Fr. Roger J. Landry
The Anchor
Editorial
March 3, 2012
Lent is a time for growth in faith. It begins with our being marked with ashes and instructed to turn our backs on sin so that we may be faithful to the Gospel. There is for sure a need for us to grow in a personal, trusting adherence to God, something that happens as we seek to pray more and better, to discipline ourselves through fasting and other means, and to give of what we are and have in alms to others, confident that our Provident God will not only sustain but reward us.
There’s more to growth in faith, however, than augmenting our free self-entrustment to God. There’s also the need to grow in our knowledge of the content of the faith, what God has taught us in revelation and through the Church Jesus Himself founded.
In early January, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published a list of recommendations for the universal Church, national bishops’ conferences, dioceses, parishes and individuals to grow in their knowledge of the Catholic faith during the upcoming Year of Faith that will begin on October 11. Insofar as Lent calls us to growth in faith both in heart and head, it would be beneficial for Catholics to consider the recommendations now and begin to act on one or more of them.
We highlight 10 of the congregation’s suggestions:
Study the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” and the documents of the Second Vatican Council — the Year of Faith will mark the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Vatican II and the 20th anniversary of the publication of the “Catechism.” Like Sacred Scripture, however, these tremendous texts remain unknown to the vast majority of Catholics. They are the most logical place to start growing in knowledge of the faith. For those looking for a Lenten sprint rather than a marathon, they could begin with the recently-published “YouCat” for young adults, the most accessibly-written Catechism the Vatican has ever produced.
Go on pilgrimage — The congregation recommends pilgrimages to the great shrines of Christianity in the Holy Land, in Rome and various Marian sanctuaries. While for most it would be difficult to go on a faith adventure to these sites prior to Easter this year, plans can be made to do so during the upcoming year. A pilgrimage is a privileged opportunity to encounter God and His message in the significant places where He has come or sent others to preach that message. Just as happened with the wise men after their journey to Bethlehem, pilgrims almost always return home “by another route,” strengthened in the knowledge and living of the faith.
Increase one’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary — Mary is the model of faith, someone who yearns for and assimilates what God has revealed and treasures it within. The congregation in particular urges the faithful to “recognize the special role of Mary in the mystery of salvation, love her and follow her as a model of faith and virtue.”
Grow in friendship with the holy, heroic witnesses of the faith — The Saints and the Blessed in general, but particularly those of a particular country or region, are great examples of men and women who have lived by faith and spent their lives seeking to pass it on as of first importance to others. For those of us in the United States, two new Americans will be canonized on October 21, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha and Blessed Mother Marianne Cope. It would be beneficial to get to know their inspiring lives of faith more intimately during Lent.
Read the writings of the Holy Father — We are privileged as Catholics to be living at a time when one of the greatest minds in the history of the papacy sits on the Chair of St. Peter. Through his homilies, messages, encyclicals, exhortations and other writings, Pope Benedict applies his own deep knowledge of the faith to the various challenges we and other Catholics face. He makes conceptually simple theological ideas that took centuries to distill. This great gift should not be wasted. A good place to start this Lent would be to read Porta Fidei (“The Gate of Faith”), the short letter about faith with which Pope Benedict announced the upcoming Year of Faith.
Attend missions and days of recollection — Lent is a time in which most of the deaneries of the Diocese of Fall River and many individual parishes schedule missions, which the congregation says are great opportunities for the faithful “to rediscover the gift of baptismal faith and the task of giving witness.” In most, it’s a chance to learn the faith better and to examine how one is living it.
Go to conferences and study days — Likewise, there are various men’s and women’s conferences, adult education opportunities and other offerings by parishes, dioceses and regions to help to grasp the faith better. In many places, the offerings have decreased because of poor attendance. Lent is an opportunity to begin a momentum in the other direction, producing greater offerings because of excellent attendance.
Celebrate the faith more intensely during Mass — In Mass, the faith of the Church is “proclaimed, celebrated and strengthened,” but we need to receive the seeds God implants on good soil and allow Him to water them and help them grow. At the same time the congregation urges priests and deacons to focus on the faith more in homilies, it encourages faithful to pay even closer attention. The Gospels on the Sundays of Lent are tremendously rich in faith content.
Examine your conscience on sins against the faith — The congregation urges parishes and dioceses to organize penitential celebrations, particularly during Lent, so that all can ask for God’s forgiveness, particularly for sins against the faith. Sins against faith include voluntary doubt, the neglect of revealed truth or willful refusal to assent to it, and the extreme sins of heresy, apostasy and schism. In an age in which many look to public opinion polls or worldly gurus for truth rather than to what God has revealed and the Church He founded teaches, there is ample matter for examination and confession, which will open penitents up anew to the graces for progress in faith.
Give added attention to teaching the faith in Catholic schools, Religious Education programs and homes — Catholic schools and parish catechetical programs are geared not merely toward instruction but education, helping the young to grow in faith in head and heart so that they may live by faith for a lifetime. In the midst of a culture that seeks to inculcate categories and practices incompatible with the faith, there’s a need for Catholic schools, Religious Education programs and parents to pass on the faith in a more powerful and life-changing way. This Lent can be a time in which, through adult witness, the young can be assisted to make their inherited values more personal and influential.
Communicate your experience of faith to peers — As teachers readily admit, one of the best ways to learn a subject is to have to instruct others about it. Likewise, one of the best ways to grow in our knowledge of the faith is through cooperating with the Holy Spirit in sharing it with others. We live in an emotivist age, in which people are moved less by teachers than by witnesses. Catholics are called to give a witness in their body language to the way the truths of the faith set us free. One of the greatest alms we can give to others at Lent is the spiritual work of mercy of “instructing those who don’t know the faith.”
None of these 10 suggestions is particularly creative or exotic. They call to mind the instruction of Elisha to the leper Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan (2 Kings 5). Naaman was disappointed because he had anticipated he’d be asked to do something harder or more adventurous. But after friends insisted, he bathed seven times in the Jordan and was completely cured. Likewise growth in the knowledge of the faith doesn’t require that we enroll in a special program in a desert monastery conducted in Latin. It requires that we take advantage of the basics that are already, by God’s providence and mercy, very available to us.