In a message to the International Symposium on Catechetics, held in Buenos Aires from July 11-14, Pope Francis pointed out exactly the center of the Education of faith: "The more Jesus takes the center of our life, the more he makes us come out of ourselves, decenters us and makes us be close to others".

Monsignor Luis Ladaria, current Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, spoke at the Symposium. In his exhibition he emphasized that Christ is the center of faith because he is the only and definitive mediator of salvation, being the "faithful witness" (Rev. 1:5) of the love of God the Father. Christian faith is faith in this love, in its efficacious power, in its capacity to transform the world and dominate time. The concrete love of God the Father is seen and touched in the passion, death and resurrection of Christ, true God and true Man. This love of the Father manifested in Christ reaches us, thanks to the fact that we are anointed by the Holy Spirit since our baptism.

In this process, the resurrection of Christ occupies a central place. What are the "practical" consequences of this and how does it affect us? How should this centrality of Christ be understood and lived in the Education of faith?

We can point out three aspects of the same reality.

In the first place, the Resurrection confirms the centrality of Christ in the life of Christians. The Second Vatican Council says that Christ reveals to man what man is (GS 22). That is, only by knowing and uniting ourselves to Christ in his complete mystery (in all its aspects and stages) can we know man in general and know ourselves.

The resurrection of Christ with the Holy Spirit who from it is given to us submission, introduces us into the divine life. They not only manifest to us the goodness of a person who dies for us. They heal, renew and enlighten us. The beauty, goodness and truth proper to God himself, one and triune, and which shine forth in his works, are now given to us to participate in. And this is possible in this life in an inchoate way. After the resurrection of the dead, it will be given to us in a way final is Life with all its dynamics and color, in which there will no longer be room for death or pain. This same life already grows in each one of us and for the good of all each time we receive the Eucharist.

Secondly, the risen Christ is a central reference letter for the Christian mission statement . With his resurrection, everything that Christ is, what he did, what he taught and promised, and what he entrusted to us is confirmed in a living way: to make known until the end of time the Creator, Redeemer and Savior God. The advertisement of faith is driven by the light and the very life of Christ who lives, and who wants to live in Christians.

Third, the life of the Risen Christ is inseparable from the mystery of the Church, a Trinitarian mystery par excellence. This is so because the Church is not just an institution or a society, but a profound communion with God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and with one another, as a "living extension" of the life of the Risen Christ in Christians. As we have already seen, this is possible not simply because God willed it or by an act of his will, but because we have been given the same Holy Spirit, the love of the Father and the Son, who unites and vivifies us in the Church, the family of God. In this consists the Christian vocation, which is the call to holiness, and its consequence, which is the evangelizing mission statement , always associated with human promotion. Hence the preferential attention to the most fragile, poor and needy.

Finally, and taking up the suggestions of specialists such as Cesare Bissoli, it is worth pointing out some implications of this centrality of Christ for the Education of faith. Let us look first at questions of content and then at questions of method, although they are not entirely separable.

The Christocentrism of the Christian faith is a Trinitarian Christocentrism, since Christ could not be the center except in the framework of the saving action of the Triune God. This financial aid to discern the different values of religions and to dialogue, from the Christian identity, with them.

In an era of fragility in the traditional forms of transmitting the faith, attention to the total mystery of Christ and to meeting staff with Him financial aid also helps to consolidate the foundations of the faith and to strengthen the foundations of human values and the meaning of life. This has been emphasized by the Popes and has been increasingly taught by the Church's magisterium since the Second Vatican Council.

The mystery of Christ is not only a criterion goal for the Education of faith (as the center of the contents of faith), but also an interpretative criterion (it is the center that illuminates all the other mysteries, truths or aspects of faith, and is even the center of the meaning of history and of all events).

Christ is also the center of the spirituality and of the training of educators, formators and catechists, since it is only in communion staff with Christ that they find their light and strength: Christ is the center of their life, of their reflection and of the communication of the faith that begins with the witness of their meeting staff with Christ.

Since catechesis has not only theological but also anthropological and didactic dimensions, educators will have to discover the centrality of Christ in order to illuminate aspects of the Christian message that are more difficult to explain today (such as those related to eschatology and morality), as well as to detect the glimmers of beauty, truth and goodness emitted by noble human values.

From the point of view of method, it has been pointed out that Christocentrism in the Education of faith can take two paths: an ontological path (exposing faith in the light of the revelation of Christ) or a phenomenal path (exposing faith starting from the experience of Jesus himself, and from there deepening the mystery of God and man), the latter being more biblical.

All of this does not oppose, but rather asks that the mystery of Christ illuminate the current and daily experiences of men and women and that they challenge our way of understanding and transmitting the mystery of Christ.

As a whole, a Christocentric Education requires a pedagogical pathway , which implies that it should be gradual. This, it is important to insist, begins with the witness that the educator or catechist has to give to Christ, first with his life and at the same time with the reasons (arguments) of his hope. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has underlined this centrality of Christ: "Reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we can appreciate the admirable unity of the mystery of God and of his saving will, as well as the central place occupied by Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, sent by the Father, made man in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, to be our Savior. Dead and risen, he is always present in his Church, especially in the sacraments. He is the true source of faith, the model of Christian action and the Master of our prayer" (Const. Ap Fidei depositum, n. 3).