We are called to be evangelisers
John Lee, Johannesburg
Many thanks for Archbishop William Slattery’s article, “At Pentecost we are called to witness” (June 8). The article was read out in full at Mass in our parish on Pentecost Sunday.
Most Catholics are not inclined towards evangelisation. Absorbed in the inner struggles of the Church, and occasionally with peace and justice, contemporary Catholics feel relatively little responsibility for spreading the faith.
The apostolate in the past was mainly aimed at showing non-Catholics that Christ had founded the one, true, hierarchical Church. The Gospel was hardly ever at the centre. Ecclesiocentricity was the order of the day.
Many Catholics who have left the Church for fundamentalism stress that despite the Church’s stress on the importance of the Eucharist, the Mass and the sacraments, they had never had the basic gospel (the kerygma) preached to them, and as a result have not found the living Jesus in the Catholic Church.
The First Vatican Council, in the mid-19th century, used the term “gospel” only once, and never used the term evangelise or evangelisation. By contrast, Vatican II mentioned the Gospel 157 times, evangelise 18 times and evangelisation 31 times.
In the ecclesial vision of Popes Paul VI and John Paul II, the heart and centre is the proclamation of God’s saving love shown forth in Jesus Christ. Where the name of Jesus is not spoken, there can be no evangelisation in the true sense. One does not witness only by the example of one’s life, but, as Pope Paul VI stressed in Evangelii Nuntiandi, also “by a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the name of the Lord Jesus”.
Catholic spirituality at its best has always promoted the absolute necessity of a deep, personal relationship with Jesus. Even though this is stressed more today, it seems that the expression passes over the heads of many, or how to go about appropriating it for themselves.
The good news in Jesus Christ is the best and most exciting news there is, and if we Catholics do not witness to Jesus as a priority, it simply shows that we have misunderstood the basic message of the Gospel, and that we are about “saving our own souls” instead of allowing Jesus Christ to do it for us. Many thanks for Archbishop William Slattery’s article, “At Pentecost we are called to witness” (June 8). The article was read out in full at Mass in our parish on Pentecost Sunday,
Most Catholics are not inclined towards evangelisation. Absorbed in the inner struggles of the Church, and occasionally with peace and justice, contemporary Catholics feel relatively little responsibility for spreading the faith.
The apostolate in the past was mainly aimed at showing non-Catholics that Christ had founded the one, true, hierarchical Church. The Gospel was hardly ever at the centre. Ecclesiocentricity was the order of the day.
Many Catholics who have left the Church for fundamentalism stress that despite the Church’s stress on the importance of the Eucharist, the Mass and the sacraments, they had never had the basic gospel (the kerygma) preached to them, and as a result have not found the living Jesus in the Catholic Church.
The First Vatican Council, in the mid-19th century, used the term “gospel” only once, and never used the term evangelise or evangelisation. By contrast, Vatican II mentioned the Gospel 157 times, evangelise 18 times and evangelisation 31 times.
In the ecclesial vision of Popes Paul VI and John Paul II, the heart and centre is the proclamation of God’s saving love shown forth in Jesus Christ. Where the name of Jesus is not spoken, there can be no evangelisation in the true sense. One does not witness only by the example of one’s life, but, as Pope Paul VI stressed in Evangelii Nuntiandi, also “by a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the name of the Lord Jesus”.
Catholic spirituality at its best has always promoted the absolute necessity of a deep, personal relationship with Jesus. Even though this is stressed more today, it seems that the expression passes over the heads of many, or how to go about appropriating it for themselves.
The good news in Jesus Christ is the best and most exciting news there is, and if we Catholics do not witness to Jesus as a priority, it simply shows that we have misunderstood the basic message of the Gospel, and that we are about “saving our own souls” instead of allowing Jesus Christ to do it for us.
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