source: http://thesaurus.babylon.com/The%20ball%20is%20in%20your%20court
It's taken me slightly more time to deal with this entry, as there have been many big issues that I've had to deal with! Indeed, I continue my efforts to come to term with what our Church is asking of us when it speaks of missionary activities as being 'paradigmatic for all Church activity' (EG 15). Part of my own personal tension with the call to evangelization, is that I wonder how we can strike a balance between this and inter faith dialog. I know too many Catholics who operate under the assumption that Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, and others (including other Christians )need to be converted to Catholicism. I don't believe that's what Vatican II was asking of us, and I certainly know that no Pope since that period has openly asked for this. We're called to dialog with other religions and denominations, not try to convert them. If I'm wrong about this, please challenge me, but this is how I perceive a healthy tension between ecumenism, and evangelization in the Church.
However, as I struggled with this tension in the past few weeks, I also realized Pope Francis was right: The idea of evangelization IS the paradigm under which I already operate in my everyday life: every time I engage people about the faith; every time I listen to people's struggles with the Church and help them find peace in their faith journey; every time I try to help non Christians understand Pope Francis and the Universal Church a little better; every time I reach out to people in need, (i.e. not just reaching out to the marginalized, but reaching out to all people in need) etc...I believe all of this,in a very small way, is also part of the new evangelization, which in the end, is really an invitation for the faithful to actively and lovingly live out their faith for all to see. It is not an invitation to shove faith down people's throats, and present it as the only truth they should accept. Nor is it a call to remain complacent with the faith without ever acting upon it. Too many live out their faith in one of those two approaches. Both options are valid in their own way, but both need to be challenged if we're going to move forward as a Church in the 21st century.
In reality, Pope Francis, like his predecessors does not focus too much on the fact that many do struggle to live out evangelization. Instead, he concentrates on the hopeful positive steps forwards that could be (and are) taking place in the Church. This is why he feels free to muse out loud: what would happen to our church if people began appropriating the call to evangelize more seriously? In asking this question, I think he already accepts that some of that drive to evangelize the faith is already there in our faith communities and in our life (something he recognizes by quoting quoting JPII 's Redemptoris Missio in EG 15). All we need to do is respond to it, to break away from a passive pastoral ministry that is built on conservation, and to decide to take up a more missionary pastoral ministry instead. (EG15) Let me rephrase that: I originally thought he was condemning pastoral ministry in general. Then I misread the word 'conservation' as 'conversation' (damned dyslexia!) and was about to have serious issues with our Pope!! In the end...what HE IS saying, is that, our Church isn't a museum with ideologies and relics that need to be conserved and protected, or sheltered from the world. She's a living breathing organism that has shared her tradition with the world for 2000 years, and has in fact allowed that tradition to shape the world. She will continue to do so until the end of times..so long as her members (all of them!! Not just Popes, Bishops and Priests) remain (or become!) pastoral, loving individuals towards all people. That is what 'missionary pastoral ministry' implies to me. Or to put it differently: The ball is in our court.
This is an uncomfortable message for many of us who are indeed complacent in our faith, but it's one that the Synod on New Evangelization emphasized as well. And while Pope Francis isn't necessarily building up directly on the work the Synod did, he is 'reaping the fruits of its labours' ( EG 16). Nevertheless, Francis is eager to express his own ideas on the topic of evangelization, while conducting his own interviews. Part of the reason for this is that he was not involved with the Synod, and rather than just taking its ideas, he seems anxious to be nourished by it, but take the message somewhere else. This is both a good and a bad thing: I would have liked to see something more concrete about the work the Synod did, and I hope someone else does end up working with the product of the Synod in the future. At the same time, Pope Francis states that the time for research on the question of evangelization is done. We need to act. WE, the faithful, need to act. This is why he also is takes the initiative to say that what the Synod did, and what he or the papal magisterium would do or say...this is not the final word on the new evangelization. Local Bishops have their say in this...and by the way... so do we. This is the beginning of the articulation of the Pope's vision of a decentralized Church.
I can't wait to see what WE will do with that vision!!
15. John Paul II asked us to recognize that “there must be no lessening of the impetus to preach the Gospel” to those who are far from Christ, “because this is the first task of the Church”.[14] Indeed, “today missionary activity still represents the greatest challenge for the Church”[15] and “the missionary task must remain foremost”.[16] What would happen if we were to take these words seriously? We would realize that missionary outreach is paradigmatic for all the Church’s activity. Along these lines the Latin American bishops stated that we “cannot passively and calmly wait in our church buildings”;[17] we need to move “from a pastoral ministry of mere conservation to a decidedly missionary pastoral ministry”.[18] This task continues to be a source of immense joy for the Church: “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Lk15:7).
16. I was happy to take up the
request of the Fathers of the Synod to write this Exhortation.[19] In
so doing, I am reaping the rich fruits of the Synod’s labours. In addition, I
have sought advice from a number of people and I intend to express my own
concerns about this particular chapter of the Church’s work of evangelization.
Countless issues involving evangelization today might be discussed here, but I
have chosen not to explore these many questions which call for further
reflection and study. Nor do I believe that the papal magisterium should be
expected to offer a definitive or complete word on every question which affects
the Church and the world. It is not advisable for the Pope to take the place of
local Bishops in the discernment of every issue which arises in their
territory. In this sense, I am conscious of the need to promote a sound “decentralization”.
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