Reflection

It used to be cameras, now it’s phones, but the moments of transition in our life are memorialized in snapshots. High school graduation means we will never again be a “kid.” The wedding means that I am no longer an “I” but rather part of an “us.” The birth of the first child means that I am now “mom” or “dad,” words that involve two decades of commitment and sacrifice. Looking back at the photos helps ground us in who we have become.

And so, the first gathering of the newly baptized and affirmed and their sponsors needs to help them to look back, to re-experience and to share with the other participants what happened during those ritual moments. The most direct way to do that is to walk everyone through the ritual again. Have them stand again by the font and dip their fingers in its water, ask them again the crucial questions. Evoke and share the memories of all the participants, and a rich and transformative community experience can be created.

Discipleship

But we move on from those rituals which create a new identity for us into the realities of our new life. Adults have responsibilities; spouses have to communicate and compromise; parents have 3 AM feedings. Christians are called to lives of love and service. What does that mean day by day? It might mean a new dedication to our role within our family. Or involvement in a ministry in the parish. Or in the larger community. But it means something. If we have been “christened,” then we too are called “not to be served but to serve” in the power of the Spirit. The remaining gatherings during the weeks of Easter are meant for discernment, for helping those who have entered this new identity to see how they truly can bring Christ to their world—small and big. And the scripture passages from the lectionary make that process easy.

Until at last, at Pentecost, the final rite of the catechumenal process is celebrated, The Affirmation of the Vocation to Discipleship.

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The traditional name for this process of reflection and discernment is the Greek term “mystagogy,” unpacking the mysteries. A JBL working group has developed an articulated catechetical and ritual process for this phase. You are free to use any or all of it in your ministry. It can be found here, starting at p. 143.