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November 8, 2005
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Greetings and welcome
to Faith Formation Update,
a free monthly e-newsletter for catechetical leaders with a focus
on parish catechesis beyond textbooks and classrooms. I'm Judith
Dunlap. In each issue I offer a brief starter
and my "Every Family" column.
My co-worker and fellow religious educator Joan
McKamey offers video resources and ideas in her "Seen
and Heard" column. Our co-worker Chuck Blankenship
suggests other faith formation resources for adults from St. Anthony Messenger Press in his column, "Sowing Sampler." Finally, we encourage YOU to share views and
program ideas about this month's topic on our online bulletin
board, "Faith Formation Forum."
Blessings on your work! —Judith
Dunlap p.s. You're receiving
this either because you signed up, or because you're a loyal customer
of St. Anthony Messenger Press. We will never send you unwanted
e-mail. There is an unsubscribe link at the bottom of this page.
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I think I have done more catechizing about Advent than any other liturgical season.
The message is two-part: First, the Advent season is different from the Christmas season. Second, Advent is all
about getting ready for Jesus to come, and if we pay attention to the Sunday readings it’s easy to discern
that it’s not just the baby we are waiting for.
In past issues of this newsletter, I’ve given you ideas about how to remind people
about the difference between Advent and Christmas. You can go to the Faith Formation Update archives
at our Web site (AmericanCatholic.org) if you would like to read more on this issue. Just check out the last couple of
years during the month of November.
This year I would like to focus on reminding people about Jesus’ promise to come again.
We say it every Sunday in the Creed and often as a response during the Liturgy of the Eucharist:“Christ will
come again.” But what does this mean?
No question this is an issue that Christians struggle to understand, mainly because it’s
one of those “mysteries” we mention when we talk about the faith. Also, there are so many different
interpretations of what the Second Coming means.
We may not be able to fully articulate what Catholics believe about Christ’s coming,
but we certainly can make clear what we do not believe. This is important in the very verbal, conservative
Christian culture we often hear from and read about.
There are two excellent resources you can make available for parishioners. You might
consider keeping several copies in your office to give to people confused about this issue.
The first resource is a Catholic Update called “Raptured or Not: A
Catholic Understanding.” (Click here to read article.)
This Update answers the question, “What is Catholic teaching on the Rapture?”
(Answer: There is none. “[Christian teaching on the Rapture] is a late, and rather suspect,
arrival on the scene.”) It also discusses the “Rapture text” from Scripture and
the problems with the theory.
The second resource is a Scripture From Scratch entitled “Understanding
the Apocalypse.” (Click here to read this article.)
The article offers a more general treatment on the apocalypse, dealing primarily with the two apocalyptical books
in the Bible: Daniel and Revelation. It talks about the literary style of these readings and discusses what
this means to the reader. The article suggests that these readings are of marginal value to Christians today
and must always be set in the context of the broader tradition.
The Update is probably more practical (and readable) for today’s
questioning Catholic, but both are excellent resources for a catechetical leader. As we begin a new month
(How can it possibly be November already?) and a new season, I will sign off with a reminder I have
to give myself daily: “Breathe.” Christ is with us, and hopefully each day we will
become more aware of his presence.
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A supplementary resource I used for years is now being offered by Benziger.
Kitchen Table Gospel is easy to use and offers tons of ideas and family activities for each of the
liturgical seasons. It also provides all you need to facilitate a parish-wide seasonal rally for families.
During the rally each family is given an opportunity to choose activities and mark them on the refrigerator
calendar provided.
One of my favorite Advent activities (which I use at practically every family
Advent retreat I facilitate) is the group singing of a reworded “Twelve Days of Christmas.”
It is great intergenerational fun. If you want to find the words to this new version go
to Benziger’s Web site
and click on “Whole Parish” and then “Kitchen Table Gospel.”
Another great resource is a new book we just published called
Celebrating Faith: Year-Round Activities for Catholic Families.
This book by Mary Cronk Farrell is also packed with seasonal ideas and suggestions for other teachable moments.
In the chapter on Advent and Christmas, the author offers ideas about traditions and prayers that focus around
the crèche/manager scene. (Click here to read this section of the book.) Even if your parish does not
gather families for Advent, consider sending home this short prayer service with the children in your school
or religious education program. I wish you peace and all that is good during this special season of getting ready.
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I don’t give much thought to the end times. I try to live in the
present and plan my future with a certain hope that heaven will be my final destination, but I don’t
dwell on how the world will end or just what will happen when Jesus returns. I think that’s one of the
great things about being Catholic. We proclaim with confidence that “Christ has died. Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.” And for most of us, knowing that Christ will come again, that his coming is
related to the end of time as we know it, and that it will be a time of joy and complete union with God for
those who have chosen God with their lives, is enough.
It’s enough, that is, until we encounter someone from another Christian tradition
that puts more emphasis on the end times and how they might occur. There’s certainly been a good bit of
hype recently about the Rapture and the Left Behind book series, and there’s always someone
around who interprets the Book of Revelation differently than we do. The details others have to offer about
what will happen when Jesus comes again may cause us to feel a little less confident that we know our own
tradition on the matter.
A friend of mine works in customer service for a funeral planning insurance company
through which you can pre-plan and pre-pay for your funeral through their insurance policies. She gets
any number of interesting phone calls, but one she related to me really shone a light on the different
beliefs Christians have about the end times. The caller was concerned how her policy would be handled
if she were taken up in the Rapture, leaving no body to receive the services for which she was paying.
My friend was able to address the woman’s concerns and then later asked me about the Rapture and whether we
as Catholics are supposed to believe in it.
November is a great time to offer an adult faith-formation gathering on
Catholic beliefs about the end times. Be sure to mention the Rapture, the Book of Revelation and the
Left Behind books in your advertising of this event. Structure the session in a way that gives
participants an opportunity to share what they already know and what they have questions about
near the beginning. See if anyone has read any of the Left Behind books. Then proceed to
try to answer the questions they’ve raised. Engage your adult learners from the start by first
finding out what they already know and what they came to learn. Then do your best to meet their needs.
This approach works so much better—for them and for you—than straight presentation.
I’ve selected an audio clip from the chapter “The Mystery of the
Return of Jesus” from Andrew Greeley’s audiobook, The Great Mysteries: Experiencing Catholic Faith from the Inside Out,
to share with you (RealMedia | Windows Media).
This book, new on audio this year, covers 12 Catholic mysteries—God, Jesus of Nazareth, the Spirit, the Cross and Resurrection,
Salvation, Grace, the Holy Eucharist, the Church, Baptism, Mary, Heaven and the Return of Jesus. Fr. Greeley explores these
key questions of faith by grounding them first in human experience—very catechetical of him! This is a great resource
to add to your parish lending library. Individuals and small groups will appreciate Greeley’s overview of the faith as
well as his particular insights.
“Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again!” Let’s make
sure that this makes a difference in the way we live our lives!
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Over the last ten years the Left Behind phenomenon, fueled by the
best-selling books by Tim LeHaye and Jerry Jenkins, has sparked quite a lot of interest in what we, as
Catholics, believe about the “end times,” particularly as portrayed in the Book of Revelation
in the Bible. Each year during Advent, we hear Scripture related to the end of the world, but it’s not
often that Catholics tackle the often-misunderstood Book of Revelation.
Now Scripture scholar Stephen Doyle, O.F.M., offers a helpful book for Catholic
Bible readers called Apocalypse: A Catholic Perspective on the Book of Revelation.
Following the direction of the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on Divine Revelation, he helps the
reader to examine this troublesome text in light of its origin and language and to understand what the human author
meant to communicate to his contemporary audience. Providing reflections that cast light on the meaning of the text
for us today, the book is worth the time and effort for new Bible readers and for serious students as well.
For an exploration of Catholicism and the “end times” that goes beyond the Book
of Revelation, you might want to take a look at Fr. William Kurz’s What Does the Bible Say About the End Times? A Catholic View,
from Servant Books. His helpful exploration of Catholic teaching about the end times discusses key biblical themes,
symbols and imagery from Genesis to Revelation, leading the reader to a deeper understanding of God’s intent
in creating humanity, his persistent efforts to rescue us from our sin and Jesus’ final return in glory to
judge the living and the dead.
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