'Contemplare et contemplata aliis tradere' as recommended by Pope Francis

Pope Francis addressed a gathering of catechists in Rome a couple of days ago. His address is up on the Vatican website. It's not very long, and it is well worth reading.

Over at the Jesuit journal, Catholic World Report, editor James V Schall SJ reviews the Holy Father's address and in so doing he links Francis's words to our Dominican motto.

If the first step is to “stand before the Master,” the second is to imitate Christ in going out of ourselves and meeting others. This advice reflects the Dominican motto, to pass on to others what we ourselves have first contemplated in our hearts through study and silence. To do this is also “a beautiful experience—and a little paradoxical.” 

To be true to ourselves we have to go out of ourselves. The faith itself contains this direction. In an age in which everything is centered on our rights, our pleasures, our freedom to do whatever we want, to talk about taking the faith to others seems odd. Are we not impinging on others? Yet, we are to receive the faith as a gift and this, not without God’s help. We are to give it to others.

And this is what Francis says about this gift (and where he says catechist, I hear Lay Dominican!)

Where there is true life in Christ, there follows an openness to others, and so a going out from oneself to encounter others in the name of Christ. And this is the job of the catechist: constantly to go forth to others out of love, to bear witness to Jesus and to talk about Jesus, to proclaim Jesus. This is important because the Lord does it: it is the Lord himself who impels us to go forth. 

The heart of a catechist always beats with this systolic and diastolic movement: union with Christ – encounter with others. Both of these: I am one with Jesus and I go forth to encounter others. If one of these movements is missing, the heart no longer beats, it can no longer live. 

The heart of the catechist receives the gift of the kerygma, and in turn offers it to others as a gift. What a little word: “gift”! The catechist is conscious of having received a gift, the gift of faith, and he or she then gives that gift in turn to others. This is something beautiful. We don’t keep a percentage for ourselves! Whatever we receive, we give! This is not commerce! It is not a business! It is pure gift: a gift received and a gift given. And the catechist is right there, at the centre of this exchange of gifts. That is the nature itself of the kerygma: it is a gift that generates mission, that compels us to go beyond ourselves. 

Saint Paul says that “the love of Christ compels us”, but this “compels us” can also be translated as “possesses us”. And so it is: love attracts us and sends us; it draws us in and gives us to others. This tension marks the beating of the heart of the Christian, especially the heart of the catechist. 

Let us all ask ourselves: Is this what causes my heart to beat as a catechist, union with Christ and encounter with others? With this movement of “systole and diastole”? Are we being fed by our relationship with the Lord, so that we can bring him to others, and not to keep it for ourselves?