Catechesis needs to be more attuned to the signs of the times and, above all, to the specific people who are coming into our communities today. These include families with diverse backgrounds, children with little prior experience of faith, young people influenced by new forms of communication, and adults who are often returning to the Church after years away.

The challenge is not to change the Gospel to adapt it to the world, but to ask ourselves how to proclaim Jesus Christ today in order to bring about a true encounter with God.

There’s a scene we know all too well: months or years of catechism, preparation, meetings, gatherings with families, rehearsals, and celebrations. Finally, the long-awaited day arrives: First Communion, Confirmation, Baptism. The church is full, families celebrate, there are photos, hugs, and joy. And then, often, many never return.

So we often ask ourselves: why did they leave? But perhaps we should dare to ask a more uncomfortable question: what did we tell them, explicitly or implicitly, that they had to achieve? Because if throughout the process we talk about “preparing to receive Communion,” “preparing to be confirmed,” or “finishing catechism,” it shouldn’t surprise us that, once the sacrament has been celebrated, someone feels they have accomplished the goal.

When the sacrament becomes the goal, catechesis has failed

Because the central point of any catechetical process is not to arrive at a ceremony, complete a program, or reach a deadline. The central point is to provoke and accompany the encounter with God: with that living Jesus who gives himself to us in the Eucharist and who also dwells within us, who comes to meet us in the Word, in the community, in our brothers and sisters, and in daily life; and with the Holy Spirit, who comes to strengthen us, transform us, and impel us to go forth, because he burns within us.

Therefore, Communion, Confirmation, and even less so Baptism, cannot be goals. Baptism is the gateway and birth into a new life; the Eucharist is the living Jesus who becomes food for the journey; and Confirmation is the power of the Holy Spirit that ignites the heart, strengthens it, and impels it toward mission.

Birth, nourishment, and strength. None of them speak of arrival. All three speak of the journey.

Baptism, precisely because it is the gateway to faith, cannot and should not be celebrated in solitude. The family cannot be alone. Through Baptism, a person is incorporated into the Church, becoming part of a specific community of brothers and sisters who walk in the same faith. So, how can we celebrate this incorporation if the community to which we are saying they belong is not present to receive them?

The community should be present, making visible what we are celebrating: there is someone new among us, and we want to welcome them. This also needs to be part of pre-baptismal catechesis. It is not enough to explain the symbols, the water, the oil, the candle, or the baptismal promises. We need to tell families what they are entering: a Church, a community that joyfully celebrates a new member and is ready to accompany them and their family on their journey.

From that moment on, the family should be able to feel that if they need anything, they can turn to that community. That there are real people, faces, and names; a community that prays, celebrates, listens, and supports. A community they can return to.

Therefore, if after Baptism the family disappears, we should not always ask why they did not return; we can also ask if they ever felt they had a place to return to.

That “having a place to return to” should become especially visible years later, when many of those families return because their children begin the journey towards the Eucharist.

And there a profoundly evangelical image appears: the Merciful Father. The father doesn’t wait for his son with a list of reproaches. He doesn’t begin by asking him where he’s been, why he took so long, or why he went away. He sees him return, goes out to meet him, and embraces him.

Perhaps our communities are called to replicate that same gesture. When a family returns after years, they shouldn’t find a community that reproaches them for their absence, but a merciful community that rejoices at their return. A community that embraces them and says, “It’s wonderful to have you here. Let’s keep walking together.”

Because that child baptized years ago is not a stranger who has come now to request another sacrament. He is a member of the community who is going through a new stage in his faith journey. And we are there again to accompany him.

This also changes our perspective on First Communion catechesis. We are not simply receiving families who come to register their children to “receive Communion.” We are reconnecting with brothers and sisters whom we once received through Baptism and who are now returning to continue their journey.

Thus, Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation cease to be separate compartments to recover the unity of the same process: a path of faith accompanied by a community.

A catechesis that listens to the signs of the times should then ask itself less how many received a sacrament and much more whether we managed to bring about an encounter: whether they met Jesus, whether they discovered that God dwells in their lives, whether they learned to recognize him in the Eucharist, in the Word and in their brother; whether they found a community to which to belong and whether something began to burn in their hearts.

Because perhaps the fruit of our catechesis is not measured by those who came to a celebration, but by those who discovered that after it the journey continues and that there is a community willing to walk with them and a Jesus who is there forever.