Catechetics of the Church Fathers

The Narratio: Like St. Paul, St. Augustine, who has been called the father of catechetics because of his systematic approach to teaching, stresses the value of telling the divine story. In his work De Catechizandis Rudibus (Catechizing the Uninstructed), he says instruction should begin with a narration of God’s interaction with man from the creation of the world to the present period in Church history. This is the narratio, “the narration of the wonderful deeds of God” (GDC 107). The most fundamental point to begin instruction is not that there are ten commandments, twelve apostles, seven sacraments, etc. but rather to understand what unifies them, namely, that they all originate in a loving God who has both revealed himself and offered himself to us. Each topic deserves individual attention, but all fit within a larger framework of salvation history. [The Catechism treats being first, only then does it consider action. It focuses upon what God has done, before addressing what man can and should do in response. The moral imperative can make sense only as a consequence of the indicative of God’s action.]

Let’s take an example of how this works in teaching about ‘providence and the scandal of evil.’ Some wrongly attribute the creation of evil to God since he created the world or conclude that he is powerless to stop evil. The Catechism answers the question ‘Why does evil exist’ by situating evil in the context of salvation history. It states:

Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the answer to this question: the goodness of creation, the drama of sin, and the patient love of God who comes to meet man by his covenants, the redemptive Incarnation of his Son, his gift of the Spirit, his gathering of the Church, the power of the sacraments . . . There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil” (CCC 309).

It might be obvious if you were teaching about sin, or faith or charity that you would give examples from salvation history. But what if you were teaching something like the virtue of chastity versus lust? How would you use salvation history? You might tell the story of Tobias and Sarah in the book of Tobit or discuss the chastity displayed by Joseph versus Potiphar’s wife in Genesis 39. God’s wonderful works of salvation must be recounted to bring us to eternal salvation. The story of Saul’s conversion can illustrate any number of theological points of instruction from God’s redeeming love to our own spiritual blindness. The role of the catechist is to situate their teaching in the context of the salvation story, “the story of God’s never ending love,” and so connect it with all instruction that came before and that might follow.

In their new book, The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Craft of Catechesis, Petroc Willey, Pierre de Cointet and Barbara Morgan use the Emmaus Road story of Christ’s disciples, who encounter the Risen Christ on the Emmaus road but do not recognize him at first, found in the Gospel of Luke, to illustrate how the catechist might use narratio. They note that this story is misused to support an approach in which those being instructed are first asked to “share their story.” Only after hearing this is it suggested that the catechist share Christ’s story. But the Emmaus Road encounter with the Risen Christ is not about the disciples telling their story, but rather focuses our attention on how we should understand the death and resurrection of Jesus. They remind us of Jesus’ sharp rejoinder to the disciples misunderstanding of Scripture reflects the inadequacy of their understanding of his Passion: “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not ordained that the Christ should suffer and so enter into his glory.” Jesus did question them, but hearing their confusion and despair, he brought them to the truth by recounting the salvation story in Scripture and showing them how the O.T. prophecies were fulfilled in him. We might wish that we had been present for that divinely led Bible study!

The Emmaus story dramatically points to the Christocentric nature of the Old Testament and to the role of Jesus as teacher and interpreter of Scripture. His use of the words, “took,” “blessed,” “broke,” connect a simple meal to the language of the liturgy. First, he broke open the Word, then they recognized him in the “breaking of the bread,” a biblical reference to the Eucharistic liturgy. What does this bring to your mind?

We share a common concern about where we came from and what are end will be. When we place our catechesis in the story of salvation history we proclaim in summary form what the Church believes in her Creeds. In his instruction to Deacon Deogratias, St. Augustine urges him to “begin our narration, starting from the fact that God made all things very good, and continuing … down to the present period of Church history.” (Sollon, p. 3). He specifically refers to the need to share the Church’s story, noting that “heresies and schisms were occasioned in various places on the part of those who sought not His glory, but their own.” We must not forget that the salvation story includes the story of the Church, her Saints and martyrs, throughout history to the present day as the General Directory for Catechesis notes. Despite the post-modern mind that claims that there is no common story, St. Paul, St. Augustine and the Church assures us that there is! The GDC says, that the historical character of the mystery of salvation,

. . . requires that catechesis attend to the following points: presentation of salvation history by means of Biblical catechesis so as to make known ‘the deeds and words’ with which God has revealed himself to man . . . the history of the Church which transmits Revelation: this history, read within the perspective of faith, is a fundamental part of the content of catechesis (para. 108).