A History of the Catechumenate
The Permanent Concern for Authenticity

It is instructive to consider the efforts of the Fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries to prevent a fatal decline. They were the first to recognize weakening not only in the delay of baptism but also in the temptation of priests to baptism those who pretended to have the who did not live in a Christian way. Faced abuse, they did not hesitate to call upon the al doctrine according to which salvation is only granted in the sacrament to those having the faith and living in conformity to that faith. From this double requirement followed the necessity of a catechumenal discipline.

The Necessity of Real Faith
The bishops first stressed that faith is intimately bound to the sacrament: ¹⁵ no sacrament may be administered if it is absent.

Faith and Baptism are two modes of salvation, of kindred origin and inseparable. For on the one hand faith is perfected through baptism, and on the other hand baptism is founded on faith. ¹⁶

So wrote Basil of Caesarea. This theme recurred often in his preaching:

Go, said the Lord, teach all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Baptism is, in fact, the seal of faith, and the faith is a bond with the Divinity. therefore, it is necessary first to believe, and then to be signed by baptism. ¹⁷

Referring likewise to the command of Jesus Christ before his ascension, Athanasius and Jerome stressed the same requirement:

The Savior commanded not only to baptize, he said first "to teach" and then "to baptize," so that teaching may give birth to the proper faith and that, with the faith, we may be initiated by the sacrament. ¹⁸

The Apostles first taught all the nations: once they taught them, they gave them ablution with water. Indeed, the body cannot receive the sacrament of baptism if the soul, before all else, has not welcomed the truth of the faith. ¹⁹

One of the objectives of the catechumenate is to increase the faith of those in whom "the grace of the faith is not yet sufficient to obtain the Kingdom of God." ²⁰

Of itself, this requirement of a certain maturity in the faith to receive baptism suffices to justify serious prebaptismal catechesis. But there is another requirement that confirms the utility of a period of preliminary formation: the faith that gives access to the font of new birth is not a dead faith, it is a living faith animated by an efficacious love.

The Necessity of a Life That Conforms to the Faith
Augustine wrote an entire treatise, "On Faith and Works," to denounce the practice of baptizing sinners that was developing in some places:

There are certain persons who are of the opinion that everybody without exception must be admitted to the font of rebirth which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, even those who, notorious for their crimes and flagrant vices, are unwilling to change their evil and shameful ways, and declare frankly (and publicly) that they intend to continue in their state of sin. ²¹

And it is not sufficient to say: "Then he will be taught how evil it is and, after baptism, he will be instructed to reform his morals," since such is contrary to the practice of the Church:

With the help of our Lord God, let us diligently beware henceforth of giving men a false confidence by telling them that if only they will have been baptized in Christ, no matter how they will live in the faith, they will arrive at eternal salvation. ²²

This is the same fundamental theme that recurs in many of the Lenten sermons of this period. Baptismal life can permeate only those who have rejected all hypocrisy and who already are accustomed to live in conformity with the Gospel. The following is from Cyril of Jerusalem:

For though you be present here in the body, that is no use if your heart be not here as well. Once upon a time there came to the font Simon the Sorcerer. He was baptized, but he was not enlightened, for while his body went under the water, his heart let not in the light of the Spirit. He plunged his body and came up, but in his soul, he was neither buried with Christ nor did he rise again with him... But if you just continue in your evil disposition, I have cleared myself of telling you, but you cannot expect to receive God's grace. For though the water will receive you, the Holy Spirit will not. ²³

In his second baptismal instruction, John Chrysostom drew the practical conclusion from this traditional teaching:

I have said it before, I say it now, and I shall say it again and again: unless a man has corrected the defects of his character and has developed a facility for virtue, let him not be baptized. Consider your soul as a portrait that you have painted. Before the Holy Spirit comes to apply his divine brush, erase your bad habits. ²⁴

Gregory of Nyssa did not hesitate to affirm that baptism conferred on a poorly prepared candidate is not only inefficacious, it is also an insult to God himself:

If the washing is applied to the body, while the soul does not wash away the stains of its passions, but the life after initiation is of the same character as the initiate life, even though it be a bold thing to say, yet I will say it and not draw back, in such cases the water is water, and the gift of the Holy Spirit nowhere appears in what takes place: the turpitude of the soul dishonours the image of God. ²⁵

At the beginning of the sixth century, the same theme recurs in the Sermons of Cesarius of Aries to those to be baptized:

It is a good thing you are seeking, a great thing, the highest bliss, eternal happiness. For this reason I admonish you with God's help devoutly to prepare both your bodies and your hearts, because what you are asking is very great. In truth if God wanted to offer you individual silk garments, you would not be able to accept them with filthy, dirty hands. How much more so, then, when He deigns to give His own self to you, should you not receive Him except in a heart that has been cleansed by faith? If, according to the Lord's precept "people do not pour new wine into old wineskins," how will any man be able to receive God Himself if he has been unwilling to cleanse himself entirely of his old way of life? ²⁶

Thus, from the fourth to the sixth century, the bishops firmly maintained the theological principles of the sacramental ministry, while the Peace of Constantine was threatening to make it too easy for the catechumens. How did the institution of the catechumenate adapt to the new situation? I turn now to this problem.

The description of the catechumenate around the year 400 shows how the Church tried to preserve the proper balance between mercifulness and laxity. Augustine clearly saw that Donatism, with its tendency to construct a "church of the pure," was as dangerous as the abandonment of ecclesiastical discipline. In pastoral practice, it is necessary to join firmness with goodness, without becoming "torpid in the name of patience nor violent under the pretext of zeal." ²⁷

Footnotes, Part 3

The first part of The Catechumenate from 350 to 420, the next chapter of A History of the Catechumenate, will be posted next Thursday. For information about ordering this book, please see Sadlier's Religion Catalog.