Diana and I recently had a one-week vacation in Japan. About a week before we left, Diana picked up a Japanese phrase book and learned a few simple words and dialogues. I convinced myself that I didn’t have time to add one more thing to my to-do list before leaving. We were going to be in Tokyo mostly, and I figured we could find enough English-speakers in the tourist areas to get by.
I was right. And I was also wrong. Many Japanese people do speak some English, especially younger people and people who work in service and tourist professions. So I could have done just fine without ever speaking a word of Japanese. But every time Diana spoke Japanese to someone — asking their name, asking for directions to a landmark, saying thank you very much — they engaged with us more deeply. They made more eye contact. They spent more time talking with us. They went out of their way to help us or guide us.
The heart of the RCIA is engagement
It was a smacking-forehead moment for me because a core value for us at TeamRCIA is engagement. We are trying to be of service to RCIA teams in all the different regions of the United States. We also try as best we can to “speak” Canadian and Australian. While all of these cultures are much more similar to each other than any us are to Japanese culture, we all come from different places and have different world-views. And so we at TeamRCIA are constantly translating, rethinking, rewriting, and reviewing the resources we provide.
When Diana and I identified “engagement” as one of our core TeamRCIA values, we did so because of our experience with RCIA processes we had both been part of. When I was first learning how to do this, I sat in classrooms in which the catechist lectured at seekers whose eyes were glazed and heads were down. There was no engagement. I promised myself that if I ever got to have a say, we would do more to engage the seekers. I spent a lot of time learning how to transform stodgy classroom lectures into moving faith journeys.
Recognizing the face of Christ
It is easy to take engagement for granted, as I did with our trip to Japan. I limited my understanding of engagement to the bare minimum — registering for a hotel room, finding a restaurant, locating a bathroom. I expected the people I would meet to speak my language. But for Christians, engagement is always about making a spiritual connection. How do we recognize the face of Christ in the other person? How do we show the face of Christ to the other person?
When we encounter seekers, we have to be careful not to settle for the minimum. Reading the Catechism to them is insufficient. We have to engage, person to person, soul to soul. Some of us can do that fluently. Many of us may have to settle for mastering a few basic phrases. But none of us should count on the seekers speaking our language.
Your Turn
Is your RCIA process focused on leading classroom experiences or fostering faith journeys? What is one step your RCIA process can take to better engage with seekers in in the coming weeks and months? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
