Holy Family Catholic Church

Everyday Evangelization Part 4

Dear Holy Family,

Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, “We are at the end of Christendom.  Not of Christianity, not of the Church, but of Christendom… These are great and wonderful days in which to be alive… It is not a gloomy picture – it is a picture of the Church in the midst of increasing opposition from the world.  And therefore live your lives in the full consciousness of this hour of testing, and rally close to the heart of Christ.”

Remembering that our mission as Catholics is to “rally” others into communion with Jesus Christ, allow me to share more about what Pope Francis had to say about our evangelizing mission in his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”):

The primary reason for evangelizing is the love of Jesus which we have received, the experience of salvation which urges us to ever greater love of him.  What kind of love would not feel the need to speak of the beloved, to point him out, to make him known?  If we do not feel an intense desire to share this love, we need to pray insistently that he will once more touch our hearts.  We need to implore his grace daily, asking him to open our cold hearts and shake up our lukewarm and superficial existence.  Standing before him with open hearts, letting him look at us, we see that gaze of love which Nathaniel glimpsed on the day when Jesus said to him: ‘I saw you under the fig tree’ (Jn 1:48).  How good it is to stand before a crucifix, or on our knees before the Blessed Sacrament, and simply to be in his presence!  How much good it does us when he once more touches our lives and impels us to share his new life!  What then happens is that ‘we speak of what we have seen and heard’ (1 Jn 1:3).  The best incentive for sharing the Gospel comes from contemplating it with love, lingering over its pages and reading it with the heart.  If we approach it in this way, its beauty will amaze and constantly excite us.  But if this time is to come about, we need to recover a contemplative spirit which can help us to realize ever anew that we have been entrusted with a treasure which makes us more human and helps us to lead a new life.  There is nothing more precious which we can give to others.” 

During this Lenten season, may each of us recover a contemplative spirit that impels us to share the good news of our Lord’s saving grace with others.

In the peace of Christ,  

Bob