Addressing The Post-Easter Spiritual Needs Of Our New Members
Welcome and congratulations to all those who joined the Catholic Church on Holy Saturday. What an inspiring experience it is for us who have been Catholic all or most of our lives to witness the Church grow each year! Thank you for saying “Yes” to the Lord’s call to become his disciples. You are truly a gift to the Church.
So many times in the past, it seemed that parish RCIA directors and catechists (me included) would place so much emphasis on the celebration of Holy Saturday that the Easter Vigil appeared to be the goal of initiation. The Easter Vigil came across like a graduation ceremony for the new members after having “endured” a yearlong faith formation process.
We must help them (and us) realize that the Easter Sacraments celebrated during the Easter Vigil are but a bridge, definitely a most important bridge, but nevertheless a bridge. They are a bridge into the faith life of the Church. The real goal is not the reception of the sacraments of baptism and confirmation, but rather entrance into the Eucharistic community of God’s people.
A similar experience is true of marriage; the wedding ceremony is only the bridge whereby a man and a woman become one and by God’s grace start a family. The sacrament of marriage also deepens their commitment to the Church community as they are called to witness God’s love in their lives to their sisters and brothers. The Church needs to see good, strong marriages, which are signs to us of God’s love visibly active in the world.
Since the goal of the Easter Sacraments is entrance into the Eucharistic community of God’s people, the RCIA ritual stresses that during the Easter Season “with the help of their godparents, the new members should experience a joyful welcome into the community and enter into closer ties with the other faithful” (RCIA, 246). This bonding is just as crucial in their initiation as was the formation in the gospel, church teachings, personal and communal prayer, and a life of service (both within and beyond the Church). Therefore, our parishes still need to become more creative in arranging for opportunities for new members to meet God’s people during this holy Easter Season.
Several ideas might be: 1) introducing the new members at the beginning of the homily during the different weekend Masses throughout the Easter Season; 2) organizing coffee and donuts after the different weekend Masses each Sunday during the Easter Season; and, 3) having a special parish potluck dinner for new members to welcome them near Pentecost Sunday (RCIA, 249) to close the Easter Season.
Another concern so often expressed by catechists is that the new members no longer want to gather each Sunday after Mass for instruction once they are initiated. The ritual clearly states that the proper place now for the new members’ instruction is during the Sunday worship itself (RCIA, 247). Special places in church are to be reserved for them (their families and godparents too); the homily and the general intercessions should take into account their presence and needs (RCIA, 248); and, they could take part in the presentation of the gifts (RCIA, 217).
What a wonderful way to share our faith with them that the Sunday Eucharist is indeed the “source and summit” of our week and our lives!
Like the other sacraments, we provide a wonderful ministry preparing people for them; but the follow-up is all but lacking. Gathering during the Easter Season and even the first year after their initiation is good and necessary. However, we might want to gather the new members together monthly in a more relaxed environment, e.g. a B-B-Q picnic, a trip to St. Meinrad Archabbey and/or the Monastery of Immaculate Conception for Sunday Mass and lunch, a tour of area churches during the Easter Season, etc. They will probably have more questions once fully initiated than perhaps before their initiation.
No doubt these new members will experience a “honeymoon” period after the Easter Vigil; and they could soon experience a dry spell. Their ideas of the Church prior to joining may have been over idealistic. Now that they are members, they may observe us Catholics as we really are and begin to question their faith! (The same is true of the first year of marriage, isn’t it?) Gathering our new members together during this first year to discuss their concerns is very important. The last idea we need to give them is that their formation ends when they join the church, that they will learn everything by their baptism.
Eventually we need to move them into small faith-sharing groups. Imagine being in the catechumenate for an entire year and no longer having that strong faith-sharing group? Many will feel like there’s something missing in their lives. Small faith-sharing groups are essential to the vitality of a parish where people can come together to pray, discuss their faith, share fellowship, and leave with an action plan for their lives.
The presence of new members in the Church is also meant to be a source of inspiration and a renewal of outlook for God’s people (RCIA, 246). This is accomplished simply through the celebration of the initiation sacraments during the Easter Vigil. But how inspiring it would be if our new members would share their experiences of what it was like to be baptized, to be welcomed into the church, of receiving communion for the first time and any other grace-filled moments experienced during their faith formation process. They could do this by sharing their thoughts via the Sunday bulletin; or, the homilist could appropriately weave them into his homily throughout the Easter Season.
We are a “sacramental” church, which means we believe God touches us through our sacramental rituals – not just baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist – but all the rites along the way.
Another very practical reason we need to hear our new members’ experiences of God’s grace is because I’ve heard it said over the years from good faithful Catholics “If I had to go through what these new members do, I would never be baptized today.” What a wonderful way to dispel this attitude!
