Catechetical Sunday Mass

September 17th, 2006

Church of the Little Flower, Bethesda, MD

Homily of Msgr. Peter J. Vaghi

Today's readings are permeated with "faith" language. Could there be a better Sunday to celebrate Catechetical Sunday 2006 as our young people in Grades K through 8th begin today a new school year -- 260 strong? After all, what we do each Sunday is teach the “faith,” live the “faith” at Mass, and share the “faith” as we leave this church, this holy ground.

Most strikingly is Peter's own "confession of faith" at Caesarea Philippi. When Jesus asked him specifically in this morning's Gospel: "Who do YOU say that I am," he responded immediately: "You are the Christ." That was a sterling act of faith.

Immediately after Peter’s profession of faith in Jesus, what did Jesus do? Scripture tells us “He began to teach them.” You see, Jesus was in the business of teaching the faith, deepening the faith, explaining the faith -- above all that He would have to suffer and die for us and His exhortation that, if we choose to follow Him, we must daily take up our own crosses -- little and big.

Jesus’ teaching continues here at Little Flower at Mass and in the classrooms. The very teaching mission of Jesus continues in and through you parents and teachers and you young people. Young people, you teach each other in a very, very special way by what you say and do and by your example to each other. John Paul II used to say that the best way for young people to learn the faith was from each other.

In our second reading, the inspired writer of the Letter of St. James makes it clear that "faith" which does nothing in practice is thoroughly lifeless. He asks rhetorically: "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?” Faith is thus in contemporary language proactive. Faith has a caring and loving face. You and I are daily challenged to love each other from the heart, forgive each other -- to put faith into practice.

So often each of us, on our journeys of faith, finds ourselves discovering something about Jesus that we find difficult. Maybe it is a difficult teaching OR a particularly challenging revelation which the Lord has told us in our prayer and wants us to do OR a person who challenges us by his or her very persona to act in a charitable way and it is not easy. In a word, maybe we suffer from "compassion fatigue." But faith that does nothing in practice is "thoroughly lifeless."

In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah allows us to see “faith” in language of reassurance, trust,  and comfort in the face of difficult situations. Even with respect to those who spit on him or buffet him or pluck his beard, Isaiah knows for sure that God opens his ears that he might hear and that the Lord God is his abiding help. The responsorial psalm picks up that same theme, for the psalmist is aware of the presence of God in his life so much so that he experiences the Lord walking with him. "I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living."

Your presence here today -- on this Catechetical Sunday, parents and children -- this day of the Lord -- is itself an act of faith. It is an act of trust in the power of the living God. Faith after all leads to worship, to sacrifice, to loving outreach.

Faith is both a developing relationship with God  and an engagement with the truths that He reveals. It is a gift of God and a task to be lived. It is a way of life to be learned and a way of life to be lived. Hence study and practice are required! It is a process of growth. Faith develops in stages. It is a pilgrimage. Faith is a complete submission of intellect and will to God. Most importantly, and above all, faith is fundamentally a “gift” of God, a gift to be nurtured. How fortunate we are to have that gift of faith, to be here today and to deepen our understanding each and every Sunday first at Mass and then in the CCD classroom.

As with St. Peter, faith is often saying yes to God, or even saying yes to one who comes in God's name -- such as one in need of help -- and yet not fully understanding that which we have assented.

Peter had no clue that this Messiah, His Messiah, had to suffer much, be rejected, be put to death only to rise in three days. This great secret of His identity came to the fore ONLY after Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. It is the climax of Mark's entire Gospel -- an identity revealed, a mission clarifed. Henceforth, Mark's entire Gospel is directed to the cross and Jerusalem.

And Peter did not like what he heard. St. Mark tells us that Peter rebuked Jesus. He objected to Him. Had he left everything to follow that kind of Messiah -- One who was to be rejected and killed? What did this mean for him then? Would he similarly be rejected and killed? Jesus told him: Satan, get behind me, get out of my sight. What a blow to Peter! It must have become quite difficult for Peter and the others when Jesus began to spell out the implications for them: deny one's very self, take up one's cross and follow Jesus. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it."

We are called to lose our lives, our daily lives, in a special way, each Sunday by coming to Mass and CCD, doing this for Jesus. This means parents and children. It means coming on time for Mass so that the Word of God proclaimed can be heard and put into practice in our lives. It means parents studying the faith this year also. We are so fortunate to have a young deacon doing a Bible Study each Sunday in the music room while the CCD classes are in session. By learning about the readings for next Sunday, just think how much more meaning the readings will have when you come to church next Sunday. You will already have studied and reflected on them and will have thought about them prayerfully throughout the week. St. Jerome wrote that ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ. Scripture is not a footnote to our faith.

Finally, please allow me to encourage our wonderful children who begin class today. Let me also encourage our parents, in the recent words of Pope Benedict XVI, speaking to parents, said that if the faith is to be passed on to the next generation, it has to be preceded and accompanied “by the parents’ commitment to further their own knowledge of the faith, rekindling the flame with prayer and assiduous practice of the sacraments of confession and the Eucharist.”

To Sister Roberta, our loving CCD director, and all her lay collaborators, know of my fullest support and love in your efforts to share in the ministry of teaching which is uniquely mine as pastor of this wonderful Parish of the Little Flower.

Amen