Early on in our marriage, my husband would joke that I could take even the most unrelated job or activity, such as sitting on the front step as neighborhood kids are coming home from school or starting a picture framing business, and find a way to make it a “ministry” in my own head. I suppose this is because my definition of ministry has always been very broad. A few years ago, when Dr. Matt Halbach came and spoke at our diocesan catechetical leaders meeting about the process of evangelization, I was vindicated in my belief.
Dr. Halbach outlined Pope Francis’ understanding of the mission of the Church as a ministry of accompaniment. It isn’t always overt, Sacramental (with a capital S), or even on church property. Often times, ministry is just being truly present to someone, even if it means standing at the fence post and talking to your neighbor. This perspective takes on an urgent significance when encountering people inside the Church building as well: before they can be “theologized” they must be evangelized. You cannot try to give someone moral formation (parenesis) or the plethora of theological details before they come to deeply know the proclamation of God’s boundless love for them (kerygma).
Years ago, I complained to my friend and mentor, Dr. Tom Neal, that I met so many people who are thirsty for God, who need Him in their lives so desperately, but that I felt incapable of helping them. Catholicism is so dense and rich that all I had to slake their thirst was a fire hose. Tom sent me a short little message that challenged me to place a higher priority on my own theological formation. He quoted Albert Einstein: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
The study of theology, especially my Catechesis of the Good Shepherd formation which takes the richest content to offer to the smallest ones, is a quest to understand God’s plan of salvation well enough to equip me in the ministry of giving a drink of water to these thirsty ones without drowning them. It is to know the big picture well enough to be able to help others form their own understanding, line by line, stroke by stroke. Theology and Ministry aren’t just the tools and approach we use for sacramental classes or catechist in-services, they are for the fence-post, too.
Years ago, I complained to my friend and mentor, Dr. Tom Neal, that I met so many people who are thirsty for God, who need Him in their lives so desperately, but that I felt incapable of helping them. Catholicism is so dense and rich that all I had to slake their thirst was a fire hose. Tom sent me a short little message that challenged me to place a higher priority on my own theological formation. He quoted Albert Einstein: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
The study of theology, especially my Catechesis of the Good Shepherd formation which takes the richest content to offer to the smallest ones, is a quest to understand God’s plan of salvation well enough to equip me in the ministry of giving a drink of water to these thirsty ones without drowning them. It is to know the big picture well enough to be able to help others form their own understanding, line by line, stroke by stroke. Theology and Ministry aren’t just the tools and approach we use for sacramental classes or catechist in-services, they are for the fence-post, too.
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