 Dear brother priests and deacons, dear sisters and brothers in Christ, we couldn't find a better interpreter for what Catechesis is about than Saint John Chrysostom. He once sang, and a seal for everyone is the prayer. He expresses the general aim of all forms and ways of transmitting the faith, to enable people to find in a vital relationship and friendship with Jesus Christ. When Pope Francis introduced his motoproprio Antiqua Mysterium to the universal church in May of last year, we were aware that it would be welcomed most especially in the US, where the huge number of people engaged in Catechesis is a sign of the church's vitality. This Don Bosco conference is actually a proof of what it means to be a catechist. The word catechist, we know, is derived from the Greek expression katechein. Our familiar word echo is part of it, and it gives us a clue as to what catechesis is about. Faith is like a sound wave that reaches a valley of mountains and that bounces of us an echo perpetuating the sound. When faith touches us, we ought to become echoes of sharers of that faith with others. This is the original meaning of catechesis if it's used and understood in the transitive form, the doing. Later in church history, catechesis also has been used in the intransitive form which has put more emphasis on the content of catechesis. Both understandings are important to be touched by the pulsating waves and to bring others to pulsate, to be alive in faith by one's own personal witness, and to teach the faith by transmitting knowledge is a worthy and important task. A Catholic faith identity assumes identification with the content of the creed, and this is part of the process and content of catechesis. To echo and to explain or interpret that which we are echoing requires that we always return to the tradition of our church that is to the origin of our faith. Scripture and our vital or sacred tradition are the enduring sources of our faith and catechesis should be immersed in this flowing river, if you will. These energetic and loud waves may lead catechesis into a threefold awareness of their ministry. The first one, catechesis embrace the cross. During my studies in the United States more than 30 years ago in the cathedral of Chicago, I was part of the right of election of catechumens. That very first Sunday of Lent I heard the following song that I have not forgotten since. Lift high the cross, the love of Christ's proclaim, till all the world adore his sacred name. Each new-born servant of the crucified beers on the brow, the seal of him, him who died. To accept and bear the crosses in our lives, the Assisters and Brothers, leads us to embrace the cross of Jesus Christ. The more we experience suffering and become aware of the suffering of others, the closer we are to the cross of the Lord Jesus. George William Kitchen, an English man, wrote this song in 1887 for the society of the propagation of the gospel, so the song has a missionary spirit. It has also been suggested that this hymn was inspired by the story of Constantine's great conversion to Christianity after seeing a cross with the inscription in Hoxigno Vincis on it, that is, with this sign you will conquer. Catechesis who want to transmit the gospel must have touched the cross and personally bear the seal of him who died. Our entire faith story is how, through their personal identification with the cross, ordinary people have become canonized saints, and not yet canonized, that is, in the words of Pope Francis, next door saints. The Assisters and Brothers, the new riot for the installation of Catechesis has it, that those who take over Catechical responsibility receive a cross as an expression of their ministry. It is a sign that they have touched the wounds of Christ and are called to holiness, that is, to an intimate identification with the crucified Lord. When we embrace the cross of Christ, we are empowered to carry the crosses that others bear. This communion makes Catechesis capable for witnessing and talking about the lengths and the depth of our faith. Lift high the cross right there where life tends to pull you down seems to be the strongest proof of our confidence in the providence of Christ's love. To bear this seal of him on your brow makes you, as Catechesis, look to others with the eyes of Jesus Christ. This understanding leads us to a second aspect of your ministry. Catechesis are witnesses of conversion. The four most famous Catechesis in the New Testament, in the footsteps of Jesus, is certainly St. Paul. Reflecting on his ministry is always commemorating his conversion. His experience of falling from the horse, of becoming blind, of being led and guided by others, opens him to Christ's action and leads him to a full conversion. He is illuminated by Christ's love and is led to see others with the eyes of Christ. St. Paul is going to be baptized. In the light of this sacrament, all Catechesis becomes a process of conversion, not in an evangelical or fundamentalistic understanding of being born again, but in the Catholic understanding of being born again and again. That is continuous conversion. We can read in the words that Ananias addresses to St. Paul a sort of installation or commission. St. Paul is being commissioned to be a Catechist, a witness of the faith. Ananias says, the God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the righteous one and to hear the words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all the people of what you have seen and heard. And now, what you are waiting for, get up, be baptized, and wash your sins away, calling on his name. The sacrament of baptism, therefore, the Sisters and Brothers, is the foundation for all the ministries in the church as we get it also on today's reading. Our new directory for Catechesis published in 2020 invites us to pay particular attention to the sacrament of baptism. It says that all Catechesis in the church should be based on the way we prepare Catechumens for the sacraments of initiation, and Catechesis should be deepened through a mystagogical process of journey. The Catechumenate, then, is the paradigm for all Catechesis. All our planning and teaching, all our Catechetical processes done under this orientation, leads Christians to an initial conversion and then to a continuous conversion. We can only witness from what we have received and lived, and we can only share that which the great tradition of the church has proven to be fruitful and holy. Conversion is always turning to the origin in order to open up future horizons in the spirit of the gospel. Catechesis is teaching by listening and talking by praying. Without this spiritual dimension, all is nothing. Everything fails as we know. If you stop praying, you will lose your faith, and if you begin praying again, you will rekindle your faith and the faith of others. This connection makes us aware of a third aspect. Catechists show compassion. A while ago on the railway station, I read an advertising that said, if you feel what you see, you will give what you have. Being a catechist requires being able to feel empathy as you accompany those you catechize. Empathy requires listening. It does not force our point of view by continuous talking like the continuous dripping of water in a waterfall. Empathy is going at least 1,000 steps in the shoes of others. In this way, the Holy Spirit teaches us the suitable words that others need to hear, for we have listened from the heart. Catechesis that comes from listening leads to conversion, to community, to union. Recently Pope Francis spoke to catechists about the need to listen in these words. He said, evangelization is not a mere repetition of the past, never. The great evangelization saints, like Cyril and Methodius, like Boniface, were creative with the creativity of the Holy Spirit. They beat new paths, invented new languages, new alphabets to transmit the gospel for the inculturation of the face. This requires knowing how to listen to the people, to listen to the peoples from whom one is proclaiming, listening to their culture, their history, listening, not superficially, already thinking of the pre-packed packages, answers we carry in our briefcase. No, to truly listen and to compare those cultures, those languages, even and above all the unspoken, the unexpressed, with the word of God, with Jesus Christ, the living gospel. And I repeat the question, is this not the most urgent task of the church among the peoples? The great Christian tradition must not become a historic relic, otherwise it is not longer a tradition. Tradition is either alive or it is not. And catechesis is tradition. It is trader to hand down, but as a living tradition, from heart to heart, from mind to mind, from life to life. Therefore, passionate and creative with the impetus of the Holy Spirit. I used the word pre-packed for language, but I fear catechesis whose hard attitude and face are pre-packed. No, either the catechesis is free or he or she is not a catechist. The catechist lets her or himself by struck by the reality he or she finds and transmits the gospel with great creativity or it is not the catechist. Think about this well. These words of the Holy Father, dear sisters and brothers, that our catechetical Congress some months ago are part of his general spiritual agenda. Previously, in his second social and cyclical letter of October 2020, Fatelli Tutti Pope Francis stated, lack of dialogue means that in these individual sectors people are concerned not for the common good, but for the benefits of power or at best for ways to impose their own ideas. Round tables thus become more negotiating sessions in which individuals attempt to seize every possible advantage rather than cooperating in the pursuit of the common good. The heroes of the future will be those who can break with this unhealthy mindset and determine respectfully to promote fruitfulness aside from personal interest. God willing, such heroes are quietly emerging even now in the midst of our society. Dear sisters and brothers, in the cathedral of my former diocese there's a fresco from Romanesque times showing Santa Claus as a catechist. What is different about this painting is that his right ear is as big as his entire body. It might be there to remind visitors about how the proclamation of our face should begin with empathic listening. Catechesis is active listening. Our speaking and teaching can only touch the hearts of others if we are authentic in a way we embrace the cross in the way we give witness of our conversion and in the way we show compassion to others. This triple dimension of the ministry of all cateches keeps alive the resounding wave of the Holy Spirit. It makes us in turn echoes of the gospel echoes of the Father's love in the Lord Jesus Christ or how Saint John Chrysostom literally translated golden tongue would say one man a flame with seal is enough to uplift a whole people. Amen.