On Catechizing the Uninstructed

Contents

Reading pages: 1–8 · 9–15 · 16–21 · 22–27

1. 1Augustine explains that the deacon Deogratias of Carthage asked how to instruct beginners in the faith, and agrees to write out of love for him and for the Church.
2. 2Augustine consoles Deogratias that speech always falls short of thought, and sets out his plan: the narration, precepts and exhortation, and how to catechize with cheerfulness.
3. 3A full narration runs from creation to the present Church, selecting the striking points and relating everything to love, since all Scripture before Christ foretold him and his body the Church, as Jacob's hand preceded his head at birth.
4. 4Christ came chiefly to show God's love so that people might love him and their neighbour in return; all Scripture points to this love, and the catechist should narrate so that the hearer believes, hopes, and loves.
5. 5Love should be built even from the fear of God; the catechist should learn why the candidate has come and, even if his motives are false, lead him to truly desire the Christian faith.
6. 6If a candidate says God moved him by a sign or dream, the catechist should turn him to the surer guidance of Scripture, then narrate from creation to the Church, giving reasons that point to love without lengthy disputation.
7. 7After the narration the catechist should present the resurrection, the last judgment, and the heavenly city, and prepare the hearer for temptations, for scandal from bad Christians, and against placing his hope in any human being.
8. 8Educated candidates who have already read much should be handled briefly and modestly, asked what they have read, approved where their reading is sound, warned where it is heretical, and led to the way of love.
9. 9Candidates from the schools of grammar and rhetoric must learn humility, value truth above eloquence, learn that Scripture's hidden meanings reward study, and not mock clergy whose Latin is faulty.
10. 10Augustine turns to the causes of the catechist's weariness, beginning with the gap between thought and speech, and answers it with the example of Christ and Paul, who stooped in love to the weak.
11. 11Augustine answers weariness over imperfect speech and occasional error: correct mistakes calmly, bear malicious critics patiently, trust God with hearers who take offence, and work from love.
12. 12Weariness at repeating familiar things is overcome by love, through which the catechist shares the beginner's delight in what is new, as one enjoys showing familiar sights to a newcomer or guiding a lost traveller.
13. 13When a hearer seems unmoved or tired, the catechist should draw him out with questions, refresh him with something striking, and let him sit, as Mary sat at the Lord's feet, rather than make him stand.
14. 14Sadness at an interrupted task, at others' scandals, or at one's own sins is to be overcome: God's order is better than ours, a new convert consoles grief over those who fall, and catechizing is itself a work of mercy that quenches sin.
15. 15Before giving a model discourse, Augustine notes that speech varies with the audience, and that love adapts itself to each hearer, so his written example cannot fully show what is done in live speech.
16. 16Augustine begins his model address to an uneducated city dweller seeking eternal rest, showing that riches, honours, taverns, shows, and pleasures cannot give the rest that is found only in God.
17. 17The model address continues: true Christians seek eternal rest and come to love God more than they fear hell; God's seventh-day rest signifies the saints' rest in him after six ages, made possible by Christ who became man.
18. 18The narration begins with creation: God made all things good and made man in his image with woman as his helper, set them in paradise under a commandment, and permitted the fall of the devil and of man, whose sin harmed only themselves.
19. 19The narration continues with the two cities of the wicked and the saints, the flood as a figure of the Church saved by the cross, the rise of idolatry, the call of Abraham, and Israel, whose saints already belonged to Christ's body.
20. 20The narration continues with the exodus as a figure of baptism, the Passover lamb as a figure of Christ's passion, the law written by the finger of God, and the earthly Jerusalem and King David as figures of the heavenly city and Christ.
21. 21The narration continues with the Babylonian captivity as a figure of the Church's service under the kings of this world, now Christian, until its final deliverance, and with the prophecies of Christ given to Israel.
22. 22The narration reaches the sixth age, begun by Christ's coming, in which grace is revealed to all nations; Christ, born of a virgin in humble circumstances, despised earthly goods, endured earthly evils, died, and rose never to die.
23. 23The narration continues with the ascension, Pentecost as the fulfilment of the giving of the law, the love that fulfils the two great commandments, the conversion of thousands of Jews, the first community of goods, Paul's mission, and the persecutions.
24. 24The narration continues with the spread of the Church through the blood of martyrs, the conversion of the persecuting empire, the pruning of heresies and schisms, the fulfilment of prophecy as ground for faith, and the coming judgment.
25. 25The model address ends with the resurrection of the body, eternal punishment and the eternal vision of the Trinity, and warnings against temptations from pagans, heretics, Jews, and especially bad Christians within the Church, urging the candidate to join the good and hope in God alone.
26. 26After the address the candidate is asked whether he believes, is signed with the cross and given the sacrament of salt, and is taught to read Scripture by the rule of love; Augustine then begins a shorter model address.
27. 27The short model address recounts the fulfilment of prophecy from the flood and Abraham to Christ, the Church, its persecutions and heresies, then the coming judgment and resurrection, and urges the candidate to love God freely, join the good, bear with the bad, and hope in God alone.