How come there was no RCIA back when Jesus was alive?

[WingsOfEagles]

When Jesus was alive, RCIA wasn’t necessary because you could go right up and talk to him I suppose. RCIA is really just a way of understanding what Church teaching is. Cradle Catholics have the advantage of learning slowly with CCD and their families. Converts don’t have this advantage, so RCIA helps bring them up to speed. Would you allow someone to become a doctor just because they say they like the idea of practicing medicine? No, we make them go to medical school.

 

[Linda_Marie]

There has always been a period of instruction. It just wasn’t always called RCIA.

The first converts were Jews and disciples of Jesus. There are many things in Christianity that have their grounding in Judaism. So, when we read in the Bible that x number of people were received into the Church on that day, it is in that context.

Later, when Christianity spread to the Gentiles, there was a great deal that they did not know. They knew about pagan gods and rituals, but nothing about God so they needed a longer period of instruction.

Over the centuries, the teaching period has changed to reflect the needs of the converts for instruction, depending on their origin whether from no faith at all, from non-Christian religions or from Christian denominations.

R.C.I.A.

What is R.C.I.A.?

The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, or R.C.I.A., is the process through which adults become fully initiated members of the Church. Based on a very ancient process and liturgical structure, the Rite is specifically geared toward those who have never been baptized. Often, however, adults who have been baptized, but never completed all three Sacraments of Initiation - Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist - take part in this process.

How did the R.C.I.A. process originate?

The early Church developed within a culture that was predominantly hostile to Christianity. Today, in this country, we take for granted being able to freely practice our faith, but in the early Church those who did so often paid for it with their lives. It became very important to prepare adult converts well so they could withstand the pressure of opposition in times of persecution. To do this, the early Church developed the catechumenate - a period of training during which what are now known as catechumens learned to live as members of the faithful - those already baptized.

The History of the Catechumenate

from the Encycopedia Britannica:
Catechumen

 

[tafan]

so me and my wife (legally not sacramental) were eating and discussing, she is attending RCIA currently

but she was raised Non-denominational and that is what she knows, so we we were having a conversation about differences and what not and she asked me that Question

**How come there was no RCIA back when Jesus was alive? **

now, I didn’t know exactly how to respond to this, and I said I would get back to her after trying to conjure up something about my limited (BUT GROWING) knowledge of the Church and its teachings

Thank you for your replies

There was no RCIA fifty years ago. Maybe the question should be: " how come there is a RCIA now?"

 

[Bill_Martin]

There was no organized Christian religion before Jesus was crucified; the Apostles, for example, were just a bunch of Jews following what Jesus taught. If you wanted to become what today we would call a Christian, you just followed Jesus’ teachings and believed that he was the Messiah.

There was no formal Christian religion to be initiated into. In fact, if you had asked those “Christians” what religion they belonged to, they would have said they were Jews. The idea of Christianity as a separate religion from Judaism did not happen until after the Resurrection and the term “Christians” did not appear until Acts 11:26.

 

[jmcrae]

The problem is that the well-catechized Anglican, Methodist, or what have you, does not always need to be in a year-long process. Such a person might very well be ready to make a profession of faith within weeks of the initial contact. Many would already be quite familiar with Catholic theology and might require little formal instruction.

The R.C.I.A. is clear that such a person should be received as soon as they are ready and not made to wait. "The rite is so arranged that no greater burden than necessary (See Acts 15:28) is required for the establishment of communion and unity."2

1. See Vatican Council II, Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis redintegratio, no. 18.

There is a process within the Rite that is designed for baptized Christians, and one for baptized Catholics. Three quarters of the Rite is aimed at non-Christians, but that doesn’t mean that non-Catholic Christians or baptized Catholics can’t come and receive their Sacraments of Initiation with the group.

One-on-one instruction with a priest is more and more difficult to organize - in some places it’s nearly impossible for Candidates to get their one required interview - one guy I heard of has been waiting for a call back for six weeks - his pastor is just that busy. Now imagine if he had to wait at least six weeks each time he wanted to come for a module of instruction? It would take him nearly three years to complete the 24 modules for catechized Christians. (A year doesn’t sound so bad any more, does it? )

Nor would it take a whole year, in most cases - September to Easter is often only six months, and with Christmas holidays, it’s down to five months - not so bad, really.

 

[Nicea325]

RCIA is, in my experience, an American thing, at least insofar as the particular “programs” go, what with the set beginning times and what-not.

I am a convert, but neither my husband nor I went through “RCIA”, per se. It so happened that the first priest we spoke to about entering the Church was a visiting priest from the US, and he told us we needed to enter RCIA. But when I asked the pastor about it, our Church does not have an RCIA program. Instead, we spoke to the pastor, who quite nervously asked us about our marital situation. By this time we had been attending Mass for several months, and he knew us. But he had not asked for any details concerning our marital status. When we told him that neither of us had been married before, he visibly relaxed. He is a sweet Franciscan friar, past 80 years old, and his relief was obvious. Once that conversation was out of the way, he said that we could either study with him (which would entail 1.5 hours of commuting each way), or else with a priest at a parish nearer our house. Though that parish used a Japanese liturgy, the priest spoke English.

We studied with the priest near our house for a few weeks, and then we asked if he thought we were ready to enter the Church. He said yes. We had studied a lot in advance before starting to attend Mass in the first place. (I am the daughter of devout Protestants. They are missionaries, even, so converting was not something we did lightly. They have never really forgiven us, either.) So we were received into the Church in September, at a Vigil Mass. Our three daughters, none of whom had reached the age of seven, were all baptized then, too.

It worked for us, and I was very glad that they were willing to work with us, despite the lack of an official program. Still, it would be nice if there were so many people entering the Church that an RCIA class of 50 was necessary!

Because Christ was barely founding His Church and teaching His followers.