A History of the Catechumenate

A History of the Catechumenate
Evaluation of the Fourth and Fifth Centuries

What lessons can we draw from the evolution that is apparent from this brief survey of the catechumenal practice of the fourth and fifth centuries? A critical judgment must involve balancing both its positive and negative aspects.

The Negative Side
In relation to the practice of the third century, two things indicate a regression in the quality of the catechumenal ministry.

First, the catechumenate as such had disappeared. I have listed the causes, here are the consequences:

The entry into the catechumenate lost its character of being a step taken in faith. Since the evangelization had not been thorough enough, the candidates were not ready to "hear the word." They were not truly converted. They saw the Church they entered as a simple institution from which they expected only advantages. They were ignorant of the very principle of its existence, which is communion in faith and because of which only those who believed in Christ could be admitted. This deficiency of faith matched an indifference toward evangelical conversion. The fervor of the communities slackened and baptism was postponed indefinitely.

It is important to understand that the devaluation of the entry into the catechumenate is at the source of the devaluation of the catechumenate, for catechumenal formation cannot be experienced authentically except by subjects who actually believe in Christ, who have vitally grasped the demands of the call of the Lord, and who have decided to proceed to baptism. Faith of conversion implies desire for the sacrament. Where it does not exist, everything is false and even the best organization cannot compensate for it. John Chrysostom thought that it was better to leave the catechumenate than to bear hypocritically a title that no longer corresponded to anything:

Do you still doubt the divinity of Jesus Christ? Then leave, listen no more to the holy word and remove your name from the list of the catechumens. But if you believe in Christ, God and man, and if you are clear about religion, then why these delays, these postponements, and this negligence? ⁶⁷

Second, the true meaning of baptism became blurred. While access to the sacrament was a matter of "election" for Hippolytus, it seems that from this time on some catechumens looked on it as a right. This is far from the teaching of Tertullian.

Certainly, the bishops still reaffirmed the baptismal requirements, but their efforts reflect precisely the false conception many had of baptism. The principles were maintained, but the practice was totally different.

Baptism was even considered by some as a kind of insurance, which one took out at the very last moment to get the maximum advantage for the minimum cost, or as an arduous obligation one had to accept to avoid hell. Gregory of Nazianzus condemned these notions:

I know three ways of salvation: that of slaves, that of mercenaries, that of sons. Slave, fear blows; mercenary, look only to profit. But raise yourself to the dignity of son, love your Father with respect. Do good because of the beauty of obedience, even gratuitously, to your father, while not forgetting that your reward is the pleasure of your father. ⁶⁸

The abuses emphasized by the Fathers arose from the very position of the Church in the world. Because of the liberty it enjoyed from 313 on and the privileges it acquired, it ran the danger of being contaminated by the mentality of the world and of forgetting that it had to be the "soul of the world" by living evangelically. ⁶⁹ In spite of the tremendous efforts of some bishops, the evangelical life had become confined to monks alone. This should make us realize that the renewal of the catechumenate cannot be accomplished without a profound renewal of all of our Christian communities.

The Positive Side
It is to the credit of the pastors of this period that they organized the Lenten catechumenate with the intention of remedying the situation. The pagan world had provided the Church with a remarkable group of men trained in classical culture and as gifted for administration and speculation as for liturgical organization.

We have seen how the Lenten period was structured in function of direct preparation for baptism. In principle, the requirements for entrance into the catechumenate were presented eight weeks before Easter, and these long weeks were the framework for an intense and serious formation of those to be baptized. The attempt was thereby made to accomplish in a condensed form what was done during the normal stages of the former catechumenate. ⁷⁰

But the suppression of the "real" catechumenate for the Lenten catechumenate led to a fatal decline. The evolution was inevitable: when the liturgical signs no longer correspond to the human journey, when they are deprived of their normal support, when they no longer express a lived reality, then there is no longer the necessity of extending them in time. The very notion of a journey toward baptism was progressively weakened and the spread of the custom of infant baptism caused it to disappear completely, even though in the beginning the parents of the infants to be baptized were required to follow the catechumenal stages with the competentes. ⁷¹

In other respects the mystique of the preceding centuries became more conscious in the effort to compensate for the laxity of the ministry. One image in particular was often used by the Fathers to explain the necessity of the catechumenal stages: the gestation of a child in the womb of its mother. ⁷² The signing at the entry into the catechumenate, which ratified the first act of faith, was seen as the conception of the convert in the womb of the Church. But who has just started to live is still not ready to come into the world by the birth of baptism, and it would be criminal to send forth a being who is still too frail to survive. This is why, during the catechumenate-the period of gestation-the Church, like a good mother, nourishes by teaching and liturgical rites the one who will be reborn in the baptismal font.

Nonetheless, it is well to stress that the notion of stages is fundamental to Christian initiation. Of vital necessity are not only a serious catechesis but also an efficacious probation period. And there must also be a stage preliminary to catechesis, a stage that permits ill the seed of faith to be offered to those capable of welcoming it in their hearts and their lives.

The stages of the sacrament must coincide with those of the faith. In no case may the sacramental rites be performed without a true education in the faith. And, inversely, maturation in the faith has to be able to profit from the riches that Christ has provided in his liturgy.

While we may well rejoice in the modern restoration of the ritual of baptism by stages, let us beware of improperly sacramentalizing it.

Footnotes, Part 3

The Conclusion of A History of the Catechumenate, will be posted next Thursday. For information about ordering this book, please see Sadlier's Religion Catalog.

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