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Msgr
Anthony A. Lobo In a talk given during the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the NCC in May, Bishop Lobo shared his vision of catechesis as ‘a communication of the life and work of Jesus’, and considers ‘the factors that prevent God’s Word from resonating and transforming our lives and the structures of society’. The meaning of the word ‘catechesis’ could be derived from the word ‘katechosai’, found in the Parable of the Sower (Lk 8:15). The seed of the Word falls down (kata) into the ground of our hearts and they respond (echo). As our hearts (according to St Augustine) are made for God, it is quite fitting to find them resonating with the Word received. But the ground must be prepared to receive the seed. The life that comes from it grows and bears fruit. This, in a nutshell, is the divine pedagogy, of which all catechetics is an expression. The preparation was done in the Old Testament, the fulfillment in Christ and the continuation in the Church. Let us take an example from the liturgical season of Easter. The Old Testament describes the high priest on Yom-e-Kufara entering the Holy of Holies and pouring blood on the throne of grace or mercy seat, also called in Hebrew Kufara which is the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. Only the high priest could go beyond the veil, once a year. All this was only a foreshadowing of the work of Christ. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom, indicating that Jesus had entered the holy of holies in the temple in heaven and poured his own blood on the mercy seat or throne of grace in the presence of his Father (Heb 9:12). This work of salvation, done by Jesus in the heavenly temple, is continued in the Church through the sacraments. Catechesis is therefore not the teaching of a book of doctrines but communication of the life and work of Jesus. In this sense, catechetics embraces all preaching and also the liturgy. All is meant to evoke the response of faith whereby the believer attaches himself to the person of Christ and grows in intimacy with him. The divine pedagogue is realistic. We cannot understand all at once the work of salvation done by Christ, prepared in the Old Testament and completed in heaven. We need various steps to grasp the mystery of faith. We begin with the life and teaching, then move on to the suffering and death, then to the Resurrection and Ascension and finally to Pentecost and the Church. The victory of Christ over sin and evil and death is now available for us to share in. But this sharing can be obstructed. Historically, the catechism as we know it came as the Council of Trent’s reply to Martin Luther’s catechism. It tended to be preoccupied with defending truths questioned by Luther, and was more like a scholastic treatise. In recent times, the biblical and liturgical movement helped to correct the intellectualised presentation of the faith by making it more a proclamation of the Good News. But later, the stress on the divine aspect (Bible and liturgy) was corrected by the anthropological approach (taking psychological and cultural factors into consideration). Today, a further corrective comes from sociology which considers the need to transform social structures which obstruct the total development of people, including both divine and human aspects, as well as the need for personal and social transformation. With this introduction, we could now look at the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Catechesi Tradendae. In the context of Pakistan, we must consider various factors that prevent the seed of God’s Word from resonating in one’s heart and transforming our own lives and the structures of society. Talcott Parsons speaks of various steps intervening between any ideology (catechism) and action (in personal and social life). 1. There is the cultural system, with its values and disvalues. 2. There is the filter of orientation, where every person looks at ideology in his own way, absorbing what he likes but overlooking other aspects of it. 3. The social system where, even if several people or societies subscribe to one and the same ideology, each stresses a different aspect of it and neglects other aspects. 4. The personality system, when, even though living in one and the same society, different persons react differently to one and the same ideology. 5. The motivation filter, where at any time, one and the same person may be motivated to act in one way, at other times in other ways, depending on his motivation. 6. Action, where passing through the previous stages, the action performed can only be said to be one particular application of the ideology. In no way can it claim to be the only expression of it. What is more, sometimes the action is so distorted en route, that it contradicts the ideology. The Cultural System Let us take the cultural system, its values and disvalues in Pakistan. The cultural system is authoritarian and oppressive. It is said that Pakistanis believe that all problems can be solved by the use of force, and if it did not succeed, it is because enough was not used. So use more force! Another cultural trait is addiction to slogans and clichés. We prefer to talk in generalisations instead of in operational terms, spelling out the method of doing something. A third characteristic is to find scapegoats and blame others for our own faults instead of taking personal responsibility to admit them and correct them. A fourth characteristic is the lack of objectivity. Problems and needs are known more from rumours called, ‘reliable sources’, then from cool, scientific analysis of situations. Subjective and personal views are preferred to objective facts. The vacuum of information is filled up with falsehoods. The family has a strong influence but it could also prove to be negative. A Church of Pakistan bishop who was having problems with his clergy said that, for them to function properly, the family would have to be ‘exorcised’! The sense of honour or dignity or respect is necessary for any person or society but it can be very superficial. If someone is a scoundrel but nobody says so, he keeps his izzat though everyone knows he has none. But dare someone say he lacks it, then izzat is lost, and people even kill for this false kind of izzat. Revenge is another evil rampant in the culture. People practice the law of revenge, ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’; forgiveness and mercy are considered weakness. Pakistani culture is also affected by the global culture, due to the web, satellite TV, videos and foreign press and publications. This culture tends to be hedonistic, materialist and consumerist. It tends to accept as ‘real’ only that which is measurable, countable. Only that is ‘true’ which one can, see, hear, touch, taste and smell and the spiritual is therefore denied. As far as catechetics is concerned, this leads to a conflict with a culture characterised by nature without grace, the secular without the sacred, the human without the divine, reason without faith, and freedom without responsibility. Man is seen as the centre of the universe, whereas we teach that God is the centre. Again, we believe that the answer to this world’s problems cannot be found within this created world but in the Creator, but his existence is either denied or at least ignored in our global culture (CT n. 57). The great promoter of global culture is the media. Today, we have ‘media monsters’ who, from early childhood, watch four hours of television a day, exposing their minds to sexual immorality and violence. The reason for this is that most TV programmes are paid for by advertising companies, whose slogan is, ‘Nothing sells like sex; nothing sells like violence’. This is a twisted way of tapping into the deepest human motivations of self-preservation (perverted into violence) and preservation of the species (perverted into sex). Rather than appeal to logic or reason; the media appeals to the subliminal, deep-seated emotions and feelings, unchecked by reason. There is no concern for rational concepts which motivate, but with images which produce ‘vibes’. TV shows us the best stage effects, the most beautiful faces, the most pleasing voices, the most attractive songs and words to produce a powerful, convincing impact. Composers of TV drama and plays are forced to prostitute their stories by artificially introducing situations of violence and sex, which do not belong to their plot at all. This enables advertising companies to interrupt the drama at these ‘suspense’ points to show their advertisements. Another practice of the advertising companies is the use of repetition. The principle is if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth; So we find TV advertisements frequently repeating their catchy tunes to convince listeners and viewers to buy their products. The habit of frequently changing channels, now practised by millions of people, especially the young, makes it impossible to appreciate and follow a process or sequence of events and see how growth and development takes place naturally. As a result, the global culture produces what a sociologist calls ‘contextlessness’ where people are told, ‘just do it’, without knowing what to do, or why to do it or how to do it. People live only in the present and have no reference to any outside norm or authority, nor any relationship with either past or future. Instant gratification is the only value, with no respect for tradition and no regard for the consequences. A lot of the global culture is influenced by New Age religions. Their books can be found all over the world in every bookstall, even in Pakistan. New Age followers include high professionals, like doctors and lawyers, engineers and businessmen, academics, journalists and many youth. They believe that the Zodiac Age of Pisces (meaning fish) was the Age of Christianity, which has passed. Therefore Christ, the Bible and Church are obsolete and The New Age is post-Christian. Though this New Age uses many Christian terms like ‘prayer, transcendental meditation, silence and contemplation’, their beliefs and practices are generally a distortion of oriental religion, like Hinduism, Buddhism, Zen, Sufism and they accept reincarnation, the transmigration of souls, nirvana (identification with an impersonal god) and so on. Yoga is strongly promoted. They are active in human rights, justice and peace and environmental issues. In addition to these negative influences coming from global culture, there are some positive cultural traits as well in Pakistani culture. One is the widespread love for, and skill in, composing poems and songs. This is used for religious themes as well. Hospitality is another good trait. Even the poor will welcome a guest and go out of their way to honour him. Solidarity is seen when people gather together round those suffering and in distress due to accidents or sickness or death. The Social System is Feudal The feudal lord is king, judge and executioner all rolled in one. Except for his family, all others are treated as slaves. There are not merely classes in society (rich, middle and poor) but castes where people are categorised by birth as high or low-born. Colour is a deep-seated social value. The fair-skin is preferred. Gender is a big problem since it is a male-dominated society. Work has value and disvalue, certain jobs are seen as respectable, others as a disgrace. Religion is also a social value or disvalue, depending on whether the believer belongs to the majority in society or the minority. It is a value in so far as society in general is sacred, not secular. The holy places, persons, objects, ceremonies and customs are held in high esteem. The Personality System The personality system can be seen as evolving in stages. Erikson describes the various psycho-social stages of development. If one achieves the task of each stage, one moves to the next in a healthy way. If one fails to achieve this, one goes wounded into the next stage. The wound is internalised and must be healed. Anyone learning the catechism, or in formation for the priesthood or religious life, must become aware of internalised wounds received not only from the personality system but also from the culture system and social system. If not aware of these wounds, then a shell could be formed bouncing off or distorting any catechetical teaching, both of faith and morals. Let us take a student from a poor or deprived family. Having suffered poverty in his childhood, he goes through life with poverty as a complex, and internalised wound which makes him greedy in the extreme, selfish and very difficult to live with in community. Gender can be another source of problems. Having been deprived of healthy contact and relationship with the opposite sex, one goes through life unable to relate in a healthy way and resorting to speech and behaviour which are vulgar and disrespectful. Only when one is aware of these internalised wounds, can one look for healing. One must walk with Christ the healer right back into the situation when that wound occurred and pray for healing. One must learn to take one’s identity from the faith, not from culture nor society. This is the positive challenge to all catechism teachers, whereas the negative aspect is to heal the internalised wounds inflicted by culture or society. I would conclude by listing ten challenges for catechetics in Pakistan, which are as follows: Contemplative: As secularisation increases, religion gets thrown out of the front door but has the nasty habit of re-entering through the back-door in the shape of cults and even occult practices. We must teach people the importance of silence and solitude and prayerful contemplation so that they see the divine in all things, all events and all relationships. Truthful: The deepest meaning of truth is correspondence between our life and work and the divine plan or ideal. Sound catechesis will close the gap between ideology and action, leaving no space for hypocrisy or insincerity. Rightly catechised persons will be true in the highest sense conformed to the divine pattern for their lives. Conscientising: We must make persons aware of the blocks in the cultural system, social system and personality system and how the contents of catechetics gets filtered in such a way that the orientation or direction of persons and society and their motivations get coloured or even distorted which prevents our catechesis from bearing good fruit. Critical: This requires that in catechetics we teach people how to reflect critically on the values that underlie the social structures and institutions and personality structures in our society. These prevent our catechesis from having an impact. Inculturated: In catechesis, we must evoke and bring to the surface the distinctive spirit and creative genius enshrined in the people’s cultural heritage and promote all that is positive in local tradition and customs, language and literature, music and poetry, art and architecture, and in their own native idiom, seek to arouse, in those catechised, their profound desire and aspiration for the transcendent. Global culture, promoted by the mass media, tends to suppress these spiritual longings, thereby distorting human personalities and depriving them of their full potential. Holistic : We are suffering in this country from the debris that has piled up from attempts made to forge a civilisation based on exploitation and instrumentalisation of religion, which is reduced to mere lip-service and ritualism. The Catechism must evoke the religion of spirit and truth which expresses itself in acting out of moral and spiritual values. Dialogical: The increasing fragmentation of society along ethnic, sectarian and linguistic lines has continued into the new millenium. Catechesis must teach people to respect differences and to appreciate diversity as a richness to be grateful for, rather than a cause for conflict. Catechesis must foster the dialogue of the heart, of life, and of joint action for social welfare and human rights, of exchange of ideas and attempts for joint prayer with people of other faiths. Co-operative: Catechesis must train people for living and working in small groups which encourage sharing of faith and prayer and joint efforts to solve problems within and between communities. Preference for the marginalised: Because the majority of our people, and also in the country as a whole, are poor and disadvantaged our catechesis should cater to or target groups like the rural poor and those in urban slums, and particularly women and children, and devise creative programmes to meet their particular needs. Committed: Finally catechesis must aim at providing a world-view or meaningful synthesis to guide each believer through the journey of life. Such an understanding of faith will call forth a response in the shape of dedication, commitment to working for human rights and justice and peace, and to the care of victims of unjust social systems, both socialist and capitalist, which have been experienced in our country, They will work not only to prevent pollution of the external environment (land, sea and air) but also the pollution of the inner (moral and spiritual) environment. They will struggle for the respect for life of the unborn, the aged, the sick, the hungry, the homeless and the unemployed. They will act to improve the quality of life for all, especially women and children, in keeping with their human dignity as created in God’s image and likeness, and the children of one Father, brothers and sisters of Jesus and temples of the Holy Spirit. They will, in this way, empower all persons with leadership skills to work for their own liberation. These are the parameters within which one catechesis must work in Pakistan.
Bibliography:
1.
John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae, Rome, 1979.
Ref.: Focus, Vol.20, n. 1, 2000.
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