“We Are All Called to Evangelize”

by Father Maurice J Nutt, C.Ss.R.

The proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ is both the privilege and the vocation of the whole Church. All the faithful, by virtue of their baptism, are invited to participate in this grace-filled work, as individuals and as a community of faith. The good news of the gospel not only transforms those who hear it, but it must also transform those who preach it. “The person who has been evangelized,” Pope Paul VI wrote, “goes on to evangelize others.”  This transforming gospel, however, goes much farther than personal conversion. The gospel message means the transformation, through holiness, of the heart of society.

Evangelization is an authorized work. The risen Lord commanded the Church to be engaged in this task. That command is recorded in Matthew 28:18-20, the passage usually referred to as the “Great Commission.” There is a parallel passage found in Luke 24:44-49 and still another one in the longer ending of Mark 16:14-19.

Bearing authority from God, Jesus had come evangelizing. His synagogue sermon in Nazareth was based upon Isaiah 61:1-4, and Jesus used that “Servant Song” to explain the focus and scope of his ministry. But having died and risen, he met with his disciples and addressed them in his messianic role with these words: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). It was a preparatory statement before issuing this command: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).

This was an authorizing command—authorized because of the nature of the assignment, and commanded because of the importance attached to it. In referring to his received authority, Jesus was assuring the disciples that they were being given an authorization to handle their work of announcing, sharing, convincing, baptizing, and teaching. The right to call the entire world to repentance and faith in Jesus as Savior rests upon a divine authority found in Jesus himself.

The one who first proclaimed the good news had become the central figure in what was to be proclaimed as good news. According to James Earl Massey, theology professor at Tuskegee University, “This was a God-purposed result and only God authorized persons would have the right or understanding to talk about it in depth with anyone else. The authorizing word about who backed them allowed the disciples to do their work with confidence.”

The very term evangelization speaks of movement or doing something. This might explain why some Catholics have trouble appropriating the word for their own sense of mission. The word “evangelization” challenges us to break out of the stagnation or complacency into which we all can easily fall as disciples of the Lord. As we reclaim evangelization as our central mission, as Pope Paul VI encouraged us to do, we must be involved in two simultaneous processes: the ongoing evangelization and conversion of ourselves as a Church and the movement into the world to share the good news.

Pope Paul VI explained why both are necessary: “The Church…begins by being evangelized herself by constant conversion and renewal, in order to evangelize the world with credibility.”  He continued, “Evangelizing means bringing the good news into all strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new.”

The term evangelization denotes and connotes movement or dynamism. Our evangelizing Church is called to be counter-cultural, continuing the work of the Old Testament prophets and the saving mission of Jesus. Israel gradually came to see itself as God’s chosen people and a “light for the nations.” Moreover, Jesus has sent his Church into the world. We who are the Church must not allow ourselves to be paralyzed by focusing too much on individual or private salvation. Again, believers are to remember Pope Paul’s challenging understanding of evangelization: the transformation of humanity and the whole world from within.

I can reasonably infer that a major hindrance to the work of evangelization is that our spiritual leadership can become “active non-participants.” I find that bishops, priests, deacons, religious, and lay ecclesial ministers (those who have both professional credentials and careers in ministry) need to be cognizant of what Pope Paul VI described as a real obstacle to evange1ization – “Lack of fervor., .manifested in fatigue, disenchantment, lack of interest, and, above all, lack of joy and hope.”  Many times this is the reason that there are so many empty pews in our Catholic parishes. The uninspired monotony of the liturgy lacks the spark to ignite the spiritual fire within them. Consequently, they do not develop the thirst or yearning and choose to remain at home or seek it themselves.

Pope Paul VI reminded us that evangelization is essentially a work of love. That love manifests itself with our continually giving our hearts to the Lord and, in turn, giving our hearts and experience of Jesus to one another.

I maintain that to evangelize is to become instrumental in facilitating and continuing God’s self-revelation to our world. Christians believe that Jesus is the apex, the fullness of God’s self-disclosure. In evangelizing, we proclaim the Word of God, Jesus, to the modem world. Therefore, in order to evangelize with a sense of integrity and to partake in this ministry of revelation one must do much more than pass on doctrine or tradition, memorize passages from Scripture, or convey transitory peak religious experiences.

As Joseph Cardinal Bernardin asserts, “To evangelize is to touch someone’s heart, mind, and imagination with the risen Lord. That encounter becomes so significant that the person begins to reinterpret and redirect his or her whole life around Jesus.”  I concur with Bernardin’s assertion, for to evangelize is to help another person pay attention to, celebrate, and live in terms of the living God, revealed fully by Jesus, and present in our human experiences. This notion will become clearer in our discussion of inculturated evangelization.

A Catholic Approach to Evangelization

The Church exists to evangelize, to proclaim the good news of the Word-made flesh. “The pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature,” Vatican II tells us. “For it is from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that she takes her origin.  Thus, Pope Paul VI points out in Evangelii Nuntiandi that, “Having been born consequently out of being sent, the Church in her turn is sent by Jesus…. She prolongs and continues him. And it is above all his mission and his condition of being an evangelizer that she is called upon to continue.”

It seems that the Catholic approach to evangelization tends to put the cart before the horse. Catholics speak of Jesus establishing the Church and giving the mission of evangelization and a number of other important tasks and ministries. But Evangelii Nuntiandi, returning to the evidence of Sacred Scripture, tells us matter-of-factly that this is not the way that it happened: “The Church is born of the evangelizing activity of Jesus and the Twelve.”  It is the mission of evangelization which has the Church, not the Church which has the mission. In other words, every task and every ministry within the Church serves this continuing mission. All ministries, whether in missionary extension or pastoral care, in outreach to the unchurched and inactive Catholic, in substance abuse counseling, in feeding the hungry in soup kitchens, in catechesis, in preaching, or in teaching—all ministries converge to serve the one “primary and essential mission” of evangelization.

I contend that ministry schooled properly in the art of evangelization takes on a new dynamism and a new purpose and focus. However, many Catholic parishes have a tendency to slip into a maintenance mentality. Catholic parishes can easily provide a comfortable pew where parishioners come to worship and receive the sacraments and return to their homes unchallenged, uninspired, and unchanged. In light of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church, a maintenance mentality is simply unacceptable. Ministry within our Catholic parishes demands a fervor and commitment to spread the good news of Jesus in ways that are truly life-giving. Clergy, religious, and laity alike are encouraged to live-out their baptismal calling by being bold witnesses to the power of Jesus Christ within a sin-sick world. We Church must minister and evangelize from a position of strength and authority to change our temporal circumstances. If we do not, our preaching, teaching, and service to others will be in vain.

Only when we begin to realize that God calls us together to be Church (Ekklesia), can we live our baptismal call. God gathers us together in communion and fellowship as members of Christ’s body (koinonia) for the purpose of mission and service; God calls us to bear witness to God’s hidden plan (see Col. 1:26); then, are we really and truly be the Church. Vatican II describes the Church “as the universal sacrament of salvation, simultaneously manifesting and exercising the mystery of God’s love for humanity (emphasis mine).”  Everything is not contained in the command to go and teach. There is also the prayer that “they may be one” as the Father and the Son are one “so that the world may believe” (Jn. 17:21-23). The Church’s fundamental task is simultaneously both to be evangelized and to evangelize, both to become and to share the news.

When a particular culture embodies the Christian message it carries the gospel joyfully to the people. The message of Jesus becomes personal—it means something of great importance to their cultural condition. Those who have encountered God’s gift of grace, generally become active in continuing the mission of Jesus. Within the African American experience, once something is deemed “good news” it does not remain a secret, it must be told. As with any culture, African American Catholics seek to not only be evangelized but to evangelize. They have their faith story to tell and their cultural gifts to share with the universal Church. Sister Thea Bowman, F.S.P.A., African American Catholic teacher and evangelist, issued a manifesto to the Roman Catholic bishops of the United States, “naming and claiming” her right as a baptized Christian to evangelize the Church. Thea Bowman uttered her prophetic comments to those who would exercise defining power over her black brothers and sisters. Using the black preaching style at its best, the “speech” Sister Thea gave to the bishops was a call to conversion— which is the first step toward justice. Sister Thea said:

I bring myself, my black self, all that I am, all that I have, all that I hope to become. I bring my whole history, my traditions, my experience, my culture, my African American song and dance and gesture and movement and teaching and preaching and healing and responsibility as gift to the Church.

 

Rev. Dr. Maurice J. Nutt, C.Ss.R.
Archdiocese of New Orleans Black Catholic Evangelization Conference
Marriott Hotel
Keynote Address