The Call of the Church to Evangelize
By Father Brendan Williams
In this issue we include the story of our 1996 visit to Ireland for our School of Evangelization in Dublin. It was undoubtedly a wonderful experience for all concerned and has set the stage for our return visit this coming July when we bring the School to Cork City.
It seems that evangelization has become a natural outgrowth of charismatic
renewal. From what we can read from the actions of the Holy Spirit in
the church in the 20th century, the ground is being prepared for what
our Holy Father calls a springtime of evangelization in the Church.
With the Vatican II documents and the writings of subsequent popes,
it is clear that the place of the Holy Spirit in the Church has been
brought very much to the fore. Pope John Paul II sums it up well in
his encyclical The Splendor of Truth as he emphasizes the central role
of the Holy Spirit in the ministry of evangelization:
At the heart of the new evangelization and the new moral life which
it proposes and awakens by its fruits of holiness and missionary zeal,
there is the Spirit of Christ, the principle and strength of Holy Mother
Church. As Pope Paul VI reminds us: "Evangelization will never
be possible without the Holy Spirit."…As Novatian once pointed
out - here expressing the authentic teaching of the Church - it is the
Holy Spirit "who confirmed the hearts and minds of the disciples,
who revealed the mysteries of the Gospel, who shed upon them the light
of things divine. Strengthened by his gift, they did not fear either
prisons of chains for the name of the Lord; indeed they even trampled
upon the powers and torments of the world, armed and strengthened by
him, having in themselves the gifts which this same Spirit bestows and
directs like jewels to the Church, the Bride of Christ. It is in fact
he who raises up prophets in the Church, instructs teachers, guides
tongues, works wonders and healings, accomplishes miracles, grants the
discernment of spirits, assigns governance, inspires counsels, distributes
and harmonizes every other charismatic gift. In this way he completes
and perfects the Lord's Church everywhere and in all things (p. 154).
Cardinal Ratzinger, reflecting on the "new Pentecost" that
Pope John XXIII prayed for, calls our time a "Pentecostal hour":
The period following the Council scarcely seemed to live up to the hopes
of Pope John XXIII, who looked for a "new Pentecost". But
his prayer did not go unheard. In the heart of a world desiccated by
rationalistic scepticism a new experience of the Holy Spirit has come
about, amounting to a worldwide renewal movement. What the New Testament
describes, with reference to the charisms, as visible signs of the coming
of the Spirit is no longer merely ancient, past history: This history
is becoming a burning reality today (Ratzinger Report p 151).
The new thrust toward evangelization is indeed quite new for Catholics.
Our experience has shown us that many people in the Church are suspect
of Catholic lay evangelists and do not quite know how to accept them
at first. When they experience the power of the Holy Spirit working
through them in their witness, their transformed lives and their solid
Catholic teaching, they are overjoyed that at last the Catholic Church
is entering a field that seems till now has been populated by Protestant
evangelicals. Father Avery Dulles reflects:
"The majority of Catholics are not strongly inclined toward evangelization.
The very term has for them a Protestant ring. The Catholic Church is
highly institutional, sacramental, and hierarchical in its structures.
Its activities are primarily directed toward the institution and pastoral
care of its own members, whose needs and demands tax the institution
to its limits. Absorbed in the inner problems of the Church, and occasionally
in issues of peace and justice, contemporary Catholics feel relatively
little responsibility for spreading the faith" (John Paul II and
the New Evangelization, p. 3).
However, Father Dulles tracks a significant change in the Church's
focus since Vatican II.
"In my judgment the evangelical turn in the ecclesial vision of
Popes Paul VI and John Paul II is one of the most surprising and important
developments in the Catholic Church since Vatican II…For them,
as for the kerygmatic theologians, the heart and center of evangelization
is the proclamation of God's saving love and shown forth in Jesus Christ.
Where the name of Jesus is not spoken there can be no evangelization
in the true sense… All of this constitutes a remarkable shift
in the Catholic tradition. For centuries evangelization was a poor step-child….Today
we seem to be experiencing the birth of a new Catholicism, that without
loss of its institutional, sacramental, and social dimensions, is authentically
evangelical…Catholic spirituality at its best has always promoted
a deep personal relationship with Christ…Too many Catholics of
our day seem never to have encountered Christ. They know a certain amount
about him from the teaching of the Church, but they lack direct personal
familiarity…The first and highest priority is for the Church to
proclaim the good news concerning Jesus Christ as a joyful message to
all the world. Only if the Church is faithful to its evangelical mission
can it hope to make its distinctive contribution in the social, political
and cultural spheres" (ibid. p. 13, 16-17).
The focus of our preaching and teaching then is conversion to Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. This conversion comes about through the anointing of the Holy Spirit who leads us to an intimate experience of Jesus risen and glorified, and releases gifts for inner transformation and holiness, and for ministry to the Body of Christ and the proclamation of the Gospel to the world.
Let us all continue to pray that this "new Pentecost" will continue to take hold in the Church and enkindle a fire of evangelization that will being about a glorious harvest of souls for Christ throughout the world.
For a fuller treatment of these important issues, I refer you to Ralph
Martin's wonderful book: The Catholic Church at the End of an Age: What
the Spirit is Saying ( 1994 Ignatius Press, San Francisco).