Bishop’s pop quiz for neophytes serves as a GPS moment
By Bill Brewer
It’s challenging enough to be a neophyte charged with carrying on the Catholic faith in an increasingly secular world.
But for the Catholic Church in East Tennessee’s newest members, asking them to pass a Catholic history test during Mass was a real curveball.
Bishop Richard F. Stika offered up the lighthearted quiz to begin his homily during the Sending of the Neophytes Mass on May 7 at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. To be fair, Bishop Stika singled out Sisters and deacons in the congregation for the tricky questions.
Many of the more than 220 women, men, and children who entered the Church during Easter Vigil Masses on April 8 in parishes around the Diocese of Knoxville were in attendance for the annual Sending of the Neophytes Mass.
Bishop Stika celebrated the Mass. He was assisted by Deacon Butch Feldhaus, who was deacon of the Word and serves at St. Jude Church in Chattanooga, and Deacon Steve Helmbrecht, who was deacon of the Eucharist and serves at St. Dominic Church in Kingsport.
“So, we’re all Catholic now. And so, if you’re Catholic, you should know these easy questions,” Bishop Stika said.
“Name all of the saints in the history of the Catholic Church. There are thousands of them. Too tough?” he asked. “Name all of the popes who have been in the Catholic Church. Peter, Francis, and everybody in between.”
Bishop Stika gives a young family entering the Church rosaries that he blessed during the Mass.
Singling out the Sisters and deacons, Bishop Stika and the congregation laughed when the somewhat-rhetorical questions were met with silence.
Then giving direction to his homily, Bishop Stika posed one more important query to the newest members of his diocese.
“How many of you have ever used GPS in your cars?” he again asked.
The positive acknowledgment was universal among the drivers in the congregation and their navigators. Everyone had.
“Thank God for GPS,” the bishop said. “I remember early on in my priesthood I was going from St. Louis to Indianapolis, and I had one of those Garmins. Along the way I hit a traffic jam. The GPS supposedly could give me detours.”
As his GPS recalculated to provide a detour, Bishop Stika said he ended up in a cornfield. He explained that the detour was a two-lane road that ran parallel to the main highway. The smaller road then became a one-lane rocky road, which led into the cornfield.
“I’m sure the farmer thought, ‘What the heck is going on with that guy?’ But they are marvelous things. If you think about it, all those GPS devices are connected to satellites orbiting our world. I heard recently that there are 17,000 satellites up there,” Bishop Stika said.
“Sometimes faith is like GPS. If you have a good GPS system, you have to trust it; otherwise you end up in a cornfield,” the bishop added. “Although I don’t want to trust the thing, in recent times the GPS technology is more reliable. You have to trust it because it gets you where you want to go.”
Bishop Stika then keyed in on his message to the East Tennessee neophytes.
Trust. Knowledge. The Eucharist.
“That’s what is in the Gospel. Jesus was giving all these instructions to the Apostles. Over three years they didn’t understand everything. How do you understand the concept of God, the Father, the Holy Spirit? But He instructed them time and time again,” the bishop said. “We have to trust. That’s what it comes down to. Trust.”
He went on to illustrate how Christ’s teachings continue to guide the faithful through Scripture and are lived out through the sacraments.
Bishop Stika said in Scripture he especially likes the dialogue verses, such as those telling about the road to Emmaus, when Jesus appeared as a traveler walking with two of His disciples from Jerusalem to Emmaus on the day He rose from the dead. The disciples did not recognize Jesus.
Another aspect the bishop is fond of with Scripture: the teachings always are founded on the Eucharist, the foundation of all that Catholics believe. Jesus lived, died, rose, and lives every moment of every day within His people through the Eucharist.
He emphasized that the Eucharist is what identifies Catholicism.
“As you have begun your journey into the Catholic faith, you may have come from other faith traditions. You former Baptists can always out-quote us with the Bible. The Baptist church is more of a scriptural church. We’re more of a scriptural/sacramental Church. Our Mass, the rosary, our prayers, they’re always based on Scripture. … But we are that Church that also celebrates the sacraments, especially the sacrament of the Eucharist, which is the Summit. It’s the core of who we are, it’s our nourishment, it’s our belief, it’s Jesus Christ, Soul and Divinity, present in our midst even though we may never understand the concept of what it is. It is,” Bishop Stika said.
“It’s like how do you understand the concept of love?” he added, also comparing it to hearing and answering God’s call to serve as a priest or religious.
Bishop Richard F. Stika shows a young family the pectoral cross he was wearing for the Sending of the Neophytes Mass.
Bishop Stika urged the neophytes to actively practice their new faith and avoid the temptation to let other interests replace their participation in the Mass, prayer, and Catholic activities. He encouraged them to become active in their parishes and some of the many organizations faithful to the Church.
And above all, he asked them to spend time each day in prayer to God, be in the presence of Jesus, and pray the rosary for the intercession of the Blessed Mother.
“It’s what the Church is. It’s the witness to Jesus. It’s the response to Jesus. It’s knowing that God has surprises for us in life. This is where trust is,” the bishop continued. “It’s like trusting the GPS. You might not know everything. You might even end up in a cornfield. But most of the time you’re going to wind up in the place where you want to be. You might not even know what that place is. But God knows.”
Filipina Sikarng of St. John Neumann Parish in Farragut attended the Mass with her children, Mason, Oliver, and Milo. Mrs. Sikarng said she began the conversion process in 2020 and was confirmed, received her first Holy Communion, and completed her marriage convalidation on Nov. 26.
She said she is not nervous at all about going out into the community as a new member of the Catholic faith.
“I feel complete and very blessed. Also, I’m just very happy,” Mrs. Sikarng said. “I try to plant little seeds here and there and get people to come into the Catholic faith.”
Nick Farfaglia, who was born in the Catholic faith, is a member of St. Thérèse of Lisieux Church in Cleveland. He attended the Sending of the Neophytes Mass with his fianceé and three children, who joined the Catholic Church at Easter.
He was complimentary of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults class, the catechetical program people complete to join the Church, saying it was easier than expected and not at all difficult to take part in and complete.
He said his children, who are converts from a Protestant church, have learned much during the RCIA process.
He smiled, laughed, and said it was his New England-Italian Catholic upbringing that had such an influence on the members of his family-to-be.
Brenda Blevins of St. Thérèse of Lisieux accompanied the parish’s new Catholics to the Mass and said the parish has several “neat” stories of conversion to the Catholic faith, noting that a father and his daughter just joined the Church as did a family of four.
“We just had a fabulous class, and a large class,” said Ms. Blevins, who also credited Aurora Gardner with coordinating the parish’s RCIA program for the Hispanic community.
