Last weekend’s column painted a pretty grim picture of the state of the Church; here in our parish, in our diocese, in our country, and sadly, in the world.  There are a lot of people who claim to be Catholics, to be Christian, but so few of them are really disciples.  

Often we see the word “disciple” translated as being a “follower” of someone or some school.  However, there is so much more to what it means.  It really means to make a commitment to someone or some school or group.  I follow the country singer Toby Keith; I enjoy his music, I have several of his albums, and I have seen him in concert several times.  But I am not Toby Keith’s disciple.  I have not committed my life to him, or even a significant part of my life to him.  For those of you in my generation, we might consider “Dead Heads” disciples, because they followed the Grateful Dead all around the country.

Discipleship is really more akin to being an apprentice, especially the old way of apprenticeship.  An apprentice used to make a binding, legal contract with a particular master craftsman.  The apprentice would go and live with the master; not only learning the craft, but eating the same food and breathing the same air.  Only after years of living with the master, would the master say that the apprentice was ready to go out on their own, to become a journeyman in the trade.  

To truly be a Christian is to become an apprentice to the greatest master the world has ever seen -- Jesus Christ.  It is to breathe the same air, namely the Holy Spirit, the breath of Divine Love.  It is to share His food, the Eucharist, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Himself.  It is to learn His craft:  to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and our neighbors as ourself.

Recognizing the crisis in discipleship, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI called a Synod on the New Evangelization to define the nature of the crisis and to develop a strategy for addressing it.  In the working document for preparing for the Synod, the Holy Father stated, “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction….”

This is the main reason for the reason for the revision of the Religious Education program, and for the Parish Evangelization Plan which I am developing, “to create in every place and time the conditions for this personal encounter of individuals with Jesus Christ.”  As our parish’s Evangelization Plan is implemented, I pray that you will enthusiastically involve yourself in it.  We are beginning with the education of our children in the Faith, which involves all of us, but we will be having something for everyone.  But to be a Christian disciple means committing to living with Christ, sharing His breath, and His food and drink.