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Méthode pour enseigner aux catéchumènes les éléments du Christianisme

CHAPITRE V.

IL FAUT EXAMINER AVEC SOIN LE MOTIF QUI DÉTERMINE LE CATÉCHUMÈNE A SE FAIRE CHRÉTIEN.

9.La juste sévérité de Dieu, si propre à jeter dans les coeurs une impression salutaire de terreur, doit servir aussi de fondement à l’édifice de la charité. Le bonheur de se voir aimé par Celui que l’on craint doit inspirer la confiance de l’aimer à son tour, et tout ensemble la honte de blesser sa tendresse, fût-on assuré de l’impunité. Il n’arrive guère, ou plutôt il n’arrive jamais, qu’on prenne la résolution de se faire chrétien sans avoir été touché de la crainte de Dieu. Veut-on embrasser le christianisme, comme l’unique moyen de plaire à ceux dont on attend les faveurs, ou d’éviter la vengeance et les ressentiments de ses ennemis? On aspire moins à devenir chrétien qu’à le paraître. La foi n’est pas un hommage tout extérieur; c’est l’adhésion d’un esprit convaincu. Mais la miséricorde divine touche souvent les esprits par le ministère du catéchiste; elle fait naître, sous l’influence de sa parole, les sentiments dont ils avaient résolu d’affecter les dehors : la droiture de leurs intentions doit marquer pour nous l’instant où ils se présentent à nos instructions. Nous ignorons sans doute l’heure où le catéchumène est présent de coeur comme il l’est de corps; mais, cette intention ne fût-elle pas en lui, nous devons tâcher d’y entraîner sa volonté : existât-elle en germe, nos efforts pour la développer ne seraient pas superflus, encore que nous ne sussions ni la circonstance ni l’instant où elle a été conçue. Le moyen le plus simple, quand il est praticable, serait de s’éclairer, dans l’entourage du catéchumène, de ses dispositions secrètes et des motifs qui le déterminent à embrasser la religion. Si cette source de renseignements nous est interdite, interrogeons-le lui-même, afin de prendre dans ses réponses le point de départ de nos instructions. Se présente-t-il dans le but tout hypocrite de servir ses intérêts ou de les sauvegarder ? Il mentira; or, c’est de ce mensonge même qu’il nous faut partir, non pour le réfuter comme s’il était évident, mais pour en prendre occasion d’approuver, sans songer à la sincérité ou à l’hypocrisie de ses paroles, et de faire ressortir la beauté du motif qu’il nous présente, afin de lui inspirer le désir d’être réellement ce qu’il veut paraître. Allègue-t-il un motif incompatible avec les sentiments dont doit être pénétré un esprit qui veut embrasser la foi chrétienne? Représente-lui doucement son erreur, comme si elle venait de l’ignorance et du défaut d’instruction; montre-lui quelle est la véritable foi du christianisme avec une précision énergique, afin d’éviter le danger d’anticiper sur une exposition complète ou de la faire à un esprit encore mal disposé : par là tu réussiras peut-être à lui inspirer la résolution que les préjugés ou l’hypocrisie l’empêchait de prendre.

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On the Catechising of the Uninstructed

Chapter 5.--That the Person Who Comes for Catechetical Instruction is to Be Examined with Respect to His Views, on Desiring to Become a Christian.

9. Moreover, it is on the gound of that very severity of God, ¹ by which the hearts of mortals are agitated with a most wholesome terror, that love is to be built up; so that, rejoicing that he is loved by Him whom he fears, man may have boldness to love Him in return, and yet at the same time be afraid to displease His love toward himself, even should he be able to do so with impunity. For certainly it very rarely happens, nay, I should rather say, never, that any one approaches us with the wish to become a Christian who has not been smitten with some sort of fear of God. For if it is in the expectation of some advantage from men whom he deems himself unlikely to please in any other way, or with the idea of escaping any disadvantage at the hands of men of whose displeasure or hostility he is seriously afraid, that a man wishes to become a Christian, then his wish to become one is not so earnest as his desire to feign one. ² For faith is not a matter of the body which does obeisance, ³ but of the mind which believes. But unmistakeably it is often the case that the mercy of God comes to be present through the ministry of the catechiser, so that, affected by the discourse, the man now wishes to become in reality that which he had made up his mind only to feign. And so soon as he begins to have this manner of desire, we may judge him then to have made a genuine approach to us. It is true, indeed, that the precise time when a man, whom we perceive to be present with us already in the body, comes to us in reality with his mind, ⁴ is a thing hidden from us. But, notwithstanding that, we ought to deal with him in such a manner that this wish may be made to arise within him, even should it not be there at present. For no such labor is lost, inasmuch as, if there is any wish at all, it is assuredly strengthened by such action on our part, although we may be ignorant of the time or the hour at which it began. It is useful certainly, if it can be done, to get from those who know the man some idea beforehand of the state of mind in which he is, or of the causes which have induced him to come with the view of embracing religion. But if there is no other person available from whom we may gather such information, then, indeed, the man himself is to be interrogated, so that from what he says in reply we may draw the beginning of our discourse. Now if he has come with a false heart, desirous only of human advantages or thinking to escape disadvantages, he will certainly speak what is untrue. Nevertheless, the very untruth which he utters should be made the point from which we start. This should not be done, however, with the (open) intention of confuting his falsehood, as if that were a settled matter with you; but, taking it for granted that he has professed to have come with a purpose which is really worthy of approbation (whether that profession be true or false), it should rather be our aim to commend and praise such a purpose as that with which, in his reply, he has declared himself to have come; so that we may make him feel it a pleasure to be the kind of man actually that he wishes to seem to be. On the other hand, supposing him to have given a declaration of his views other than what ought to be before the mind of one who is to be instructed in the Christian faith, then by reproving him with more than usual kindness and gentleness, as a person uninstructed and ignorant, by pointing out and commending, concisely and in a grave spirit the end of Christian doctrine in its genuine reality, and by doing all this in such a manner as neither to anticipate the times of a narration, which should be given subsequently, nor to venture to impose that kind of statement upon a mind not previously set for it, you may bring him to desire that which, either in mistake or in dissimulation, he has not been desiring up to this stage.