1. Legend has it that St. John the Evangelist lived his final days in Ephesus. His parishioners would often say to him – When you preach, you’re always talking about love. John would answer them – What else is there to talk about? God is love, his mercy is love in the face of our misery; his forgiveness is really the final form of love. God so loved the world that he sent us his Son to be our Savior. Did he not tell us – “Love one another as I have loved you”? Does not St. Paul remind us that love of neighbor is fulfillment of the law, and is it not true, as John of the Cross reminds us, that in the end we will be judged on how well we have loved?
2. Although he’s only been the Holy Father for one year, many of us – I suspect – would like to say to him – Pope Francis, you’re always talking about evangelization and many of us here are still striving to figure out what it is all about. The Pope would probably respond – Where have you been all my life? What else is there to do? God loves each of us personally, and God loves all of us together as his New Testament people. God wills only what is for our well-being. Do we not love God because God has first loved us? This is the good news Jesus brings us, and what do we do with good news? Do we hide it under the bed? No, we can hardly wait until we tell the good news to all who would listen to us.
3. Father Hehir and I have been reflecting with you on Pope Francis’ Exhortation “The Joy of the Gospel”, discussing together the Church’s missionary transformation, the crisis within the Church of a communal commitment to such a transformation, the proclamation of the Gospel and the social dimensions of evangelization. This evening we focus on Chapter 5. The Pope entitled this last and very brief chapter – Spirit-filled Evangelizers. Chapters 1 to 4 have told us what evangelization is all about; now we focus on what evangelizers are and ought to look like. As we do so, we can profitably keep in mind an old adage that tells us – “Doing follows being” – what we do flows from who we are. My task is to look at this chapter from a doctrinal point-of-view, our being Christian, our sharing in Trinitarian life. Father Hehir will address it from an ethical perspective – if we are truly Christian, what should we be doing?
4. At this point, I should say a brief word about the title given to our efforts this evening – “The Christian of Tomorrow”. It is one of those titles that seemed most attractive weeks before Fr. Hehir and I had put our pens to paper. Many of us perhaps have heard the remark of theologian Karl Rahner – “The Christian of tomorrow will be a mystic or he or she will fall away from the Gospel”. We could have called these thoughts – The Christian in the Early Centuries of the Church, centuries of martyrdom – those marvelous men and women mentioned down the years in the First Eucharistic Canon – Ignatius, Alexander, Marcellinus, Peter, Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia, all martyrs for the faith, all witnesses to their faith. I think also of the bishop, acknowledging the difficulties of living the faith in a secular age, who said – “I expect to die in my bed, but my successor will probably die in prison, and his successor may be martyred”. But let us return to Rahner’s comment. We must not let some of our terminology get in the way of our understanding. We’ve been talking in this series of talks about entering into the mystery of Christ, encountering Christ in his mysteries. The Greek word for mystery is “mysterion”. The Latin translation of mysterion is sacramental. A mystic is one who by the grace of the Holy Spirit has made great progress in entering into the mystery of Christ through the sacraments of the Church. A mystic is a living mystery, a living witness to the truth of faith. What then does it mean to bear witness? To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up. Being a witness means being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one’s life would make absolutely no sense whatsoever – if God did not exist. (Suhard)
5. Paragraph 259 says it all – “This expression ‘spirit-filled evangelizers’ means evangelizers fearlessly open to the working of the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost, the Spirit made the apostles go forth from themselves and turned them into heralds of God’s wondrous deeds, capable of speaking to each person in his or her own language. The Holy Spirit also grants the courage to proclaim the newness of the Gospel with boldness (parrhesía) in every time and place, even when it meets with opposition. Let us call upon him today, firmly rooted in prayer, for without prayer all our activity risks being fruitless and our message empty. Jesus wants evangelizers who proclaim the good news not only with words, but above all by a life transfigured by God’s presence.” The Holy Father immediately adds – “How I long to find the right words to stir up enthusiasm for a new chapter of evangelization, full of fervor, joy, generosity, courage, boundless love and beautiful attraction! Yet I realize that no words of encouragement will be enough unless the fire of the Holy Spirit burns in our hearts. A spirit-filled evangelizer is one who is guided by the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit is the very soul of the Church, that Divine One who quickens, who brings the Church to life, so that the Church can be true to its call to evangelize.” Before offering us a few constructive suggestions, the Pope adds – “I once more invoke the Holy Spirit and implore the Holy Spirit to come and renew the Church, to stir and impel the Church to go forth boldly in the evangelization of all peoples.” I would offer a parenthetical remark. Pope Francis is not acting as a college basketball coach, walking up and down the side of the court in this month of madness, urging and cajoling his players onto victory. Not at all. Forget the emotions for a while. We’re talking about faith; we’re talking about God’s love; we’re talking about the risen Christ and we are asking with Ignatius of Loyola – What have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Christ? What ought I to be doing for Christ? We’re talking about the Holy Spirit. St. John Chrysostom reminds us – If the Holy Spirit did not exist, we would not be able to say “Jesus is Lord”. If the Holy Spirit did not exist, we would not be able to pray and say “Our Father who art in heaven”. If the Holy Spirit did not exist, there would not be pastors and teachers in the Church. Obviously, if there were no Holy Spirit we wouldn’t be talking this evening about evangelization.
6. Francis observes “spirit-filled evangelizers” are evangelizers who pray and who work. He tells us – “Mystical notions without solid missionary outreach is of no help, nor are dissertations or social or pastoral practices which lack a spirituality which can change hearts.” What is needed is a spirituality which can cultivate an interior life, the mystical or sacramental life, which in turn can give a Christian meaning to commitment and action. The primary reason for evangelization is the love of Jesus, an experience of salvation which urges us to ever-greater love of the Lord Jesus. What kind of love, the Pope adds, would not feel the need to speak of the beloved, to point him out, to make him known? What are the ingredients that make up such a spirituality? First of all, personal encounter with the saving love of Jesus will help us grow in union with the risen Christ. This is why the Holy Father says to us in an earlier paragraph – “I never tire of repeating the words of Benedict XVI which takes us to the very heart of the Gospel – ‘Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction’.” As we enter more and more into the mystery of Christ, who died and rose again for our salvation, we become more aware of the mysterious actions of Christ and his Holy Spirit in our daily efforts to live the Gospel. All of this can become possible as we seek the Lord in prayer. Sometimes we tend to think of our lives in the Lord like the marquee at the movie theater – “My life with God, starring me; also playing – God.” It is God the Father through his Son and in the Holy Spirit who is center stage in spirituality. We come in somewhere in the third act.
7. These paragraphs in Chapter 5 of the Pope’s document may seem overwhelming. What the Holy Father is asking us to do is to develop in prayer and in charity a personal spirituality that will make us true followers of Christ and therefore true evangelizers. We have to realize that this takes time; we have to realize the limits within which we can be evangelizers for others – in the home, at the university, in the office, in the marketplace, in whatever is our calling in life. If it might be of help, I can say that I have on my bathroom mirror a maxim that reminds me each day – “Keep things simple, stupid; don’t complicate the meditation”. With strangling brevity, I’ll make a few suggestions which may prove helpful so that we might begin to practice what Francis is preaching. Let me begin with a few words from an article by Fr. Philip J. Murnion:
“Catholic Americans, like the majority of their fellow citizens, are a believing people in spite of the impact of secularism. We continue to profess faith in a personal God, in Jesus Christ, and in the work of the Holy Spirit. The American Catholic continues to believe in life after death, in heaven and hell, and in prayer as a way of being in communion with God. On the other hand, some fellow Catholics in the rest of Europe have considerably less faith in those realities that are explicitly supernatural. Study after study, comparing the United States with Western Europe, finds that people in the United States, and Catholics in particular, remain people for whom God is important and religion is significant. We would, nonetheless, be foolish to deny the significant problems we face in living according to that faith. Profession of faith is not the same as living the faith; it takes spirituality to turn the profession of faith into a life of faith. And spirituality is our challenge.” My point is – Profession of faith is one thing; living the faith is something else. It takes spirituality to turn the profession of faith into a life of faith. Our challenge, then, is spirituality.
What do we mean by spirituality? Chapter 8 in Paul’s Letter to the Romans speaks of those who live by the Spirit or live according to the flesh. Everyone at this moment in history, living on planet earth, is in one of these two categories. Living by the Spirit means a spirit-guided life, a God-informed life. Living according to the flesh has nothing to do with our bodies. Living according to the flesh means living under the power of sin. If you were to join the Carmelite order, the Jesuits, the Trappistines, your spirituality in most ways would come from living the Rule of your religious order. What about the diocesan priests, and most of all what about our Catholic laymen and women who love the Lord and want to follow him wherever he leads them. Priest and people need a spirituality but must construct one under the grace of the Spirit. It would be our way of living a life of faith, hope and charity under the grace of the Holy Spirit so as to put into practice the Lord’s law of love, the Lord’s law of love of neighbor, even the neighbor who does not love us in return. How can we formulate such a rule of life? It could very well begin somewhere at the beginning of the day with the grace-inspired intention of making one’s Morning Offering, that is, offering one’s prayers, works and sufferings of this day so as to join them with the prayers, works and suffering of the Lord Jesus made truly present for us at every Eucharist, at every Eucharistic Communion. The challenges are to find some time for reading and praying with the Scriptures. This really takes time. It takes patience to grow in praying the Scriptures. Furthermore, from my brief stay so far at St. John’s Parish, I see all sorts of resources available – the priests who serve you, your long-time Pastoral Associate, the various groups that meet for prayer and reflection. It could include some time, but very slowly, to move through the pages of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It means preparing well for the Sunday Liturgy as we encounter Christ in his mysteries. The Sunday Liturgy tells us how we celebrate our faith; the Catechism will help explain the meaning of our celebration. Working with a Spiritual Director could be most helpful.
8. As we all work hard over the next thirty years to respond to what Pope Francis asks of us, we could well keep in mind the words of St. Cyprian 1500 years ago from North Africa – “It is with Christ that we journey and we walk with our steps in his footprints. He it is who is our guide and the burning flame which illumines our paths; Pioneer of salvation, he it is who draws us to heaven, toward the Father and promises success to those who seek in faith. We shall one day be that which he is in glory, if by faithful imitation of his example we become true Christians, others Christs.”
9. What about the question with regard to the Christian of tomorrow? Karl Rahner has suggested that the Christian of tomorrow will be a mystic, or he or she will fall away from the faith of the Church. Pope Francis calls the Christian of tomorrow a “spirit-filled evangelizer”, a God-directed evangelizer fearlessly open to the interior working of the Holy Spirit. I would phrase things this way – The Christian of tomorrow will be a follower of Christ who is transformed by the Holy Spirit through a personally developed, disciplined, practical spirituality, and who thus becomes, always under God’s grace in both being and doing, a true Christian quite literally by the grace of our divine adoption or another Christ.
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