The Love of the Father reaches out to every person. Nothing is outside of the mission of the Son and the Spirit, who have been sent among us to draw the whole of creation back to the Father’s house. This inclusiveness is fundamental to the Gospel. The Church announces the Good News in which the Father has acted ‘far beyond all expectation’, sending his own beloved Son (CCC 422). The Catechism quotes from the ninth century Council of Quiercy, ‘There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer’ (cited in CCC 605).
There can be an opposition set up in the minds of some, however, between what is rightly seen as this essential inclusiveness of the Gospel and the teaching of doctrine and morals.
Sometimes, of course, it is not the fact of teaching itself so much as the manner in which the teaching is given which is problematic, and this important point should always be given attention in catechesis: the manner of our teaching follows the pedagogy of God himself, who is respectful of our dignity and our freedom in the ways in which he addresses us. The General Directory for Catechesis signals some of the features of an authentic catechetical ‘manner’ for us: catechesis ‘proposes’ the Gospel; it ‘transforms the processes of intelligence, conscience, liberty and action’; it remembers that belief is ‘a fruit of grace and liberty’, and so on (see GDC Part III for numerous indications).
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