Apostles for Today
January 2015
_________________
_________________
During
Christmas we contemplated the mystery of the Incarnation, we focused our gaze
on Emmanuel, God with us, his presence has filled us with profound joy and hope
and renewed our strength for the New Year. Let us contemplate him constantly so
that he be “Jesus, a joy ever new, a joy
which is shared” in our personal and communal experience.
Seeing
ourselves as part of the whole Church which evangelises - Spiritual Preparation
for the General
Congress
of the Union in July 2015
“Being Church means being God’s people, in accordance
with the great plan of his fatherly love. This means that we are to be God’s
leaven in the midst of humanity. It means proclaiming and bringing God’s
salvation into our world, which often goes astray and needs to be encouraged,
given hope and strengthened on the way. The Church must be a place of mercy
freely given, where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged
to live the good life of the Gospel” (Evangelii Gaudium, 114).
On this path
of our spiritual preparation for the General Congress, let us think about
ourselves as Church in today's time. In the midst of a contemporary world
characterized by a permanent socio-cultural-religious transition, a marked pluralism
and a predominance of individualism, how is the Church to be understood today?
How does she see herself? As an organic and hierarchical institution, a
multinational with a famous religious leader; a structure or a building in our neighbourhood,
a place where people gather to pray and profess a faith; a privileged group
that practises a religion? These questions will evoke many responses, both in
those who are part of her and those who are distanced from her. Ultimately, the
question arises: is the Church a response to the lack of meaning and the
suffering of those who have been losing hope and the joy of living?
The Church is, first and foremost, a people on
pilgrimage towards God, a mystery which has its roots in the Trinity, because “the mystery of the Trinity is the source,
model and goal of the mystery of the Church: ‘a people united by the unity of
Father, Son and Holy Spirit’, called in Christ ‘like a sacrament or as a sign
and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of
the whole human race” (Aparecida Document,
155). This mystery of the Church which also exists concretely in history in a
pilgrim and evangelising people (EG 111), a people that is chosen and called by
God. “Jesus did not tell the apostles to
form an exclusive group, an elite group. Jesus says, “Go and make all peoples
my disciples” (Mt 28:19)” (EG 113), so the Church is sent by Jesus Christ
as a sacrament of salvation offered by God, and through her evangelising activity,
cooperates as an instrument of divine grace to proclaim salvation to all (EG
112) and continues the saving mission of Jesus Christ in history.
“The Church
exists to evangelise” (Paul VI, Evangelii
Nuntiandi, 14) and what is her programme of evangelisation? “The programme already exists. It is the plan
found in the Gospel and the living Tradition. It focuses, ultimately, in Christ
himself, who is to be known, loved and imitated, to live in the Trinitarian
life and with him transform history until its fulfilment in the heavenly
Jerusalem. It is a program that does not change with shifts of times and
cultures, but takes account of time and culture for a true dialogue and
effective communication” (John Paul II, Novo
Millennio Ineunte, 29).
All the baptised participate in this programme, since “in all the baptized, from first to last, the
sanctifying power of the Spirit is at work, impelling us to evangelization ”
(EG119) given that:
“in virtue of
their baptism, all the members of the People of God have become missionary
disciples (cf. Mt 28:19). All the baptized, whatever their position in the
Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelization”
(EG 120).
Let us remember the words of St. Vincent Pallotti on
the universal apostolate, which encourage us to an active participatory co-responsibility
in the task of evangelisation: “Therefore
let every Catholic who lives in the Church of Jesus Christ be consoled because,
whether priest or lay person, if with their talents, learning, wisdom, capacities,
relationships, profession, words, material and worldly goods, and if with
nothing else at least with their prayers they do whatever they can so that faith
in Jesus Christ be spread throughout the world, and charity be rekindled among
believers and spread throughout the world, they will acquire the merit of the
apostolate, and all the more they employ for this purpose money, belongings,
talents, works, prayers ...” (OOCC III 145-146).
Francis reminds us that every baptized person is an evangeliser!:
“it would be insufficient to envisage a
plan of evangelization to be carried out by professionals while the rest of the
faithful would simply be passive recipients. The new evangelization calls for
personal involvement on the part of each of the baptized” (EG 120) This personal
involvement involves “a kind of preaching
which falls to each of us as a daily responsibility. It has to do with bringing
the Gospel to the people we meet, whether they be our neighbours or complete
strangers. This is the informal preaching which takes place in the middle of a
conversation, something along the lines of what a missionary does when visiting
a home. Being a disciple means being constantly ready to bring the love of
Jesus to others, and this can happen unexpectedly and in any place: on the
street, in a city square, during work, on a journey” (EG 127)
It is important that the Church
grow as an evangelising agent, that she be constantly evangelised so that the
entire Church may evangelise: therefore “we
ought to let others be constantly evangelizing us. But this does not mean that
we should postpone the evangelizing mission; rather, each of us should find
ways to communicate Jesus wherever we are”(EG 121). Also, we should keep in
mind that the Holy Spirit equips us for this, enriching us with different
charisms, gifts to renew and build up the Church, which “are not an inheritance, safely secured and entrusted to a small group
for safekeeping; rather they are gifts of the Spirit integrated into the body
of the Church, drawn to the centre which is Christ and then channelled into an
evangelizing impulse. A sure sign of the authenticity of a charism is its
ecclesial character, its ability to be integrated harmoniously into the life of
God’s holy and faithful people for the good of all”(EG 130).
Conclusion:
The Church understood as the entire People of God which
evangelises must be constantly evangelised, called to live in the image of the
Trinitarian community, enriched by the gifts of the Spirit and with the active
personal involvement of each one of the baptized.
Questions
for personal and/or community reflection:
•
Do I
feel myself to be part of the People of God, chosen and called by him to
continue the saving mission of Jesus Christ in history?
•
As a
baptized person I am called to grow as an evangelizer and to be constantly
evangelised. Do I know, love and imitate Jesus Christ? Am I willing to
establish relations of communion with others? By my actions do I contribute to
the transformation of my surroundings (family, community, work)? Do I allow
others to evangelise me?
•
As a
baptized person, am I an evangelising person who explicitly proclaims Jesus
Christ? How am I doing in this?
•
Am I
using the gifts I have received from God to serve the community, to build up
the Church?
Concrete
action:
In this coming year, let us recognize the ecclesial
spaces where we can evangelise and be evangelised in order to put the gifts we
have received from the Lord at the service of the Church.
Diana
María Guzmán, UAC,
National
Formation Promoter,
Colombia.
____________________________________________________
Segretariato Generale, Unione dell’Apostolato
Cattolico
Piazza San Vincenzo Pallotti 204, Roma, Italia uac@uniopal.org
No comments:
Post a Comment