Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults 

Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults

The Theology of Revelation

We root a Catholic understanding of evangelization in a dynamic theology of revelation, which is affirmed in the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation from Vatican Council II and rearticulated in the National Catechetical Directory and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Revelation is not extrinsic, that is, something outside us.  A static notion of revelation holds that it is “information,” truth locked away that we need to uncover.  When we discover the right combination, we will have all the truths revealed. 

Rather, revelation is God’s self-communication with us.  It is God’s desire to stand in union with us, to share life with us, to offer the gift of loving presence.  Through this process of revelation (i.e., God inviting us into communication with God’s very self), one comes to a heightened and more intense awareness of God’s presence and love.  The Christian tradition holds that the fullness of God’s revelation—the ongoing and fresh gift of God’s self to the community—is most complete in Jesus, the Christ, and that it is in and through Jesus that we come to know God: the God who creates us, redeems us, sustains us, and chooses to become intimately involved with us.  The incarnation affirms that a primary place of God’s revelation is in relationship with creation, especially humanity.  Revelation is dynamic and ongoing.  God is continually in relationship with us.

The Catholic community also holds the scriptures and the tradition as sources of God’s revelation, thus offering a complement and fullness to the revelation of God in Jesus and in creation.

If we look to the early Christian community, we can see this dynamic sense of revelation in operation.  The followers of Jesus experienced in Jesus new possibilities, a new way of life.  After his death and resurrection, they began to name this experience of freedom and reconciliation with themselves, others, creation, the cosmos, and God as salvation.  Initially, the earliest communities preached the reign of God as proclaimed in Jesus.  They preached what Jesus preached.  Eventually, though, as they reflected on their experience, guided by the power of the Spirit, the community came to affirm that it was precisely in Jesus that they experienced this reign of God.  The preaching and belief shifted from what Jesus preached to preaching Jesus.  Jesus became the preached good.  Eventually, this reflection and struggle to name God in their midst (the symbols of the community) became formulated into creedal formulas and eventually into doctrine.  Yet the first level was the experience of God, followed by appropriate reflection and internalization, followed by articulation, followed by formulation.  Doctrine, in its best sense, is the articulation of the community of faith.  It is the Church expressing its experience of God reconciling and saving us in and through Jesus the Christ.  Doctrine, as an expression of revelation, is dynamic.  It flows from the faith of the community.

This is not to say that doctrine is the product of consensus, opinion, or whim.  Rather, doctrine is the formulation of a community’s symbol system that authentically empowers the community to a deeper and more integrated response to God’s call.  Doctrine is an expression of faith.  The important point here, however, is that doctrine flows from the religious experience of God in our midst.

Considering this, the initiation process helps individuals begin to name God’s manifestation in their lives and to correlate their experience with the living tradition of the Catholic community.  This correlation is a dynamic process of questioning, challenging, searching, and resolving.  During the recatechumenate, we are beginning to equip the journeyer with the basic skills to learn to seek God in their lives.  During the catechumenate period—and throughout the Christian life—the task will be to remain faithful to the dialogue for true self-knowledge and a sense of mission.

Such a dynamic sense of revelation, therefore, suggests that there are not two types of experience—secular and religious.  It does suggest that from within human experience we can come to meet and know the living God.

Thomas H. Morris, 1997.  The RCIA, Transforming the Church, A Resource for Pastoral Implementation, Paulist Press, New York, Mahwah, N.J.

The First Step - Rite of Acceptance and Welcome

Fr. Terry and community welcomes (from left to right, Isaiah Tanner and Kevin Amina)	Kalae and Scott Martin sponsors for Isaiah Tanner
The candidates and their sponsors (on the left, Scott and Kalae Martin with Isaiah Tanner, and on the right, Makalita and Loma Falekaono with Kevin Amina, presider Msgr. Terrence Watanabe)	The signing of the senses.
Signing of the senses.	The Catechumens are received into the Rite of Election by the Bishop of the Diocese of Honolulu, the most Reverend Bishop Larry Silva.

For further information, contact the St. Theresa Parish Office at 879-4844.

Sister Canelaria Angela Pinaula FSP is the Director of Religious Education.