PENTECOST HAS ARRIVED. It is not only the liturgical season to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, but is also the occasion of the Church’s birthday.
With the bumpy ride of the Covid-19 pandemic, the local Church managed to resume public Masses prior to Easter. Parishes, in accordance with their own circumstances, arranged for catechumens to receive the Sacraments of Initiation.
On this Pentecost Sunday, the Diocese of Hong Kong celebrates Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception to welcome new Catholics into the family of the Church. We would like to send our best wishes to them, we can now walk hand-in-hand on the path of faith, savouring the gospel joy and spreading the Good News together.
While we celebrate the Mass for the new faithful, we also would like to express gratitude to all catechists who made wholehearted efforts in the past two years of the woeful pandemic to carry out the mission entrusted by the Church.
On May 10, the feast of St. John of Avila, Pope Francis signed Antiquum Ministerium (Ancient Ministry), the apostolic letter issued motu proprio, instituting the ministry of catechist (Sunday Examiner, May 16).
To many catechumens, the first person they encounter at church is the catechist, who is a witness to the faith as well as a teacher. Their service is crucial.
Last June, the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation issued the Directory for Catechesis, which proposes the principles and practical guidelines for catechesis in response to contemporary socio-cultural challenges. It emphasises that every baptised person is a missionary and that the entire Church must urgently find new ways to communicate the faith.
In this ever-thriving process of faith and dissemination, catechesis requires three major principles of action. Firstly, witnessing: “the Church … does not grow through proselytism …, she grows by attraction”; Secondly, mercy is the real catechesis, which enables the proclamation of faith to become trustworthy. Thirdly, dialogue takes love as the starting point, emphasises a free conversation with mutual respect and facilitates peace. Deeply-rooted in these three principles, catechesis is not only about proclaiming the gospel, but also about helping Christians find a profound meaning in their own lives.
The ministry of catechist indeed relies on the joint efforts of lay people, who share the Church’s mission of evangelisation in the modern world with their involvement in such areas as promoting human dignity and caring for poor and marginalised people.
Finally, another form of the ministry is the permanent catechesis for the faithful. It refers to the continuing education in the faith after formation by catechesis, in close relation with the Sacraments of Initiation. Fundamental to this is the nourishment received from the homily during Mass on Sunday, and from the Word and the Eucharist. Forms of ongoing formation may include Bible study and sharing, education of the liturgy, spiritual formation and the study of theology. All of these help us to achieve moral cultivation and sanctification.
God, through the Holy Spirit as our protector, makes all things new. May we open ourselves up to allow the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts so that we can bear witness to the truth. SE
