Preparing for Baptism at Easter - the catechumenate

The Catholic Church has a special extended preparation for adults to enter the church through the sacraments of initiation – Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist – at the Easter Vigil.

I first encountered this – the Catechumenate -  in Ames, Iowa, when I was a campus minister at St. Thomas Aquinas Church. Many were university students, but they included a good number of older adults.

Here in our parish we also have the Catechumenate, though most are between fourteen and twenty-one. The other difference is that the formation takes place in disparate communities. This year we will have up to 48 baptized in the Easter Vigil, from twelve different communities.

They came together in Dulce Nombre in December to be received in the catechumenate and in February they participated in the rite of election also in Dulce Nombre. Since our pastor, Padre German, was on a much-needed vacation, I presided at the Rite of Acceptance into the Catechumenate in December. One of the most moving parts of the rite is when the candidates are signed with the Cross on their bodies. There is something holy and humbling to sign another person with the cross, especially when I kneel before them and make the sign of the cross on their feet. (The Rite in the Mexican books doesn’t include this but the Spanish version for the US includes this.)

Padre German presided over the Rite of Election, but there were three who couldn’t make the rite and so I ended up having two small Celebrations with the Rite of Election for them. I took the opportunity to speak with them. One of the most moving was when the catechumen was a young man who was raised by his paternal grandmother, having been abandoned to her by his birth-mother when he was six months old. In this rite he was being chosen, elected, by the whole Church – with his grandmother present. No matter what we humans do, God wants us to be truly be children of a loving God.

During Lent there are also three rites, called the Scrutinies, for the third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent. In the rite the elect are called forward and kneel in prayer as the community prays for them. Then the presider, the priest of deacon, prays the exorcisms, asking God to guard them from the power of evil, from the devil, and from all that might keep them from becoming true children of God, members of God’s people.

Because there are so many communities with those who will be baptized, Padre presides at the scrutinies in the communities where he presides at Mass on Saturday evening or Sunday. I go to a different community each Sunday, trying to go where there are the most elect, presiding at the Rite in the context of a Celebration of the Word with Communion.

Padre German praying over the elect during the first scrutiny in San Agustín, Copán

This past Sunday I went to Descombros where there were six young people, three men and three women. I spent a few minutes before the Celebation of the Word talking with them. During the rite, when they knelt I was moved at their piety. They were taking this very seriously.

During the exorcisms, the presider places his hands on the heads of the elect, praying in silence. I felt a deep sense of God’s presence at those moments, praying for each of these young people. But I remembered that I was not doing the praying; the entire Church was praying through me.

As I laid my hands on then, I thought of all that these young people face – poverty, violence, lack of respect for persons, especially women, and more. I prayed – and pray that these powers of darkness do not control the lives of these young people, as well as many others.

The powers of darkness are strong here – the temptations that young people face, the violence and corruption of the political and economic systems, the throwaway culture that regards the poor and the young as persons to be used and discarded.

I prayed and I continue to pray.

This week I will go to another community – but I need to pray for all these elect and for this country, and for myself, that the powers of darkness may be dispersed by the love of a God who became flesh, lived among us, and gave himself up for us.

The prayer I used on Sunday is particularly apt:

Lord, Jesus, when you were baptized the heavens were opened and you received the Holy Spirit, so that, with the strength of the Holy Spirit, you brought good news to the poor and opened the eyes of the blind. Pour out that very same Spirit on those who wish to receive your sacraments, so that, preserved from the contagion of error, doubt, and incredibility and guided by a sincere faith, they can contemplate you with a renewed and radiant vision, you who live and reign forever. (My translation)