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Blessed Mother Teresa Uses Father Hardon’s Courses

by Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, D.D., J.C.D.
National Director of the Marian Catechist Apostolate
January 2004

Introduction

On this past October 19th, our Holy Father Pope John Paul II declared Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the foundress of the Missionaries of Charity to be blessed, the last step before canonization. Her beatification filled the whole Christian world with profound joy, for in Mother Teresa all Christians see the exemplification of the life of charity, to which we are called in Christ. Her many words of wisdom interpret the Gospel for us in the context of our everyday Christian living and give us the hope of overcoming our sinfulness, in order to love God and our neighbor as Christ loves.

Above all, Blessed Teresa teaches us the Christ-like respect for all human life, from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. She spoke so often of the fear of life in modern-day culture and of the need to restore the respect for the dignity of all human life. In her apostolic work throughout the world, she saved both the lives of the infants abandoned by their parents and the lives of the crippled and diseased left by their families and friends to die in the streets. One dying man whom she had brought in from the streets observed that, although he had lived as one despised by all, he was dying like an angel, as one deeply loved by God. Mother Teresa was unable to help him to recover his health, but she was able to restore to him the sense of his own dignity as a true Son of God with the destiny of living with God forever in His heavenly Kingdom.

The beginning of Marian Catechists

Our Holy Father Pope John Paul II, observing how many were living and dying without the knowledge and love of Christ, asked Mother Teresa of Calcutta to prepare her beloved Sisters, the Missionaries of Charity, not only to care for the immediate material needs of the poor but also to evangelize them, to teach them about God’s immeasurable love for them in Jesus Christ. Mother Teresa turned to our late, beloved Father John A. Hardon, S.J., for the help which she needed to prepare the Sisters to catechize the poorest of the poor, to whom Christ was sending them, in accord with the special gift of the Holy Spirit given to Mother Teresa and the institute of consecrated life, which she had founded.

Blessed Teresa had come to know and to respect so deeply Father Hardon, because of all that he was doing to safeguard and promote the life of consecrated religious in its essential elements. She knew that she could trust Father Hardon completely to respect the essential elements of the consecration of her Sisters and to give them the best possible preparation for the apostolate of evangelization and catechesis.

Father Hardon, universal theologian and master catechist, taught the Missionaries of Charity, while, at the same time, he was preparing texts for their home study, covering the rich body of the Catholic faith and its practice. Missionaries of Charity, with whom I have spoken, recall yet today the classes which Father Hardon gave them and the inimitable manner of his instruction. The Missionaries of Charity continue to use Father Hardon’s courses to prepare themselves for the catechesis of children, young people and adults.

Having developed a basic and advanced course of lessons to prepare the Missionaries of Charity as catechists, Father Hardon understood that these materials were desperately needed by all catechists. Father Hardon had the deepest appreciation of the challenge which faced all catechists, in a completely secularized society. He understood that the rechristianization of society required a corps of catechists securely grounded both spiritually and doctrinally. Even as the Missionaries of Charity presented hope for those who had never heard of Christ or had only begun to learn of him, so Father Hardon understood that all catechists are called to present hope for those who have never heard of Christ or have heard of Christ but have forgotten Him or have only come to know Him superficially. Even as the Missionaries of Charity are called to give up their lives for the poorest of poor, in order that the poorest, in human terms, may know God’s rich love for them, so Father Hardon understood that all catechists are called to give a significant portion of their time and talent in the service of their brothers and sisters who, although perhaps materially comfortable, are spiritually poor and hungering for help and guidance.

From the courses prepared for the Missionaries of Charity, Father Hardon developed the Basic and Advanced Home Study Courses to prepare a corps of catechists for our time, which he eventually termed the Marian Catechist Apostolate. Most importantly, Father Hardon developed the program of initial and ongoing spiritual formation for Marian Catechists to draw them ever closer to Christ, so that they might draw others closer to Christ through the apostolate of catechesis. The Missionaries of Charity already had an outstanding spiritual formation upon which to build their doctrinal formation. For the most part, the Marian Catechists required fundamental spiritual formation in order to be effective examples and teachers of the faith for those to whom they were handing on the Catholic faith and its practice.

The spiritual formation and spiritual life of Marian Catechists resembles very much the spiritual formation of the Missionaries of Charity in its fundamentals. It is centered on the love of the Holy Eucharist, and marked by both a strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and an unswerving loyalty to the Holy Father as Successor of Saint Peter in the office of Roman Pontiff. Spiritually, Marian Catechists have a strong bond with the Missionaries of Charity in the apostolate of catechesis.

As we rejoice in the beatification of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, we ask her intercession on behalf of the Marian Catechist Apostolate, in order that all Marian Catechists may be faithful to the high standards set by Father Hardon and described in the Marian Catechist Manual, the last text which Father Hardon wrote and published before his death on December 30 during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. May Mother Teresa who esteemed so much the work of Father Hardon help Marian Catechists, by her love and prayers, to treasure most deeply the great grace of handing-on to others the gift of Christ’s truth and love.