Catechumens And Candidates Experience A 'snowy Desert' For Rite Of Election

Many of the 76 catechumens and 90 candidates in the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults across the Diocese of Evansville braved a blast of winter weather on Feb. 14 with their sponsors and families to participate in the annual Rite of Election, which was held at St. Benedict Cathedral in Evansville.

Parishes from across the diocese presented their Catechumens – those who will be baptized and confirmed, and receive the Eucharist during the Easter Vigil – and their Candidates – those who will be confirmed and receive the Eucharist during the Easter Vigil. Their respective sponsors joined them in the presentation.

As dry, powdery snow fell lightly outside, Bishop Charles C. Thompson recalled accepting an invitation to attend a retreat in New Mexico during March some years ago. “I arrived to six inches of snow, which they told me was very unusual for the desert,” he said. He continued by suggesting that Catechumens and Candidates – and really all of us – are moving through the desert just now – a desert that, on Feb. 14, was snowy like that New Mexico March.

“Lent is a desert time for us,” he said. “It’s a time for us to be led by the Spirit into the desert. The desert is that place for us where transformation takes place. In the Rite of Christian Initiation, we call this a time of purification and enlightenment for you Catechumens and Candidates.”

He referred to the Gospel, reading for the first Sunday in Lent, in which Jesus is tempted by the devil after 40 days of prayer and fasting in the desert. “Jesus triumphed over the devil in the desert because he kept his focus on the will of God,” the bishop said. “And in his public ministry despite other temptations, he kept his focus and never lost sight of how he was being led – not only into the desert but beyond.”

He explained that, in the desert, the devil tempted Jesus with representations of three things that are familiar to all of us. “The temptations represent wealth, pride and power – those three areas in every human being’s life that can seduce us away from the will of God. They can prevent us from recognizing what this Lenten season is all about – our total dependency on God’s grace, mercy, presence and power in our lives, leading us through the desert experience of earthly values to that which leads to eternal life.

“We began this Lenten season on Ash Wednesday hearing those words, ‘Repent and be faithful to the Gospel,’ Bishop Thompson said. “Repent … turn away from sin; turn away from those things that destroy … and turn to God in our hopes and our fears, our dreams and our words – following the example of Jesus, to entrust ourselves to the will of God.

“These days of purification and enlightening for you Catechumens and Candidates is a time for all of us because we all need purification and enlightenment,” he added. “We all need to open our minds and our hearts to that lifelong process of conversion. As we journey forward, let us continue to recognize that all of us need to confront the sin in our lives, the places in our lives where we need healing, forgiveness and reconciliation. Let us recognize the temptation of evil that we must confront as individuals and as a community. Let us do it with the mercy of God.”