From John Lee, Johannesburg
A priority for us Catholic Christians is to get involved in the work of evangelisation which is the very reason for the Church’s existence.
It is clear that many of us Catholics are not aware of the basic Gospel message (the kerygma) which is that we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ and by his grace, working in love. This lack has resulted in a timidity in many of us in proclaiming Jesus to others.
Yet Our Lord himself has said that if we deny him before men, he will deny us before his Father in heaven. St Paul hits the heart of the matter: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 10:15).
Cardinal Paul Cordes has said: “Evangelisation is not a social process. It must spring from people’s hearts.” The late Cardinal Franz König of Vienna said: “The danger is that of bureaucracy, bringing out too much printed matter. To avoid one’s own conversion, one creates bureaucracy.”
Even in traditional Catholic missionary work in the past, Catholic evangelisation has often taken the form of merely advocating a moral life. Our stressing only the evils of abortion to the world out there which has no capacity to understand Grace, is like expecting an apple tree to produce grapes.
We must announce the full Gospel message, with faith in Jesus Christ at the centre. If not, this inevitably results in the centre of attention moving from God to man, and from grace to the law.
If we understand our Christian walk as scoring as many good marks as possible (a misunderstanding of graced good works) in order to avoid hell, and being “nice” to others, we are not yet evangelised but may yet “achieve” heaven, but as “good pagans”.
Cardinal Francis Arinze has pointed out the lukewarmness and indifference of many Catholics and the widespread Catholic confusion regarding the basis of salvation. St John Paul II had these strong words to say in The Protestant Challenge in Latin America, where in Brazil there are more ex-Catholics at Sunday Protestant worship services then Catholics at Mass.
“The success of the sects is owed to the tepidity and indifference of the Church’s children who are not up to the level of their evangelising efforts because of Catholics’ weak testimony of a coherent Christian life… many Catholics stand in lamentable helplessness before the recruitment work of non-Catholic agents,” Cardinal Arinze said.
Let us pray this year for the grace from God, strong in the intercession of Mary, the Star of Evangelisation, to be powerful evangelisers in the Lord’s Vineyard!
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