24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B<\/a>
\nIsaiah 50:4-9a
\nJames 2:14-18
\nMark 8:27-35
\nSeptember 16, 2012<\/p>\nJesus asks his disciples \u201cWho do people say that I am?\u201d\u00a0 Before this point, he has been doing miracles and preaching to people.\u00a0 So, he asks this question to talk about where the people are at in understanding who he really is.<\/p>\n
The answers are \u201cJohn the Baptist, other Elijah, still others on the prophets.\u201d\u00a0 These answers indicate that the people are recognizing that Jesus has a great role to play but they haven\u2019t fully grasped this.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then Jesus asks the disciples themselves \u201cBut who do you say that I am?\u201d<\/p>\n
The disciples have been accompanying Jesus, seeing his miracles, and hearing his preaching.\u00a0 By this point, the Twelve Apostles had already been sent out on a mission preaching and healing.\u00a0 So, they should understand all the more who Jesus is.<\/p>\n
And they do.\u00a0 Peter replies \u201cYou are the Christ.\u201d\u00a0 He understands Jesus is the Messiah.<\/p>\n
Sounds great.\u00a0 Peter has advanced in his learning.\u00a0 Hopefully, we could all give the same answer.\u00a0 We know Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ.\u00a0 We have been taught this much.<\/p>\n
Then we are told that Jesus began to teach them.\u00a0 The content of his teaching here is his upcoming Passion.\u00a0 While Peter has called Jesus the Christ, he can\u2019t understand how the Messiah would be arrested and killed.\u00a0 Let alone rise after three days.<\/p>\n
It would seem totally unfavorably to Peter.<\/p>\n
Of course, as Christians living after these events we know this to be true because it is what we have been taught.\u00a0 But we might ask do we really understand what it means for us.\u00a0 Do we put it into action in the way we live our lives?<\/p>\n
Today is Catechetical Sunday.\u00a0 The Catholic Church celebrates this day each September as we began a new school year.\u00a0 The word \u201ccatechesis\u201d is not a word we use in everyday English.\u00a0 In simple terms, it is the religious education we provide.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
As such, we celebrate Catechetical Sunday to show the importance of our efforts to provide \u201creligious education\u201d and to honor those who do this, our school teachers, aides, and principal along with our parish youth and family ministers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
But \u2018catechesis\u2019 is not simply education.\u00a0 Pope Paul VI said the goal of catechesis is \u201cto bring the power of gospel into the very heart of culture and cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, catechesis includes also our RCIA program and it includes what I am doing right now, the homily where I seek to take the scriptures and help you see how they fit into our lives today.<\/p>\n
So, the measure of good catechesis can be how well we live our faith?\u00a0 Do we see our faith as relevant to our lives?\u00a0 As James writes, we demonstrate our faith through our works.<\/p>\n
Sometimes when we don\u2019t live out our faith well, it is because we haven\u2019t been taught well by others.\u00a0 Sometimes, it is because we don\u2019t make the effort ourselves to learn about our faith.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The goal of catechesis is always a deeper relationship with Jesus.\u00a0 Even as adults, we must still work on deepening our relationship with Jesus, applying our faith to what is going on in our lives.\u00a0 Again, that is a central purpose of the homily.<\/p>\n
But catechesis doesn\u2019t begin as adults.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t begin as teenagers.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t begin in first grade religion classes.\u00a0 As adults we learn best by application.\u00a0 As children we learn lists of rules.\u00a0 We learn in different ways at different times but often we learn the best when we learn by example.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
From the day a child is born, parents teach what their faith means to their children by example.\u00a0 If the parents pray regularly with their child, the child will develop a sense that prayer is important.\u00a0 If the parents bring the child to church each week, the child will learn that church is important.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Near the beginning of our Rite of Baptism for Children, the parents are told it is their responsibility to train their child in the practice of the faith, their duty to bring them up to keep God\u2019s Commandments.<\/p>\n
It is the parents\u2019 responsibility but you don\u2019t have to do it alone.\u00a0 Set the example in the way you live your lives but then fulfill your responsibility for their religious education by bringing them to our Catholic school or Family Based Religious education.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to do it alone.<\/p>\n
According to Canon Law, one of my primary responsibilities is to see to the religious formation of all parishioners.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to do it all.\u00a0 If you bring your child to us, we can play a vital role in their catechesis.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Parents and the Church share a common goal, to help our children become all that God calls them to be.\u00a0 Let us be partners working together for this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here I share my homily from Sunday about how we learn about our faith. 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B Isaiah 50:4-9a James 2:14-18 Mark 8:27-35 September 16, 2012 Jesus asks his disciples \u201cWho do people say that I am?\u201d\u00a0 Before this point, he has been doing miracles and preaching to people.\u00a0 So, he …<\/p>\n
Continue reading ‘Whose Responsible For the Religious Education of Our Children?’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-de","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":821,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions\/821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}