We Must Proclaim Christ as our Saviour

by Jael SC · Published April 5, 2016 · Updated January 2, 2017

From John Lee, Johannesburg – How are my fellow Catholics progressing with our urgent work of the new evangelisation in this extraordinary Year of Mercy? Former Catholic countries such as France, Italy, Spain and Poland are now seen as “post-Christian”.

Father Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Church in Chicago, celebrates Mass. A character in Spike Lee’s movie “Chi-Raq” is based on Father Pfleger, played by John Cusack. (CNS photo/Jim Young, Reuters)

The Church exists in order to evangelise, yet many of us are afraid of that word with its somewhat “Protestant overtones”. It may be that many of us have yet to experience Jesus Christ as Lord, rather than only “knowing about him”.

It is no secret that many Catholics are not cognisant with the basic Gospel message—that we receive justification through faith in Jesus Christ, and by his grace working in love. The good works, which must appear, do not save us: they show that our faith is genuine.

Many of us seem to be “saving ourselves” by our own efforts apart from grace. This is Pelagianism, a heresy, which has reared its ugly head again and again and is even known as a Catholic heresy. There are many who seem to believe that we are saved by being good. This is often apparent in our conversations with others.

Pope St Leo the Great (440-461AD) wrote: “Unless a man believes in Jesus Christ, true God and true man, and accepts him as his own personal Saviour, the salvation that is offered to the whole of mankind will avail him nothing.”

Some of us may yet reach heaven, but as “baptised pagans”. We need to be in love with Jesus Christ as Bl Teresa of Kolkota, the Little Flower, St Catherine of Siena, St Teresa of Avila, St John Paul, St John XXIII, and countless others were.

It is a shocking fact that should call us to prayerful action, that Brazil, with its 180 million Catholics, has as many ex-Catholics present at Sunday worship as Catholics at Sunday Mass, in that most populous Catholic country.

In the words of Pope Paul VI in Evangelii Nuntiandi, we should witness not only by our lives but by a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The person being evangelised needs to know where the power and source of that witness comes from.