'We Got Some Dudes!' - If Catholic Saints Played Football Part II: Defense
The practice of handing on tradition is in the name tradition. “Traditio’ means to hand-on. Similarly, the word catechesis, in Greek means to “echo down”. The original voice is someone else’s. The voice of Jesus is supposed to heard in the catechist's teaching. “He must increase. I must decrease” (Jn 3:30). Because “My teaching is not mine but his who sent me” (Jn 7:16), the echo of Jesus as the Word continues to ripple forward through time and the message remains untainted and radiant as when Christ first revealed it.
It is as if the Catechists inherit a treasure box filled with the splendor of truth, the Deposit of Faith. The ordinariness of the box is strange given what it contains. This is because the mystical and the supernatural lie just on the other side of the ordinary, the plain and the mundane. Ordinary peopl in an ordinary classroom setting teach ordinary kids, but one by one, the catechist holds up, activates, hands on and echoes down each exraordinary doctrinal gem and jewel. A dynamic presentation means passing on the faith that we possess with zeal. It means demonstrating, with passion, the importance of our lessons because they are true.
This way of presenting the Catholic Faith is called ‘dynamic orthodoxy’.
By 'orthodoxy' I mean ‘right teaching’. The Catholic Faith is based on an objective hierarchy of truths that we have received and to which we have given an assent of faith. All Catholics are called to be an instrument of the Holy Spirit, a servant to the Spirit of Truth.
By 'dynamic' I mean it resonates with the human head and heart regardless of the time, place or age of the recipient. There are four pillars of dynamic orthodoxy which are universal and transcendent. They correspond to the deepest longings in every human heart. All human beings, especially the young are drawn to Beauty, Truth, and Goodness. We introduce them at first within the context of a fourth pillar of Cultural Relevance.
BEAUTY
The catechist appeals to the innate human desire for beauty. This is difficult because of the constant bombardment of imagery coming at the students from multiple forms of media and entertainment. The Catholic Faith is not short on beauty. The arsenal of beauty that we echo forward and hand on is in our tradition which is necessarily historical. Though, it’s counter-cultural to laud the past, this doesn’t have to have a negative connotation… After all, “Tradition is not about the preservation of ashes but about passing on the flame”.
Art, literature, icons, architecture, statues, incense, vestments, vessels, candles, bells, singing, music all stir the heart and the imagination toward heaven, the beatific vision which is the epitome of the beautiful. Instead of viewing these sacred objects on film or on a screen we would do well to have them engage these things with their senses in person. Young people appreciate what is real. Even more, through Baptism we are made to engage in what is super-real (supernatural).
TRUTH
The second transcendental pillar of dynamic orthodoxy is Truth. Orthodoxy means ‘right teaching’. The term right teaching implies that there is wrong teaching. The whole idea of wrong teaching or ‘heresy’ is that there is an authoritative body making truth claims and there are people who reject these claims. Either the people reject the claim itself as being untrue or they see the teacher as lacking credibility.
These truth claims are called doctrine. Before we can even get to doctrine we must recover the integrity and credibility of the Church as ‘pillar and foundation of truth’ (1 Tim 3:15). Jesus told the Apostles, ‘Whoever listens to you listens to me’ and ‘Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven’.
GOODNESS
The third pillar is Goodness. Every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. By their fruits you shall know them” (Mt 7:15-20).
The Catholic Church has produced a bountiful, and fruitful harvest. Over two thousand years the Church has given to the world tens of thousands of holy men and women who have dedicated their lives to service of God and human beings in love. These great Saints have answered the all important question that we want to know…
What does living in Christ look like? To Saints and holy people we know, why are you so joyful and confident? How is that you are so patient, so charitable and so funny? How can I be like you? You make holiness cool. What is your secret?
RELEVANCE
Finally, with regard to cultural relevance, Jesus operated within and used the culture and language of his disciples. It is vital to hear the echo of the Gospel message in our own post-Christian, relativistic culture. The challenge is to make the connections from the fallen, deceptive world we inhabit to the residuals of eternal truth, beauty and goodness without becoming absorbed into the culture ourselves. We recognize that we are in the world but not of the world but even this world contains bits of goodness, truth and beauty.