Catechetical Methodology: The Interrelation Between Liturgy & Catechesis

If we catechize well about the Liturgy, we will find that the Liturgy itself will catechize well. ‘Every form of catechesis necessarily leads to the sacraments of faith.’[i] These are the words of Pope John Paul II, written in the first year of his pontificate, and they are crucial for our understanding of catechesis. The relationship between liturgy and catechesis is a theme John Paul II chose to carefully develop in his apostolic exhortation to catechists. The liturgical-catechetical relationship is a subject alluded to by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium. The purpose of that document was to renew and reform the Church’s sacramental life, and the Constitution makes clear the importance of the relationship between liturgy and catechesis in the Church’s mission. The phrase from Sacrosanctum Concilium which has become perhaps the best-known and most prolifically quoted in these subsequent decades is the call for ‘full, conscious and active participation in liturgical celebrations’ on the part of the People of God.[ii] The Council set in motion a period of substantial renewal of the Church’s liturgical life in order to facilitate this level of participation on the part of the faithful. While many believed that ‘active participation’ was possible only through an adaptation of the liturgy to the capacities of the faithful (for example through a restoration of the use of the vernacular language), it is clear that in the minds of the Council Fathers, the heightening of liturgical understanding was also understood to be necessary.