Catechists must be “totally convinced” of how much they are loved by God the Father before they can effectively teach and pass on the faith, Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila told retreat attendees last Sunday.
His remarks were made during his homily at a Mass that concluded a four-day retreat for roughly 300 catechists with the Neocatechumenal Way, which was held at the Hyatt Regency Aurora-Denver Conference Center hotel in Aurora.
The retreat, also known as a Convivence of Catechists, was organized for catechists who take part in the Neocatechumenal Way’s journey of Christian initiation. The Catholic movement aims to help Christians rediscover their baptism and helps those who are unbaptized prepare for their baptism.
Archbishop Aquila, in his homily for the concluding Mass, thanked retreat attendees for answering the call to be catechists and the call “to be those who go forth and proclaim the kerygma to a world that so desperately needs it.”
“Thank you for your commitment. Thank you for your perseverance. Thank you for your witness,” he said.
Francesco Gennarini, a Colorado leader with the Neocatechumenal Way, told the Denver Catholic that the catechists “gather together once a year to reflect on the situation of the Church and the world.” The catechists receive “an invitation to return to the Lord with all their hearts” and seek to be confronted by the Word of God.
According to Gennarini, there are more than 25,000 Neocatechumenal communities around the world in 800 dioceses and 110 nations. In the U.S. alone, there are about 1,050 communities in 85 dioceses.
Neocatechumenal Way leaders in Utah and Colorado organized the event.
Archbishop Aquila in his homily told the catechists that their work reveals “the love of God and the love of neighbor.”
“Before anything else in our lives, we must love God first, and put God first, and return the love that he has given to us,” he said. “The Lord has loved each and every one of us, knowing exactly what we are going to do in our lives.”
“We have to be totally convinced in our hearts and in our minds, in our souls, that we are loved by the Father,” he said.
The Sunday Mass reading from the Gospel of Matthew 22:34-40 concerned the greatest commandment, to love God “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and the second greatest commandment “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Aquila, reflecting on the commandment “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” noted that Scripture exhorts us to love the stranger, including immigrants, and to love the widow and the orphan.
There are consequences if we do not follow God’s love and love the way He does, the archbishop said.
“We see that so evident today, both in the situation in the world, and in the situation in the Church,” Aquila continued. “There is that lack of completely giving ourselves over to Jesus Christ and to the Father and to the Holy Spirit.”
“When you do that, even though you might have trials, even though you might suffer, even though you might experience the Cross or persecution, there is still a joy in you,” he said. “Because you know the love of the Father, and you live in that love.”
“One of the greatest problems in the Church today is a lack of confidence in Jesus Christ and in his promises,” Archbishop Aquila’s homily continued. “We listen way too much to the world, and to the voices of the world, and not to what Jesus Christ can do for us.”
“It is only God’s love, and his love alone, that transforms you. That truly does make you, in the words of St. Paul, a new creation,” he said.
The call to be a saint is for everyone, said Aquila, who explained that this should give us encouragement and strength “to go out and evangelize, to proclaim the gospel, and to give the good news to others: that Jesus Christ is truly risen. He loves you. And he has conquered sin, death and the devil.”