February 13, 2009
The Christian Journey
RCIA paradigm shift — ‘Ancient, but ever new’
BY FATHER JIM SAUER
“Begin with the end in mind” is good advice for whatever we undertake, personally, as family, or parish. Keeping the “end” in mind helps us chart the path to our goal. This also applies to the RCIA. Vatican II and our American bishops acknowledged that the goal of initiation is “membership in the loving, faith-filled, and worshipping community of God’s people” (see the RCIA ritual, page 371, Appendix III: National Statutes for the Catechumenate,” Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, par. 14). They recognize this will “require formation in the whole of Christian life and gospel living,” while not neglecting teaching Church doctrines and precepts.
The late American theologian Ralph Kiefer wrote, “The RCIA is either prophecy of the highest order or massive institutional suicide.” What does his unusual statement mean? The RCIA presents us with an “ancient, but ever new” way of being church. We call this a “paradigm shift.” A “paradigm” is like a “blueprint.” Just as every building has a “blueprint” to assure for its structural soundness, Vatican II gives us a “blueprint” for being “Church” in today’s world. This “blueprint” (“paradigm shift”) undergirds the RCIA inviting the Church to examine and change “business as usual” — e.g. sacramental preparation and celebration, “instructions” in the faith, parish ministry.
This “blueprint” (“paradigm”) of the Church can also be discovered in the Vatican II Documents, General Instructions to the Sacraments, Pastoral Letters from our Bishops’ Conference, and other official documents. We constantly encounter this “blueprint” when we celebrate the sacraments. It is precisely this underlying “blueprint” (“paradigm shift”) of the Church’s understanding of herself that produces the struggles in our Church because it is a sharing in the “dying and rising” of Christ. A new way of thinking and being Church is being birthed within us, although, it is really a more “traditional” way of being church.
That last sentence seems contradictory, doesn’t it? – “A new way of thinking and being Church . . . really a more ‘traditional’ way of being church.” Those responsible for implementing the Vatican II teachings returned to Christianity’s earliest sources to determine what might be valuable today. The Church, as wise steward, is a vast storeroom of “both old and new” which can express in any age the Church’s understanding of herself as needed at any particular time. (Remember the story of the teen-age St. Tarcissius, who was arrested while taking communion to imprisoned Christians awaiting persecution? Lay Eucharistic ministers are not new to our Church. This ministry is a restoration of an ancient ministry. It was not the priest shortage that created Eucharistic ministers!
Much of what we experience as “new” in today’s Church is “traditional”— e.g. St. Justin the Martyr from 150 A.D. describes the structure of our present Mass. Therefore, when a Catholic speaks about celebrating Mass in the “traditional” way, the revised Mass of Vatican II is the most ancient form. However when people mention the “traditional” Mass, they are usually referring to Latin Tridentine Mass. This may be the most traditional Mass that we have experienced in our lifetime, but it is not the most traditional Mass in Church’s overall history. We need to be more aware that our Church had a history before us. A broader perspective of Church history helps us relax when changes occur.
Next week, we will begin looking at the basic elements of the Church’s “blueprint” (paradigm shift) as found in the RCIA. Since the RCIA is “initiation” into Church life, its underlying “blueprint” presents us with a comprehensive vision of parish life.