Vincent Kundukulam
Education of faith is not an accidental mission of Church; it is its indispensable constituent. The very life and continuity of Church depend on the ongoing transmission and practice of faith. Lockdown does not exempt us from meeting this existential need of Church. However, the fact of social distancing and restriction to the number of participations in the religious and educational programmes prompt us to think of new ideas and new methods in exercising the essential mission of forming people in faith.
Like any other Christian ministry, any new initiative in the field of faith education must be based on the Word of God, Tradition and needs of faithful. Searching for biblical passages that can help developing guidelines for faith formation in the lockdown context is like looking for a needle in a haystack because such a situation was not the concern of the biblical authors. Yet, we can find in the OT certain indications that help to confront a crisis like ours. Among the exilic literature, Jeremiah’s letter merits our special attention because the author of the Book of Jeremiah is physically distant from the recipients. Subsequently, it is interesting to know what techniques he used and how they were executed to effectively communicate his message.
The chapter 29 includes a series of oracles directly written by Jeremiah in prison and sent to exiles via two messengers namely Elasah and Gemariah. The fact that Jeremiah was distant from his audience does not relinquish him from sending a written document because he believed that God’s word is powerful even when it is mediated in scroll form. This attitude of Jeremiah must lead us to the conviction that neither the absence nor the nearness of faithful is an excuse for Church to abstain from continuing the various faith education programmes.
Another point to be underlined is that Jeremiah viewed the exilic people as one community without any discrimination. His listeners in Babylon were consisted of elders, priests, prophets and ordinary people. Jeremiah considered the different types of ministers and common people together as one unit. Catastrophes like pandemic give an opportunity to people of God to function as one team forgetting their ministerial distinctions. Until the pandemic, the faith formation of adults was done mainly through Sunday homilies. Since participation is now restricted to a few in churches, the sharing of the Word of God can be proficiently done in small groups under the leadership of lay leaders in their vicinities, provided the latter are properly formed and guided by clergy in that mission.
Until the pandemic, although clergy used to give an over-all attention, the catechesis was practically a business of lay teachers. But the challenges raised by the Covid 19 are complex and multi-facetted that the catechism teachers alone cannot handle them. A team of experts including priests, nuns, computer engineers, audio-visual technicians, psychologists, pedagogues and so on must work together to decide what to be taught and how they to be taught. The pandemic reminds us the teachings of Second Vatican Council saying, all are responsible in Church. Holy Spirit is at work in all the baptized, irrespective of differences in ministry, and the coordination of their varied gifts would better the ministry of catechesis.
Another striking factor is that Jeremiah presents the deportation of Jews into Babylon as an activity of Yahweh and not of Nebuchadnezzar. “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon” (v.4). By handing them over to Nebuchadnezzar, Yahweh demonstrates that the King of Babylon has God-given authority over the exiles. Nebuchadnezzar acts as an agent for the execution of God’s judgment on Israel. That may be the reason why Jeremiah advises exiles to relinquish their own schemes for escape from Babylon and accept the authority of God’s plan.
Jeremiah interpreting exile as something willed by Yahweh and asking Judean exiles to turn away from the path of rebellion could be inspirational for our times. It does not mean that we have to explain the pandemic as something willed by God. We cannot transpose the Jewish way of attributing the causality of all that happen in life to God. At the same time, Jeremiah’s attitude must prompt us in guiding people to discern the message God communicates to world through the ‘new normal’ situation. It is the responsibility of theologians, pastors and catechists to interpret the problems and events of life in terms of faith and instil hopeful thoughts in the people of God so that they become able to face the challenges in life.
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