Some readers may remember when the cheerful greeting “Happy Holidays” became a popular and convenient replacement for the traditional “Merry Christmas”. The intent was seemingly harmless as the former was indefinite enough to include reference to Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year celebrations. The same principle of convenience gave rise to the practice of abbreviating the word ‘Christmas’ by substituting ‘X’ for ‘Christ’. Efforts to ‘keep Christ in Christmas’ since then have had limited success.
One wonders if we Christians today in the United States will begin abbreviating our religious identity as ‘X-ian’. Perhaps it’s not so outlandish as it seems. For many of us, including Catholics, our religion is essentially nothing more than a cultural identity that entails some moral requirements and a vague concept of an afterlife. Even sacramental life – to the extent we participate in it – is for us merely ritualistic evidence of our status as heirs of a culture. Belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior has devolved into our recognition of him as a man whose unmatched morality and sanctity spawned an international movement.
The good news is that there are many efforts underway to address this vitiation of the faith, some of which have been covered by this column in the past. A newly formed one is the Institute on the Catechism led by the United States Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee on the Catechism (www.evangelizingcatechesis.com).
Established just last year, the Institute addresses several prominent trends in the catechetical landscape of the Catholic Church in the United States, including: the rise in the number of religiously disaffiliated, the embrace of a growing number of Hispanic Catholics, and the increased use of technology in catechesis. The Institute is not a physical place. It is an ongoing effort to develop evangelization material and to coordinate regional and national forums on catechetics by working with local bishops, catechists and Catholic publishing houses.
According to its website the Institute explains ‘evangelizing catechesis’ as follows: “At the heart of the Church’s mission to all people, an evangelizing catechesis seeks to deepen a personal encounter with Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit; it proclaims the core message of the Gospel, the kerygma; it accompanies people to a response of faith and conversion to Christ; it provides systematic exposition of God’s revelation within the communion of the Catholic Church; and it sends out missionary disciples as witnesses to the good news of salvation”
The Institute on the Catechism is ‘good news’ to be sure. Putting ‘Christ’ back in ‘Christian’ is a major advance of the Kingdom.