Question 4.87

4.87 Today what are the stakes in the new evangelization?

In his apostolic exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi, dedicated to evangelization in the modern world, Paul VI had already tried to address this major topic. Then John Paul II again gave the necessary impetus to the Church with his very extensive teaching on the subject. When the peoples in Eastern Europe had just regained their freedom, he decided to give to the world the encyclical Redemptoris missio in order to set a demanding horizon, in particular an urgent call to conversion.

Indeed, when we observe today the many deficiencies of faith, the eclipse of the sense of God and of man, the lack of real familiarity with the teaching of Jesus Christ, the detachment of some countries from their Christian roots, and what John Paul II called a “silent apostasy”, it is urgent to think about a new evangelization. This movement presupposes that we go beyond mere theoretical knowledge of the Word of God; we must rediscover personal contact with Jesus.

It is important to give individuals the opportunity for the experience of close encounters with Christ. Without such a heart-to-heart conversation, we are fooling ourselves if we think that people will follow the Son of God in the long term.

The importance of this personal experience reminds me of a saying of the Desert Fathers that left a deep impression on me during my biblical studies in Jerusalem. Translated from Coptic, it expresses the importance of the indispensable interior life in being a Christian: “One monk met another and asked him: ‘Why do so many abandon the monastic life? Why?’ The other monk replied: ‘Monastic life is like a dog chasing a rabbit. It runs after the rabbit, barking; many other dogs, hearing the bark, join it, and they all run together after the rabbit. But after a while, all the dogs that run without seeing the rabbit wonder: Where are we going? Why are we running? They become tired, get lost, and stop running, one after the other. Only the dogs that see the rabbit continue to pursue it to the end, until they catch it.’” The moral of the story is: Only those whose eyes are fixed on the person of Christ on the Cross persevere to the end. …

Many circumstances and deep motives, or the people around us, may have led us to follow Jesus. Then comes the moment of maturity, when only our personal experience of Christ guides us. This personal encounter is decisive for the rest of our life. Saint Paul experienced this moment on the road to Damascus, just as Saint Augustine did under a fig tree in Cassiciacum. And so the former could say: “To me to live is Christ” (Phil 1:21). He added: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).

The Gospel is not a theoretical path; it must not become a sort of school reserved for the elite. The Church is a plainly evident path to the Risen Lord.

Without this union with Christ, it will not be possible to bridge the gap between his Word and the people, especially in Western countries. New laws take as their point of departure anthropological foundations that are opposed to the teaching of Jesus; they are the clear indication of the burning questions that now separate men from Christ.

I think that the immense economic, military, technological, and media influence of a godless West could be a disaster for the world. If the West does not convert to Christ, it could end up making the whole world pagan; the philosophy of unbelief feverishly seeks followers in new parts of the globe. In this sense, we are facing an atheism that is proselytizing more and more. The pagan culture is determined to extend the domain of its struggle against God. In order to bring about their rebirth, the former countries of the old Christian tradition need to reenergize by embarking on a new evangelization.

When I think of the Holy Ghost missionaries of my childhood, I have no doubt that they were men who had given everything. For them, intellectual knowledge of Christ was not enough in itself. They had totally abandoned themselves into God’s hands and considered themselves merely clumsy, inadequate instruments of his Son. They were certain that evangelization remains essentially the work of God.

The Father acts and wants to involve us in such a way that our activities, our concerns, and our missionary labors are theandric, so to speak, done by God with our commitment and the involvement of our whole being.

In reality, when we commit ourselves to the new evangelization, it is always a form of cooperation with God. Saint Paul says the same thing: “God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 2:13).

Evangelization lies in our will and our ability to be together with God, while generously offering him our humble collaboration. It is founded on prayer and on the real presence of God in us: “The Lord himself has spread [the] gospel throughout the world”, and “all who belong to the Lord are to drink it in, each according to his capacity”, Saint Augustine says in his Commentary on the Gospel of John.

Benedict XVI established a close connection between love and faith in all missionary work. At the start of the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization, commenting on the hymn for Terce, he made a connection between confessio (profession of faith) and caritas. The confessio involves our being, our heart, our lips, and our intellect. But the confessio is not something purely abstract and intellectual. And so he said: “St. Bernard of Clairvaux told us that God, in his revelation, in the history of salvation, gave our senses the possibility to see, to touch, to taste revelation. God. . . has entered the world of the senses, and our senses must be filled with this taste, with this beauty of God’s Word, which is true. . . [Thus] we must be penetrated by the ‘confessio’, which has to ‘personare’; the melody of God must [set the tone for] our being in its entirety.” And so confessio and caritas are the two pillars of the new evangelization.

In the current situation, there is a burning question on our lips. How can we help people to rediscover the faith? With the utmost vigor, Saint John solemnly proclaims: “What we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked upon and touched with our hands, what we have contemplated, we proclaim also to you” (cf. 1 Jn 1:1). We cannot say who Christ is by means of intellectual concepts; what is needed is an experience that is both spiritual and “physical” at the same time. Of course, the catechism for children and theology for seminarians are phases of basic apprenticeship. Therefore, to prepare for the new evangelization, John Paul II decided to issue a Catechism of the Catholic Church, entrusting the project to Joseph Ratzinger as editor-in-chief. The entire doctrine of the Church is found in this document. And we have an urgent obligation, says Saint Athanasius, to study “the ancient tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church, which was revealed by the Lord, proclaimed by the apostles, and guarded by the Fathers. For upon this faith the Church is built, and if anyone were to lapse from it, he would no longer be a Christian either in fact or in name.” But the faith is strengthened by way of the heart, through a personal encounter with and experience of Jesus. Every day we must once again choose Christ as our guide, our light, and our hope. Baptism demands some sort of daily actualization. I am not afraid to recall that spiritual combat is first of all a war against the evil that is within us.

In this struggle, I think that bishops have a primordial role; I am completely in agreement with Pope Francis when he asks the successors of the apostles to be permanently on the front lines of evangelization. The Holy Father rightly thinks that Rome should not replace the bishops in certain matters. They always have a threefold responsibility in the implementation of the new evangelization: to sanctify, govern, and teach. For example, there was a time when the means of communication were very slow; Rome was very far away, and the bishops had to go ahead fearlessly, while taking their risks. Let us not forget that at a time when a brush with martyrdom was an everyday experience for Christians, Saint Paul told Timothy to exhort in season and out of season. . . Think also of Saint Augustine, who taught every day!

My God, how right Francis is to denounce “airport bishops”! Incidentally, missionary congregations ought to reflect on the dangers to which they expose their young members by making them fly like butterflies from one country to another. These young religious could settle down to superficiality and tourism, having no roots, incapable of establishing real ties with any Christian community. They accumulate experiences, but they could not be the pastors of any flock.