Neophytes learn that their entry into full communion with the church is the beginning of new journey
SEATTLEBy Jennifer Sokol
The Easter Vigil is the culmination of a dream for participants in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.
After a year of weekly instruction and prayerful discernment, candidates for baptism are finally ready be received into full communion with the Catholic Church and receive the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and Eucharist during the Easter-eve liturgy.
But the RCIA process does not launch these neophytes abruptly into the world on their own at the conclusion of the Easter Vigil. The rite includes a final phase.
“It can be very anticlimactic,” said TerryAnn Bowen, the director of religious education at St. James Cathedral. “They get very involved in the RCIA process, and all of a sudden they’re on the altar and realize, ‘Now what?’ Sort of like we just plop them down and say, ‘See, you’re done!’”
The final stage of the rite is “mystagogia,” an ancient term that means “grasping the mystery of God.”
Following the Easter Vigil for a period of several weeks, or in some cases a year, the church’s newest members gather to deepen their understanding, especially in living out “The Mystery of Faith, that is, the ineffable gift of the Eucharist that the Catholic Church received from Christ, her Spouse,” as Pope Paul VI described it in his encyclical “Mysterium Fidei.”
At St. James, seven topics are covered during mystagogia.
“The first class is to debrief about the emotional impact of being baptized,” said Bowen. “Then we go onto the next class, the Mass revisited.” From that point, Bowen explained, the emphasis becomes the Eucharist, “because they’ve had that passionate experience of being fed the body and blood of Jesus.”
During mystagogia, neophytes raise questions such as: How does being fed the body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist enable us to be stewards in the world? How does being fed the Eucharist affect our spirituality and how we project ourselves in the world? How does the Eucharist affect our behavior and our understanding of right and wrong?
The final class covers perhaps the most daunting realization: “You’ve only just begun.”
‘Hugely important’Jessica Turpin, a neophyte at St. James, is especially grateful for mystagogia.
“It’s such an important step in the process,” she said. After baptism, confirmation and first Communion, it’s not the end. It’s the responsibility of being Catholic.
“Mystagogia really helps you to kind of crack open what’s going on, and start reflecting on the strength that you’re getting from the Eucharist, and go out into the world and do something with it,” she said. “It’s hugely important.”
Once a public school teacher, Turpin remembered when any public witness of faith was a no-no.
“You just didn’t go there,” she said. But now that she teaches in a Catholic school, she noticed the change.
“It was amazing to me how many of my students noticed the difference when I started receiving Communion.”
Sonja Lavin, another neophyte at St. James, chuckled as she described her initial understanding of the Eucharist.
“When I started attending Mass, I always felt there was a lot of hoopla leading up to the Eucharist, because I didn’t understand why that was the big focal point,” she said. “But now I understand that this is Christ’s body and his blood. It is a reminder of what he did for us, and also a reminder to us of what we should do in terms of loving others and being a part of the Church.”
New journey“It’s not our job to stand there and talk to them for two hours,” Bowen said of the format for mystagogia instruction at St. James. “Classes are very interactive, and give them a chance not only to share their experiences as newly baptized, but also to ask questions that come up. Like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know this!’ Or, tell about some significant impacts on their immediate families that they want to share.”
Realizing the end of RCIA is near, Turpin said “I’m actually kind of sad it’s over. But I know if I need anything, I could contact any of them. They would always be there for me.” Bowen reiterated that the end of RCIA is really the beginning of a new journey. As she said, “Mystagogia is a process, and what this means in the living out of the mystery of our faith. So, bless their hearts, the newly baptized have entered the mystery and what it means to be Catholic in the world.
“God is so active in their lives, and they’re really tapped into that,” she said.
“There’s such a peace when you know that Jesus is walking with you,” Turpin said.
May 9, 2013