The early church instructed the inquirers into the faith during the Lenten season, bringing them into the church at the Vigil and Easter celebration. This year because of the lateness of the Feast of Easter, I have been enabled to complete the instruction of catechumens. They will be received by confirmation during the Vigil on Holy Saturday. I tell my catechumens that if the church would let me do only one thing, the thing I would choose to do would be to teach the catechumens. I enjoy this duty above all things. It is such a pleasure to watch an adult's face light up when they are confronted by the pure gospel and recognize it as such for the first time in their lives. Older adults are still living off the expressions of Christianity to which they had become familiar in their younger years. Younger converts to the faith often do not come in with those culturally Christian expressions of the faith that was once delivered in the churches of our nation. But for those older catechumens, there is a revelatory character to what they are hearing in catechetical instruction. They are surprised by the joy of knowing that their sins have been taken away by Christ. Previously, they had been bombarded by various forms of legalism including Pelagianism: "Yes, Jesus died for you. Now all YOU have to do is...." When you tell people who have been fed this line that all you have to do is nothing; and indeed you could do nothing to merit the righteousness of Christ, they are flabbergasted and overjoyed.

Some years ago, while teaching adult catechumens, a young woman in the class began to weep as a time of instruction drew to a close. When I noticed her tears, I asked if I had said something hurtful or offensive. She simply said, "Oh no! I am weeping out of grief for the years of my life in which I did not know the gospel and lived like it." Later she explained that she had been caught up in the constraints and burdens of legalism. How differently she would have lived if she had know this 15 years ago when she was a teen. The Lutheran faith with its clear gospel accents made all the difference on earth (and in heaven) for her. The gospel was truly and fully good news for this young woman. I get to see these kinds of Luther-like discoveries as I teach these classes. People feel that heaven itself has been opened to them when they know the gospel for the first time. What joy this is to see.

Augustine of Hippo