Teaching the Faith and Building Hope

Dedication of the Church, Entrance Procession

San Juan Diego Mission Chapel

Western Hidalgo County

Teaching the Faith and Building Hope

Now that we are approaching the end of the summer, with religious education programs and Catholic Schools set to begin anew, I want to share a few thoughts about our life together in the Diocese of Brownsville. 

We all owe a great debt of gratitude to the hundreds of catechists who teach adults and children in our parish catechetical programs; and we are similarly indebted to the teachers and staffs that work in our Catholic Schools. They generously give time and energy and most of all great love to those they teach and encourage in the life of the Faith. All of you are a great encouragement and source of hope for me and for the whole Church.

One of my greatest preoccupations since I became bishop of this beautiful diocese has been and is the evangelization and catechesis of youth and young adults. And, I believe there is a direct link between evangelization and catechesis of adults and children and the health of Catholic Family life in the community. 

Family life is where the faith is first taught and where the life of grace begins. If you were like me as a child, it was the religious sense in the home that first awakened in me a sense of the closeness of God and of his love. Even before I learned how to make the Sign of the Cross from my Grandmother, our home had a Crucifix in every room and a large Last Supper over the dinner table. This is so important. A young person raised in a home with holy water in the house, and images of Christ, the Blessed Virgin and the saints is already aware of the mystery of God’s love, even before we learned to say our prayers. My earliest years were spent in an area of Corpus Christi that did not even have a parish or mission church nearby. But at home we did learn our prayers, and all before we even knew where catechism classes would be offered when we reached six years old. 

Family life is also where we learn that the life of faith and grace is lived in a community. For the family is the first community we encounter, and it is the place where we experience being loved and loving one another. We help each other in small and great ways in our families. 

We all know family life is under great stress these days. There are many families that struggle to make ends meet, and so parents work several jobs just to put food on the table and prepare for emergencies; there are many single moms and single dads who endeavor heroically to raise their children. There are many grandmothers and grandfathers who help their children raise their children.

There are challenges and stresses that erode the hopes and dreams of young children. I often say that young people between the age of their First Holy Communion and their Confirmation are making basic decisions that fundamentally direct the direction of their lives. For at that age they make decisions, whether consciously or not, about whether life is a great gift from the God who loves them, with challenges that can be overcome, or whether life is a cynical game, where nothing really matters all that much, where love is just another strategy that’s not really real, and that survival is a matter of “doing what you have to, no matter what”.

There are great tides of distraction that pull youth and young adults away from the thought of God and the love he gives us in Christ. But before we get overwhelmed by the chaos of modern cultures, we must recall how important it is to build a culture of faith and generous love in each of our homes.

This is why I plead with parents to spend as much time with their children as possible. Make every effort to baptize your children shortly after birth, and to raise them in the atmosphere of faith, and hope in the mystery of Christ risen from the dead. Listen to them, learn what they are going through at school or in their part-time jobs. Accompany them as they mature, and share your faith and life of prayer with them. Take them to Mass, help them understand what is happening when the Lord comes to us in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. These things are far more important than the things we want to buy them. 

A young person who learns that God loves us so much that he became flesh in the womb of Mary, that he lived for us, died for us and rose for us, has a chance to have hope in this difficult world. Young persons who experience the closeness of God and the love of those around them know in their hearts that truth, sincerity and a generous spirit of caring for one another are the paths toward a life of joy. This is where the hope that lasts a life-time truly comes from.

I speak of this often in the Diocese, and I encourage pastors to develop ways to engage families, youth and young adults in the life and ministry of the Church. And to help parents put into practice the simple ways of faith, hope and love in their homes.

Likewise, I believe that our parishes are like large families, and that we have a responsibility to reach out and help families that struggle to remain hopeful. There are many new and small communities forming along the outskirts of our city and parish boundaries. We have a call from the Lord himself to go out into these poorer communities that form and settle in the more isolated portions of the diocese and offer what we have to help them. And although material helps and resources are of great importance, even more than this, families that live in poverty need and deserve the spiritual and pastoral attention of the whole church. If a local businessman had not offered his restaurant as a place to have religious education classes on Sunday near where I grew up, I do not think I would have made my First Communion at all.

Consecration of the Altar

San Juan Diego Mission Chapel

Thus parishes and mission churches, and the whole diocesan structure should be oriented toward going out and offering accessible catechetical formation and sacramental preparation to families that, for whatever reason, feel isolated and distant from parish life. For this we need to work to form more lay missionary leaders, who can go to the peripheries and invite families to participate in the life of the local Church, and to form new centers of church life. 

I can assure you that I will continue to make the directing of diocesan funds and resources to the periphery a high priority, so that an anchor of faith and community life can be built up where currently it does not exist. But even before we try to build buildings where families and young people can gather, learn, pray and share the love of Christ, we all can and must do something to build up the community of faith and missionary outreach in the parishes and missions we already have. 

Have you asked your neighbor if they would like help getting their children to catechism classes so they can make their First Communion? You can, you know. It may be the most important thing you do this year.

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