In just a few weeks, the participants in this year’s RCIA classes at our parish will celebrate the Rite of Election. Our Bishop will be here and the Catechumens will sign the Book of the Elect signifying their next step in the journey to becoming a Catholic.Every Monday night since last Easter, these fine people have spent Monday evenings with our pastor and a team of teachers. I am aware that not all RCIA programs are created equally. As I surf the web, it becomes apparent that many, if not most, RCIA programs place most of the emphasis on feelings, and very little on what I like to call the “nuts and bolts” of Catholicism.
At our church, we believe that a person who actually signs up for RCIA has at least a passing knowledge of what a Christian is, and is not clueless when it comes to how a Christian should live. That being the case, we move rapidly past that period loosely referred to as the “inquiry.” They are given a Catechism and the process becomes twofold - a conversion of heart, and a conversion of the intellect.
Through attendance at Mass and through prayer, having been taught some methods of discernment, their hearts are opened to the mysteries of God and His saving grace. This is the “feeling” part of becoming a Catholic. Feelings are not bad things to have but they are subject to change. If someone were to base their entire conversion experience on feelings, there would not be a lot for them to grab hold of when the first “dark night of the soul” rolled around.
It is the “nuts and bolts” that keep us moving forward when feelings have taken a mid-winter vacation. It is the authority, given by God, to the Catholic Church that allows her (the Church) to say, “I’m sorry if your feelings are not up to par today. That is why I gave you guidelines and rules. You see, I appealed to your intellect in order to win your heart.”
This year, as in years past, when our Catechumens take the next step at the Rite of Election, they will know intellectually why they are signing that book. And they will feel the words of scripture proclaimed that day from John 17;
Lifting up His eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “Holy Father, keep them in Your name that you have given Me, so that they may be one just as We are one.”
“As you sent Me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate Myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth”.
