A popular pamphlet series in the pre-Vatican II era to bring people into the church was Fr. Smith instructs Jackson by Bishop Noll. If you expressed an interest in becoming a Catholic, lessons would be mailed to you each week in a plain, brown envelope. After you had learned all the lessons you would present yourself to the priest, he would quiz you on your knowledge, and you would be baptized. That model of catechetics as the introduction to the faith didn’t even work for Jesus, the supreme catechist. It wasn’t his instruction that brought Mr. and Mrs. Cleopas to the faith, but hospitality. They urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. Gathered around the table they saw who Jesus really was. The message seems to be: belonging, sharing life, is what makes belief possible.
