A new look at an old catechism

July 21, 8:38 AMChicago Christianity ExaminerMick Noppen

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The last command Jesus gave his apostles was to go out into the world and teach the gospel of God’s redemptive love. And so, in obedience to this command we dispatch missionaries to all parts of the earth, often to places hostile to the Christian faith. The call to mission is a high calling, more often than not, answered by men and women who have made this calling their lives’ work. As a result, we tend to associate mission work with full-time vocations, that is to say, with activities for which most of us do not have time or training.

But this should not be so. The fact is, we are all called to mission, if not as clerics, then as parents, grandparents, godparents, or simply members of the spiritual body of Christ as well as of the Church he founded on St. Peter. Even if we don’t have the opportunity or talent to write and deliver homilies, we are still obliged to live them. Our mission may not be a foreign land and an unfamiliar culture, but it is always to those with whom we keep company . . . or neighbors, our co-workers, our friends and family, and our children. Always, and always most importantly, to our children.

We may have young children at home, or they may have long since grown and given us grandchildren. But we also have a responsibility to “our children” is the broader sense of the next generation. This broader application applies particularly to the kids who occupy our home parishes. These are the boys and girls who will eventually become the men and women to whom the Church will be entrusted, and it is our God-given obligation to pass on to them the Faith of our fathers. If we don’t do this, either directly as parents, grandparents, godparents, and catechists, or indirectly as Catholics who lead by example in the way we conduct our lives and the degree to which we keep these kids in our prayers, then we have not only failed our children, but we have also failed our Church and our God.

The intent of this series then, is to provide one possible avenue (out of countless other possibilities) by which we can share our common Catholic faith and heritage. The format will be catechetical, but it is not applicable only to catechists. If we have a sound catechetical understanding of what it is the Church teaches and what it is we believe to be true, then we can live our lives in whatever capacity God has given us in a manner unique to ourselves but also as exemplars of the Faith we have, all of us, been commissioned to share.

The Church has produced many catechisms, each of which proclaims the same Faith, but no two in the same manner or style. The present catechism is a beautiful presentation of God’s redemptive love and salvific intent for the race of people he created in his own image. But there have been other presentations, wonderfully crafted and devoutly taught. Many of these earlier catechisms are in danger of being forgotten. This is understandable . . . every new generation lives in a substantially different world than did the generation that preceded it . . . but that doesn’t make it any the less lamentable. One such work is the old and venerable Baltimore Catechism. Many readers will remember the format . . . a question, followed by an answer (expected to be memorized, and heaven help you if you didn’t), accompanied by a longer explanation, and validated by Scripture. It was a formal presentation, sometimes excessively rigid, but always to the point and forever true.

This sort of catechesis is no longer in style. But “out of style” should not necessarily equate to “of no value”. The order in which the Baltimore Catechism taught Catholic doctrine, and the irrefutable logic that always accompanies proper order, is timeless. A spiritual treasure of this sort and magnitude must not be forgotten. Hence, the present effort to bring it back to life . . . not as a stodgy referral to the “good old days” with which so many of us older folk are so often prone to afflict our kids and grandkids . . . but in a manner suitable to the age and language of today’s middle school rascals.
The effort, I believe, is worthwhile. If somebody can do it better than this author, by all means have a go at it. For the present, however, I beg the reader’s patience, and solicit whatever prayers are appropriate to give aid and comfort to a flawed Gunga Din trying his best to carry a little water.

See you next time.