Feast Day: July 7th
People were used to Jesus working miracles.
But it’s a bit of a bigger shock when your neighbor does one. But that is exactly what we see in the New Testament! Luke 9:49 tells us that John came running up to Jesus: “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.” Only a few verses later, he would be doing the same. Luke 10:17: “The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!”” That’s not a fluke or mistake! Jesus reaffirms that He intends His Church to do what He does: “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.” He only amplifies this with the promise of the Holy Spirit in John 14:12: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”
But alongside of this, Our Lord also cautions us to not to grow attached to dramatic displays of power or forget that it is by His power that any miracles are accomplished. Luke 9:52 “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” St. Paul would remind the Corinthians of this some years later when they also were in danger of growing vain, forgetting that it was from God’s abundance, and for God’s purposes, that they had received such astonishing gifts.
“And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
– 1 Cor 12:28-13:3
About three years ago, Pope Francis quoted this passage of St. Paul when establishing a new lay ministry of Catechist. Some are still called to be apostles, prophets, to work miracles and heal and speak in tongues (and all of these can be beautiful works of love) but some are also called to the humble work of teaching and catechizing, and this can also build of Christ’s body in love! Now, local Churches are still working on the process and steps that should be involved in forming someone as an official catechist – they are instituted for life after all! – but our Blessed that we celebrated this week shows us just how far even the simple love of teaching the faith may take us!
Peter To Rot [pronounced “Tow Rote”] was a fun loving boy, one of the first to grow up a Catholic, in his village in Papua New Guinea. His pastor asked if he might be called to be a priest, but in the end he got married to his beloved wife Paula, and soon became the father to three children (though one died as an infant), and after three years of studying, started work as a catechist in his village. And then 1942 came, and the Japanese invasion of their island. Bombs fell on their village, the first time many had seen an airplane, and their loving shepherd Fr. Laufer was carried off to a prison camp. He shook Peter’s hand as they took him away, “”I am leaving all my work here in your hands. Look after these people well. Help them, so that they don’t forget about God.”
And he did. He gathered them each day to pray and learn the faith together, encouraging his fellow villagers when they were forced to hide in caves, and praying with the sick and dying. Christianity was outlawed, men were told to take second wives, but Peter would not lead them astray nor fail to say that such was a sin, “The Japanese cannot stop us loving God and obeying his laws! We must be strong and we must refuse to give in to them.” He was arrested and maltreated. His Bible, catechism, song book, notebooks, and two crucifixes were confiscated. His wife and little children visited him in prison, and a few others too, during which he would say “If it is God’s will, I’ll be murdered for the faith. I am a child of the church and therefore for the church I will die.”
And he did. A martyr for the importance of prayer, a martyr for the holiness of marriage. And he was just a catechist.
– Fr. Dominic was instituted as a lector, and acolyte, as preliminary steps towards priestly ordination. But the instituted ministry of catechist will not be something primarily given to men preparing for priesthood. How might our church, and our own lives, look different in a few decades if this is just the beginning of an outpouring of lay people called by God to consecrate themselves as catechists for the good of the Church and glory of God?!