In forty years of practicing psychotherapy, I said many, many times that some things are difficult because they are so complex, but others are difficult because they are so simple. The who, what, where, when, how, and why of mystagogy of mystagogy can be very complex to even outline. However, at the same time, mystagogy at its heart is so simple that it can be described in one line, one sentence in the bible. Namely, in Jesus’ words:

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them, (Matthew 18:20).

My hope is that if a reader starts with only this one sentence in mind, everything else may begin to fall into place.

As a measure of how much mystagogy needs to be unpacked, even this one sentence has a lot crammed into it. Thus, consider, please, five things that come to mind for me as I reflect on this first of sentences about mystagogy. This sentence of Jesus in my reflection provides five necessary indicators of mystagogy’s parameters, including the where, the what, the focus, the efficient cause, and the nature of the work involved.

By all that I mean that this one statement of Jesus is at the heart of mystagogy, and can help us define both the limits and the potential a mystagogical approach will need to work within:

• groups of two or three or more. Notice that Jesus has no specifics of who might or might be involved in such groups: all male, all female, couples, gender-mixed, baptized or not, and so on. He doesn’t even say whether they need to be baptized or not. However, the group must be intentional in the sense of explicitly acting in Jesus’ name and not merely the result of happenstance or coincidence. That implies that intent in gathering “in Jesus’ name” is not just an important prerequisite. It is an absolutely essential qualification to ensure Jesus’ presence.

• gathering together is essential to the process. That is, the act of gathering is what triggers Jesus’ work of reshaping our relationships with one another. And, do we humans indeed need help in relating to one another. For Catholic Christians, the places to look for their ideal relationships with one another in, for example, in the Catechism under the headings of “the communion of saints” and “the People of God.”

• “in the name of Jesus” points us to Jesus as exemplar and type.  That is, an exemplar is a person or thing that can be imitated or copied. A type is a category of things. Though anyone can call a group a Jesus group, mystagogy as an official period in the catechumenate is that then participants can share in the definitions and understandings of the Catholic Church. Referring to the Bible and the Catechism can ensure that the sense in which Jesus is held up as exemplar of human behavior and ideal type for humanity and divine life conforms to the church’s understandings as stipulated in the Bible and the Catechism. That may sound complicated 

For any terms you may not recognize please see the glossary. You can also look them up, but I’ll work to keep the glossary updated with terms that occur in discussing mystagogy.

• Jesus’ presence in social settings is one of the many forms of the presence of God, for example, in all creation, in the Bible, in the Eucharist, in the apostolic priesthood, and in the people of God. However, in the case of mystagogy, Jesus promises to be present in the very interactions of those who meet in his name. That type of presence has multiple implications. I’ll aim to spell them out to the best of my ability as we go along.

If Jesus is in the midst of those in groups, and, if we can presume that his presence is related to our universal call to holiness, how can we learn to understand or perceive his presence among us?

Deacon Ray Biersbach, PhD

January 13, 2025