SOUTHWEST RANCHES | The theme for this year’s Catechetical Day was “Building a Culture of Encounter.” Keynoters and speakers
explained it using Scripture and theology. Lourdes Melo puts it into practice
in the parking lot of her parish.
One of the more than 900 catechists in attendance
Nov. 3, she said every Thursday evening she hosts a “Happy Hour” for the
mothers of teens preparing for confirmation. They share coffee and cookies and
sometimes even a little wine – plus a whole lot of conversation.
She calls it a “modern catechesis.” It’s not the way
she learned from “the nuns” decades ago, she said. It is “taking advantage” of
the fact that the parents wait in their cars for the children to finish their
classes.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Paulist Father Frank De Siano tells catechists that the entire Bible is a story of encounter, God reaching out humanity, during his keynote talk at the annual Catechetical Day held Nov. 3 at Archbishop McCarthy High School in Southwest Ranches.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Bishop Nelson Perez of Cleveland, a Miami native who was raised in New Jersey, makes a point during his keynote talk in Spanish at the annual Catechetical Day held Nov. 3 at Archbishop McCarthy High School in Southwest Ranches.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Lourdes Melo, a parishioner at Our Lady of Divine Providence for 45 years, has volunteered her time as a catechist at the parish for 43 of those years. She was among 75 catechists honored with the Msgr. Agustin Roman Award for her consecutive years of service during the annual Catechetical Day held Nov. 3 at Archbishop McCarthy High School in Southwest Ranches. A few weeks ago she also was one of two people recognized by her parish with the 60th anniversary Jubilaeum Pin, which she is proudly wearing.
“My goal is to eventually offer a family catechesis
to the parents in the parking lot,” said Melo, who has spent the past 43 years
as a volunteer catechist at Our Lady of Divine Providence in Sweetwater. “It’s
a way, little by little, to try to keep those young people in the parish youth
group.”
Even if only one stays, she added, “the seed is
sown.”
Melo was among 75 longtime catechists, all
volunteers who have been teaching for 20 or more consecutive years, who were
honored at Catechetical Day with the Msgr. Agustin Roman Award. The award, new
this year, pays tribute to those who, like the late Miami auxiliary bishop,
dedicate their lives to catechesis. His episcopal motto was “Woe to me if I do not
preach the Gospel.”
But how to do that in today’s world? A world one of
the keynote speakers, Bishop Nelson Perez of Cleveland, likened to Sweet ‘n
Low: “Looks like sugar, sweetens like sugar, but it’s not sugar.”
We see each other but we don’t really look, he
said. We hear each other but we don’t really listen. We wear earbuds and walk
“to the rhythm of our own music.” His nephews speak to each other via text –
even if they’re sitting side by side. Today’s culture is fast-paced, impatient
and technological, not fertile ground for encountering others.
And the Church is not immune, the bishop said,
recalling a personal anecdote that occurred shortly after he found out he had
been made a bishop. He was attending a meeting and decided to pop into a nearby
church to go to confession. He was dressed casually, in jeans, not as a priest
although it wouldn’t have mattered. The church’s receptionist sat behind a
glass and spoke through a small opening, like that of a doctor’s office. “Is
there a priest who can hear confession?” he asked her. “Not today,” she
answered, never even looking up.
That’s not how Jesus worked, Bishop Perez noted. Jesus
went out of his way to meet people and listen to them, as when he noticed the
widow of Nain on her way to bury her son. Luke’s Gospel says, “His heart was
filled with pity for her” and he raised her son from the dead. The passage
concludes, “God has visited his people.”
That phrase sums up the entire Bible and the whole
history of salvation, noted the day’s other keynote speaker, Father Frank De Siano,
director of formation for the Paulists.
Beginning with the story of Adam and Eve in
Genesis, “all the things we see in Scripture are all stories of encounter,” he
said, an encounter that “achieves its fullness in Jesus Christ.”
God is not “out there” waiting to judge people, the
priest noted. There are no hurdles to go through. “God offers his love. God
offers life. God offers grace.” And God also “gives us space” to grapple with
that gift, to let the Good News “sink into our lives.”
Catechesis is not merely imparting information but
helping children – and in many cases today, their families – become disciples.
It requires doing as God does.
“Encountering people involves accompaniment. That
is hanging out with people until they get it together,” Father De Siano said, just
as Jesus did with his Apostles.
“There is a lot of ambiguity in the lives of the
people that we serve, even in the children,” he reminded the catechists. “Jesus
wants to make us comfortable with ambiguity.”
Bishop Perez, a Miami native who grew up in New
Jersey, picked up on that theme at a panel discussion later. He recalled
someone asking him how to explain to an atheist the existence of God.
There’s no point in explaining, he answered. Explanations
turn into philosophical arguments that convince neither side. “Easier than
explaining is accompanying people, walking with,” the bishop said. “What we can
do is walk together” and allow God’s grace to do the job.
Another speaker, Father Tony Ricard of the
Archdiocese of New Orleans, put it in even simpler terms. “It all starts with
how they encounter God in you,” he told the catechists. “I am an embodiment, a
living tabernacle of the Body and Blood of Christ. Are you convinced of the
fact that God is going to use you each and every day to introduce somebody new
to his love?”
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Catechists with more than 20 consecutive years of service, all as volunteers, receive their certificates of appreciation at the Mass that preceded the annual Catechetical Day held Nov. 3 at Archbishop McCarthy High School in Southwest Ranches.