preaching the gospel to catechesis, from catechesis to liturgy, from liturgy to further catechesis and to gospel service. The common goal of this combined pastoral ministry was to nurture the disciples on their journey of conversion, their faith, their Christian living, and their witness. By the nineteenth century, the relationship between catechesis and liturgy had been severed for the most part; they occupied separate pastoral niches. Catechesis had been narrowed down to question-and-answer instruction in the truths of the faith, which were set down in a catechism and presented, primarily to children, for intellectual assent and understanding. Liturgy had been narrowed both in pastoral practice and in theory. Pastorally, liturgy was understood as the "?ceremony?" performed publicly by the priest before a passive congregation for the honor and glory of God; theologically, liturgy was reduced to the essential minimum (matter and form) required to "?confect?" a sacrament. In the past century, both catechesis and liturgy have gone through an extended process of renewal. New questions now arise about how they are related and what shape liturgical catechesis might take. This article will survey the parallel renewal movements, will suggest a vision of a holistic pastoral ministry which draws catechesis and liturgy into close relationship, and will reflect on the nature and key qualities of liturgical catechesis. Two Renewal Movements The liturgical and catechetical movements have common roots in the mid- and late-nineteenth century. In church life, as in society in general, a movement of a "?return to the origins?" was underway. The past was to be retrieved, however, not in a static form, but in an organic process. The unfolding character of human history was increasingly accepted. The same sense of historicity and process was at work in the study of human life, with attention to human growth and development. During this period, historical research in the writings of the fathers and in the Bible spawned the patristic and biblical movements. A new ecclesiology elaborated a more active and organic sense of community and community life and action. It was in this context that the liturgical and catechetical movements took shape. Liturgical Movement. The liturgical movement unfolded in a series of four phases. The first phase, in the latter part of the nineteenth century and through the turn of this century, has been called the monastic phase. At the Abbey of Solesmes in France, Dom Gueranger spearheaded a study of the liturgy and particularly a revival of the Gregorian chant. In this phase, the liturgical movement was more intent on restoring a liturgy to be celebrated in a monastic setting than on adapting it to the pastoral needs of the church at large. The second phase, the pastoral phase, was inaugurated by Pius X's motu proprio on church music, Tra le Sollecitudini (1903), and by Dom Beauduin, under whose leadership a conference held in Malines, Belgium, in 1909, called for an extension and a more pastoral orientation of the liturgical movement. In this period, the liturgy came to be seen as the center of Christian life and spirituality. A priority was given to the "?active participation?" of the people, a phrase first used officially by Pius X. Early and frequent Communion was promoted; community singing was restored; the Roman missal was translated to provide a devotional manual for the people; and the liturgy's power to instruct people in Christian faith and life was rediscovered. These pastoral concerns, fostered first in Belgium and Austria (especially, by Josef Jungmann and Pius Parsch) and later in America (especially, by Dom Virgil Michel, who was equally devoted to issues of justice), found support in a renewal of liturgical and sacramental theology. In Germany, Dom Odo Casel inspired a theological discussion on the active presence of Christ in the liturgical assembly, which was to influence the teachings of both Pius XII and Vatican II and contribute to the "?encounter model?" of sacrament later developed by Schillebeeckx and others. The third phase began with Pius XII's encyclical on the liturgy, Mediator Dei (1947), and continued throughout the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy promulgated in 1963 by Vatican II. During this period, the central agenda of the pastoral phase of the liturgical movement received full ecclesiastical approval. In his encyclical, Pius XII officially set aside the purely ceremonial understanding of liturgy and spoke of it as the public worship of the entire mystical body, head, and members. The Easter Vigil was restored (1951); and Holy Week was reformed (1955), returning the paschal mystery to its central liturgical position. Guidelines were given for increased participation (De Musica Sacra, 1955); and the ceremonies of the liturgy were simplified (1955). During the 1950s, there was also a series of national and international conferences on liturgy, which brought together pastoral and theological concerns and prepared the way for the discussions of Vatican II. S.C. 7 contains the heart of the council's teaching on the liturgy. The teaching states that Christ is present in the liturgy in many ways and that the liturgy is the action not just of the priest, but of Christ and his body, the church. Several things follow: full conscious and active participation is the baptismal right and duty of every Christian (S.C. 14); appropriate liturgical instruction is to be provided of the faithful so that they can participate both internally and externally (S.C. 14, 19); and the rites are to be celebrated with the assembly present and actively participating (S.C. 27). The fourth phase, the time since the council, has been one of implementation and renewal. The Roman rites have been revised under the direction of the Consillium established to oversee implementation of the liturgical reforms of Vatican II; and they have been translated into English by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL). Extensive programs of instruction and catechesis have been an integral part of the liturgical renewal project. Throughout the postconciliar work of reform and renewal, the full, conscious, and active participation of the faithful has remained the most fundamental pastoral goal and principle. Catechetical Movement. The nineteenth century themes of return to origins, of historicity, of process and human growth, themes that influenced the development of the liturgical movement helped to shape the catechetical movement as well. Dissatisfied with the catechism approach, forged as it was in counter-Reformation polemic and speculative theology, religious educators turned to human psychology, particularly to theories of learning and later to developmental psychology for help in renewing catechesis. This led to the concern for effective catechetical methods, which characterized the first phase of the catechetical movement early in this century. The "?Munich method,?" devised in Germany in the early 1900s and imported into the United States in the 1920s, later inspired parallel attempts in Italy, France, and Spain. Attention to how humans learn and to the value of action and of learning by doing are common motifs that have lasted beyond the "?methods?" phase into present catechesis. In the 1930s, the catechetical movement entered a second phase, usually designated the "?kerygmatic?" phase. Josef Jungmann's The Good News and Our Own Preaching of the Faith, published in 1936, triggered a shot of attention from method to content. The message handed on in catechesis is the "?kerygma,?" the history of salvation centered in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. The goal of catechesis is a living faith, which responds to God's call to us in Jesus. Subsequent catechetical theory and documents have retained both the Christocentrism and the centrality of the Word espoused in the "?kerygmatic?" phase. Another leader during this phase, Johannes Hofinger, stressed that catechesis is a form of pastoral ministry, specifically a form of ministry of the Word. This theme was to become a staple of the catechetical movement as well; and it was incorporated into the Vatican II decrees on missionary activity (A.G.) and the pastoral office of bishops (C.D.). Method is not neglected; however, it is refocused on the four languages—biblical, liturgical, existential, and doctrinal—in which the "?kerygma?" is addressed to us. This "?pedagogy of signs?" was developed in the 1940s and 1950s, particularly at the Lumen Vitae center in Brussels, and has left its mark on the National Catechetical Directory (N.C.D.) of the United States' National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB). During these decades, there was a convergence between the catechetical and liturgical movements not only thematically, but also in major figures involved in both movements, e.g., Joseph Jungmann and Virgil Michel. The third phase of the catechetical movement, still underway, is often characterized as the "?missionary?" or "?political?" phase. Earlier stress on saving history during the kergymatic phase quickly led to a complementary concern for contemporary human experience. A series of international study weeks, especially those from Eichstatt (1960) through Medellin (1968), provided a natural transition from the emerging anthropological concerns. These study weeks, all held in third world countries except for Eichstatt, set the theme of catechesis in the context of mission. The understanding that catechesis is a form of ministry of the Word, elaborated in the second phase and sanctioned at Vatican II, was expanded and nuanced in these study weeks. Catechesis is seen as the continuation of the proclamation of the kerygma first accomplished in evangelization, just as evangelization is the continuation of pre-evangelization. For this total ministry of the Word to be effective, it must address people in their own context. As the third world experience readily illustrates, that context is a complex web of political, cultural, socio-economic, and environmental factors. Themes of justice and liberation become part and parcel of the catechetical message. And the experiential catechesis, which had long been a part of the catechetical movement and an area of significant United States' contribution, can no longer be content to focus on isolated individual experience. It must attend to the larger issues woven into human interdependence on local, national, and global scales. Convergence and Divergence. There are many points of convergence in the two renewal movements. Common themes and motifs run through both: the centrality of Christ; the preeminence of the Word; the need for actively engaging the people not only as recipients, but also as primary agents of catechesis and liturgy; the dynamics of process and address-response common to both activities; and the need for a more symbolic, holistic approach to the process of learning and celebrating. The seeds of a potential divergence of interests and energy are also latent in the rhythms of the two movements. As noted in its third phase, the maturing liturgical movement won ecclesiastical approval, which culminated in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of Vatican II. The current phase has been one of consolidation and implementation. The signals being given in liturgical documents on the relation between catechesis and liturgy are somewhat mixed. In the constitution itself (S.C. 14, 19), as in much subsequent documentation implementing the liturgical reform, the vision of liturgical catechesis seems to be limited to an immediate program of "?liturgical instruction?" on the revised rites and their meaning. Nevertheless, the restoration of the catechumenate has laid the foundations for a much broader vision of a pre-baptismal and post-baptismal catechesis integrated into a process of pastoral care and ritual celebrations (RCIA 75, 244–247) By contrast, in the current "?political?" or "?missionary?" phase, the maturation and ecclesiastical approval of the catechetical movement have taken place in obvious interdependence; and the vision of catechesis is generally much larger. The themes of Christocentrism and the placing of catechesis within an unfolding ministry of the Word so prominent in the second and third phases of the movement had a strong impact on various conciliar decrees, especially those on the pastoral office of the bishops (1965), which affirmed the primacy of ministry of the Word (C.D. 12–13, 44) and on missionary activity (1965), which set the catechumenate within the pastoral task of evangelization (A.G. 13–15). Three particular lines of mutual influence between the catechetical movement and official documents can be traced. First, the decree on the pastoral office of the bishops mandated the preparation of the General Catechetical Directory for the instruction of the Christian people (C.D. 44). That General Catechetical Directory (G.C.D.) appeared in 1971 and influenced both the First International Catechetical Congress in Rome (1971) and the preparation of national statements and directories such as the NCCB's Basic Teachings for Catholic Religious Education (1973) and Sharing the Light of Faith: National Catechetical Directory (1977; N.C.D.). Second, the degrees on missionary activity helped set the agenda and the theological vision for subsequent international catechetical study weeks, which explored the relationship between missionary activity and catechesis in the third world context. That linking of themes extended through the First International Catechetical Congress held in Rome (1971) to the General Synod on in the modern world (1974) and the General Synod on catechesis in the modern world (1977). These synods led to the apostolic exhortations of Paul VI, Evangeli Nuntiandi (E.N.) in 1975, and of John Paul II, Catechesii Tradendae (C.T.) in 1979. In these two strands of mutual influence there is a consistent stress on seeing catechesis as form of ministry of the Word within the pastoral office of the church. The third line of influence reaches from the conciliar decree on Christian education (1965) to the NCCB's pastoral message on Catholic education, To Teach as Jesus Did (1972). In these documents, as in the NCCB's Basic Teachings, concern for the integral content of catechesis becomes prominent. Catechesis and Liturgy The above survey suggests that there is a close relation between catechesis and liturgy (C.T. 234; N.C.D. 36, 113) and that there should be collaboration between them (N.C.D. 139). In both pastoral practice and theological discussion, however, catechesis and liturgy sometimes seem to co-exist or even to go off in different directions, making the link between them tenuous at best. Closer reflection on the relationship is needed. The first and most important task may be able to recover a vision of a more integral pastoral care, which embraces both catechesis and liturgy. Three memories preserved in our tradition offer such a vision. Emmaus. The first is the story of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, the story of the "?first Eucharist?" in the Christian community. In that story, we find two disciples journeying away from the band in Jerusalem, their world in disarray, their inchoate faith in Jesus as the Messiah shattered. Their words to the stranger, "?we were hoping that he would be the one … ?" (Luke 24:21), reveal the depth of their disillusionment. The stranger, with the care of a host, draws out their experience in all its hurt and bewilderment. And when their story is finished, he retells it from another point of view, that of its victory. "?Did not the Messiah have to undergo all this so as to enter in to his glory??" (24:26). Their hearts captivated by his recasting of their experience, they invite him to stay with them. In return, he once again hosts them, this time in the breaking of the bread. "?With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him?" (24:31). Now they are able to name the burning in their hearts. Newly born in the Easter faith of the disciples, they immediately rise to return to those from whom they had fled, with a mission to tell them "?what had happened on the road and how they had come to know him in the breaking of the bread?" (24:35). Several comments are in order. The journey of the two is a journey from a shattered first faith to a full Easter faith. To use contemporary terms, it is a journey from pastoral encounter to catechesis, from catechesis to liturgy, and from liturgy to mystagogy and mission. The catechesis was effective only because the stranger first listened to their story and only then retold it in familiar biblical words. Its effect was to set their hearts burning and to prepare them for the ritual moment that followed. It was only because the catechesis had thus readied them that they were able to recognize him in the breaking of the bread, to know him as the risen Lord and themselves as believing disciples. And it was only because that moment of recognition was so powerful that they were compelled into a mission of witness and service to the others. The connection between catechesis and liturgy is unbroken; and the stranger is the model host-catechist-liturgist.