Praying with Evangelii Gaudium, Day 5 : The many faces of evangelization.

              (source: http://home.catholicweb.com/maryqueen/index.cfm/NewsItem?id=222635)




It's that time of the year with school work, so the entries are a little more irregular, but I've still been working on them. This one has just been a little more challenging.

I began this series of exploring  EG with a question: How do we live our joy?  I asked this question, because this document assumes -rightly so-  that many of us do not live the joy of the Gospel to its fullest. Case in point: In my last entry, I mentioned the fear that some may have over any mention of evangelization. I understand that there are many ways in which evangelization can be lived and experienced  in our faith (through blogs, through conversations with people, through art etc...). However, the traditional understanding of it,( going out into the world and preach the Gospel to strangers) is something that is a little intimidating and scary even to me. 

Does that necessarily mean I never live my faith in joy? Of course not. Most people that know me well  consider me to be a happy person, and I am happy, because I am fully conscious of just how much the Lord has blessed me. But again...this question haunts me. If I am happy, why don't I live the happiness more fully? Why don't I go out into the world to celebrate this happiness with others? I'm not certain.  This is why I am grateful that Francis continues to challenge me/us in speaking of ' the joy of evangelizing. No...not just the joy.  The Delightful, and Comforting joy of evangelizing. (EG 9) Wow...

This is indeed an exquisite idea, but  how can we accept that something that is so challenging for us to do, could be so comforting?  The answer lies in something  I touched on it in my last entry: when we experience our conversion through a genuine encounter with God, we will have such a sense of being liberated  (EG 8) from our attachments to  things that are wordly, that evangelization, (i.e. sharing with others this faith that brings us so much joy), will be something that brings us peace and happen very naturally and will cause joy to grow in our lives. Pope Francis believes this because knows that goodness will always spread (EG 9).  As he puts it,  anyone who has experienced conversion (liberation) begins to reach out to others and seek their good (EG 9) in order to allow their own good to continue growing.

   I must say, this has not generally been my experience of new converts in the Church. Many of those that I have met were so enthralled with Catholic tradition, rituals and doctrine, that in the first few years of their conversion, they were still caught up with the details of the faith, and not the heart of it.  Nevertheless, this does not take away from the idea that faith, and the goodness it generates, constantly grows within us: We learn about new ideas, see how people live those ideas in our lives, and are challenged to do the same. What's amazing with this idea, is how Pope Francis uses it to broaden the concept of evangelization. He doesn't limit it to the spreading of the Gospel, (though that is something that will always be central to evangelization). He also reminds us that the authentic faith received by the convert will be lived out of concern for the other, and that, driven by the heart of Christ, it will always be seeking the good of the other.(EG 9) 

 The 10th point of EG only affirms all of this by reminding us that through the Gospel, we can live life on a higher plane of authentic personal fulfillment. How does all this fulfillment take place? When we discover what Francis calls the 'profound law of reality':  " that life is attained and matures in the measure that it is offered up in order to give it to others". (EG 10) I'm going to come out and say it: This is a shocking, and very counter-cultural statement for our world. Even  for religious, there has to be limits to how much we give to others. This is why Pope Francis is the man we needed for this job. There are even Jesuits who are uncomfortable with his message, but he's going to keep saying it: When we begin living more simply, that is when we will know the true jo y of the Gospel. Until then, we will  continue to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders, sometimes looking as if we've come back from a funeral (EG 10). It's human nature to do so, but the pope calls us out of our understanding of our gloomy nature, and into the life of an evangelizing missionary whose life is driven by the fervor of knowing and loving jesus ( EG 10)




II. THE DELIGHTFUL AND COMFORTING JOY OF EVANGELIZING

9. Goodness always tends to spread. Every authentic experience of truth and goodness seeks by its very nature to grow within us, and any person who has experienced a profound liberation becomes more sensitive to the needs of others. As it expands, goodness takes root and develops. If we wish to lead a dignified and fulfilling life, we have to reach out to others and seek their good. In this sense, several sayings of Saint Paul will not surprise us: “The love of Christ urges us on” (2 Cor 5:14); “Woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16).

10. The Gospel offers us the chance to live life on a higher plane, but with no less intensity: “Life grows by being given away, and it weakens in isolation and comfort. Indeed, those who enjoy life most are those who leave security on the shore and become excited by the mission of communicating life to others”.[4] When the Church summons Christians to take up the task of evangelization, she is simply pointing to the source of authentic personal fulfilment. For “here we discover a profound law of reality: that life is attained and matures in the measure that it is offered up in order to give life to others. This is certainly what mission means”.[5] Consequently, an evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral! Let us recover and deepen our enthusiasm, that “delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, even when it is in tears that we must sow… And may the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the good news not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervour, who have first received the joy of Christ”.[6]