Teaching for Discipleship. Mike Carotta, EdD

Ohio, intentionally switched its focus to discipleship, the staff was able to document how the people responded: volunteerism exploded, donations rose, the number of ministries expanded, and the number of people subsequently engaged in communal membership increased exponentially.

      The Call of Discipleship shifts from “support the parish” as the primary expression of the disciple’s charity and compassion. The Vatican tells us:

      The community of the disciples of Jesus, the Church, shares today the same sensitivity as the Master himself showed them. With great sorrow she turns her attention to those “peoples who, as we all know, are striving with all their power and energy to overcome all the circumstances which compel them to live on the border line of existence: hunger, chronic epidemics, illiteracy, poverty, injustice between nations … economic and cultural neocolonialism” (EN, 30)….

      “The church is duty bound — as her bishops have insisted — to proclaim liberation of these hundreds of millions of people … of bearing witness on its behalf and of assuring its full development” (EN, 30). (GDC, 103)

      Over the last eight years I have carved out a phrase that captures and connects the Call of Discipleship as I see it laid out in the Gospel, the documents of the Church, and the spiritual interests of the people. This phrase embodies the Call of Discipleship in a way that makes us touch all the bases on the way Home. Teaching for Discipleship also allows us to stop at any of the four bases and spend time probing the beauty and richness and truth there. Yet no single base captures all of it. T4D intentionally asks participants to touch all four bases on the way Home.

       Discipleship …

       within a community of disciples …

       for the good of the world …

      and the will of God.

       For Reflection

      How have you understood the word disciple?

      This chapter lists eight reasons why now is a good time to emphasize the Call of Discipleship. Which one(s) do you agree with most and why?

      Which one(s), if any, do you wish you could discuss a bit more?

      What additional reason(s) might you want to add?

      This chapter concludes with a statement that organizes and frames the Call of Discipleship. How does this sit with you?

      Which of the four components have you been emphasizing in your own teaching?

      Which might you want to increase your emphasis on?

      Make yourself some notes about the one or two things you take away most from this chapter.

      Part 2

      The Challenge

      Four Words

       The Community of Faith

      We have used these four words as a rich way to describe the Church. The Community of Faith implies a committed and dedicated body of people who are known for the faith they uphold and preserve. It is a diverse group of people who share the same beliefs, prayers, symbols, rituals, traditions, and morals.

      Our Community of Faith is a Eucharistic one. At its best, the Community of Faith offers spiritual food for those who hunger, compassion for those in need, moral direction in a complex world, and spiritual wisdom for those who seek.

      It has done so for 2,000 years.

       faith of the community

      Same four words, but a different reality. This represents the beliefs, morals, and spiritual guidelines of a larger group — many of whom may be full members of the Community of Faith but seem to resonate more with those in the larger public community.

      Faith within these two different communities can often be very different, sometimes even opposed to each other.

      What are the differences between the Community of Faith and faith of the community? And how are we to proceed?

      Herein lays the biggest challenge in Teaching for Discipleship. The Vatican tells us:

      One of the difficulties to be addressed and resolved is the question of “language” (mentality, sensibility, tastes, style, vocabulary) between young people and the Church (catechesis, catechists). A necessary “adaptation of catechesis to young people” is urged, in order to translate into their terms “the message of Jesus with patience and wisdom and without betrayal” (CT, 40). (GDC, 185)

      Given that those who were young people in 1997 (the year the General Directory for Catechesis was published) are now in their thirties, this “necessary adaptation” applies to our ministry among adults as well. And this Vatican document describes language as far more than vocabulary. It says that word language also refers to “mentality, sensibility, tastes, style” as well.

      How are we to “translate … ‘without betrayal’ ”?

      Here are some of the differences in the “mentality, sensibility, tastes, style” that exist between the Community of Faith and faith of the community.