Teaching as a sacrament

Fall is a good time to look forward. It is often a time of new beginnings, new hopes, and new quests. In looking forward to this year of publication, Religion Teacher’s Journal began by looking back. In the first issue, Neil Kluepfel, editor and publisher, wrote:

If the articles [in this first issue] have helped to reinforce your convictions to continue to strive to make our religion the most important thing in the lives of your students, then the magazine this month has achieved its objective.

As we looked at that first issue and at the mission Neil laid out for the magazine, we realized that the core of the catechetical ministry is teaching. However, it is not teaching so much in the pedagogical sense (although it often includes that). Primarily, catechesis is teaching in the sacramental sense.

What is a sacrament?
The more ancient word for “sacrament”—the word the apostles used—is “mystery.” The sacraments take on a slightly different meaning when we call them mysteries. We certainly “receive sacraments,” but we “encounter mysteries.” A mystery is something that draws us in, fascinates us, perhaps even frightens us. Sacraments are always about an encounter with the Mystery of Christ. And like any mystery—the mysteries of love, or art, or music, or nature—there is much to be revealed. It can take a lifetime.

Jesus never administered a sacrament. At least not in the sense of following a ritual text inside a church. Jesus is as sacrament. Jesus is mystery. When Jesus wanted to feed the first disciples, handing on small bits of himself to his nervous, confused, child-like followers, he told stories. He drew them into the mystery of himself with parables and signs. He taught.
Teaching is first of all a mission of mystery. Pope John Paul II said the first task of a catechist is to lead people to intimate communion with Christ. To even imagine what that might look like, and how to go about it, is both fascinating and frightening.

Perhaps we fail more than we succeed. Sometimes we are stiff and formulaic. Often we are not quite sure what we are doing. Sometimes we feel like we haven’t accomplished much. But we teach, nonetheless, because we are fascinated by the Mystery. And perhaps we succeed more than we think. Because we know that even on our worst day the sacrament happens.

As we begin this new year, Religion Teacher’s Journal joins you in looking forward to the future of teaching the faith, just as it did more than 40 years ago.