No factory is going to start up with the intention of producing nothing. They will set up their goals, create their designs, manufacture the parts, assemble them together and TEST their functionality. If, after all their work, they find that they have not achieved their goal, they will go back and discover the problem and fix it.
What we are not doing is expecting to see any tangible results from the sacraments we are distributing. It appears as though we have placed the sacraments in a vacuum and parishes have simply defined production by counting the number of sacraments they have dispensed. However, many can see that we are confirming Teens who, despite their catechesis on the sacrament, still struggle to believe in God. What are we doing?
We must transition our efforts toward meeting real goals and attaining real results. Once we have clearly defined our goals and examined what we are trying to accomplish, then we must evaluate whether our efforts have really achieved those results.
Here is an example of what we are up against:
The Church teaches definitively, that one receives the Holy Spirit when they get baptized. (CCC 1265)
- What does that look like? What are we supposed to recognize after the sacrament has been received?
For adults (& teens) receiving Baptism, there should be evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence within the hearts of the recipients. The Church, in Acts chapter eight, gives a clear example of looking for evidence of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit after Baptism. Philip returned to Jerusalem because he noticed, “the Spirit had not come upon any of them.” (Acts. 8:16 NRSV).
- Philip was there to preach the Gospel, lead people to conversion and baptize them so that they might receive God.
- We should witness in the hearts and lives of these individuals an authentic love for Jesus, a repentant heart to Him, and a life committed to living for Him.
For infants receiving Baptism will require “post-Baptismal” catechesis (CCC 1231) since they did not receive the proper disposition needed for the sacraments to come to fruition. (CCC 1131) (The dispositions are repentance and living their lives for Christ and His Kingdom. Acts 2:38)
- A Church “program” cannot give the “Post-Baptismal” catechesis needed. Only the parents can teach their children to live repentantly toward God and to live their entire lives for Him. LIVING THE MODEL teaches this lifestyle.
As asked by countless Parish Staff members across the country, how do we get the parents to not only buy into this direction but also actually live it? We must change the opening conversations from “here are the requirements for Baptism” to “What do you perceive Baptism will accomplish?”
Until we create a meaningful rationale for why we must change,
Parents will not be willing to change.
I perceived an insight into why our parish has practically zip, zero, nada, nothing, going for adult evangelization and discipleship. I was discussing with our parish administrator, pastor, and “Director of Adult Spiritual Development” possibly publishing a parish magazine to be mailed to all registered parishioners in order to reach out to those who do not come to Mass. When we were discussing what kind of articles would be in this magazine our pastor explained, in effect, he wanted our parish to be a parish focused on social justice Catholicism. He said he was not pleased with some of the articles in our diocese monthly newspaper and, since he didn’t describe exactly what those articles were about, I had to guess what he meant. I speculate he might have been referring to those with a more conservative Catholic focus or articles about Catholicism leading to or resulting from real encounters with Jesus Christ and encouraging evangelization and discipleship.
Our adult spiritual development efforts seem to be considered successful based only on how many people show up to watch the DVDs and discuss.