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Illustration: The Four Evangelists by Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678)
POPE FRANCIS GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Peter’s Square – Wednesday, 8 March 2023
Catechesis. The passion for evangelization: the apostolic zeal of the believer. 6.
The Second Vatican Council. 1. Evangelization as an ecclesial service
‘One receives faith and transmits faith’
A reading from the 1st letter of Paul to the Corinthians (I Cor. 15:1-3)
Brothers and sisters I would remind you, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand,through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In the last catechesis we saw that the first “Council” in the history of the Church (i.e. the Council of Jerusalem c 48-50) – (a Council, like that of the Second Vatican Council) – was called in Jerusalem beause of a question related to evangelization, that is, the proclamation of the Good News to non-Jews – it was thought that only the Jews should bring the proclamation of the Gospel. (See footnote on Acts of the Apostles chapter 15 below)
In the twentieth century, the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council presented the Church as the pilgrim people of God in time and by its missionary nature (Decr. Ad gentes, 2 – ‘The pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature, since she derives her originfrom the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit, in accordance with the decree of God the Father’).
What does this mean?
There is like a bridge between the first and the last Council, in the sign of evangelisation, a bridge whose architect is the Holy Spirit.
Today we listen to the Second Vatican Council, to discover that evangelising is always an ecclesial service, never solitary, never isolated, never individualistic.
Evangelisation always takes place in the ecclesia, that is, in community and without proselytising because that is not evangelisation.
The evangeliser always transmits what he or she has received.
St Paul was the first to write this: the Gospel which he proclaimed and which the communities received and in which they remained firm is the same which the Apostle himself had received (see. 1 Cor 15:1-3 above).
One receives faith and transmits faith.
This ecclesial dynamic of transmitting the message is binding and guarantees the authenticity of the Christian proclamation.
Paul himself writes to the Galatians: “If we ourselves, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema” (Galatians 1:8). This is beautiful and this is good for many visions that are in vogue …
The ecclesial dimension of evangelisation is therefore a criterion for verifying apostolic zeal.
It is a necessary check, because the temptation to go “alone” is always there, especially when the road becomes impassable and we feel the weight of commitment. Equally dangerous is the temptation to follow easier pseudo-ecclesiasticall paths, to adopt the worldly logic of numbers and surveys, to count on the strength of our ideas, programmess, structures, “relationships that count”.
This is not good, these must help a little, but the strength that the Spirit gives you to proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ, to proclaim the Gospel, is fundamental. Other thins are secondary.
Now, brothers and sisters, let us place ourselves more directly at the school of the Second Vatican Council, by re-reading some numbers of the Decree Ad gentes (AG), the document on the missionary activity of the Church.
These texts of the Second Vatican Council retain their full value even in our complex and pluralist context.
First of all, this document, Ad gentes, invites us to consider the love of God the Father, as the source, that “ creates us by his immense and liberating mercy and, moreover, calls us by grace to share in his life and glory. This is our vocation. Out of pure generosity, he has poured out and continues to pour out his divine goodness, so that, as he is the Creator of all, so he may also be ‘all in all’ (1 Cor 15:28), uniting his glory and our happiness” (n. 2).
This passage is fundamental, because it says that the Father’s love is addressed to every human being. God’s love is not only for a small group, but for everyone. Take this word to heart: everyone, everyone, no one excluded, so says the Lord. And this love for everyone is a love that reaches every man and woman through the mission of Jesus, the Mediator of salvation and our Redeemer (cf. AG, 3), and through the mission of the Holy Spirit (cf. AG, 4), who, the Holy Spirit, works in everyone, both in the baptised and in the non-baptised. The Holy Spirit is at work!
The Council also recalls that it is the Church’s task to continue the mission of Christ, who was “sent to bring the Good News to the poor; for this reason – continues the document Ad gentes – it is necessary that the Church, always under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, follow the same path that he followed, that is, the path of poverty, obedience, service and self-sacrifice until death, from which then, rising, he then rose victorious” (AG , 5). If it remains faithful to this “path”, the Church’s mission is “the manifestation, that is, the epiphany and the realization, of the divine plan in the world and in history” (Ad gentes, 9).
Brothers and sisters, these brief words also help us to understand the ecclesial meaning of the apostolic zeal of each disciple-missionary.
Apostolic zeal is not an enthusiasm, it is something else, it is a grace of God, which we must preserve.
We must understand the meaning because in the pilgrim and evangelising People of God there are no active subjects and passive subjects.
There are not those who preach, those who proclaim the Gospel in one way or another, and those who remain silent.
“Every baptised person”, says Evangelii Gaudium, “whatever his function in the Church and whatever the degree of instruction in the faith, is an active subject of evangelisation” (Ap. Evangelii Gaudium, 120).
Are you a Christian? “Yes, I was Baptised…” And do you evangelise? “But what does that mean…?”
If you do not evangelise, if you do not bear witness, if you do not give that witness of the Baptism that you have received, of the faith that the Lord has given you, you are not a good Christian.
Every baptized person, by virtue of the Baptism he has received and the incorporation into the Church which it implies, participates in the mission of the Church and, in her, in the mission of Christ the King, Priest and Prophet. Brothers and sisters, this mission “is one and unchanging in every place and in every situation, even if it is not carried out in the same way according to changing circumstances” (AG, 6).
This invites us not to become sclerotic or petrified; it frees us from this restlessness which is not of God.
The missionary zeal of the believer is also expressed in the creative search for new ways of proclaiming and witnessing, and for new ways of meeting the wounded humanity of which Christ took upon himself. In short, new ways of serving the Gospel and of serving humanity. Evangelization is service.
If a person calls himself/herself an evangeliser and does not have this attitude, this heart of a servant, and thinks he to be master, he is not an evangelizer, no… He/she is a poor person.
Returning to the well-intentioned love of the Father and to the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit does not confine us to spaces of static personal tranquillity.
On the contrary, it leads us to recognise the gratuitousness of the gift of the fullness of life to which we are called, this gift for which we praise and thank God.
This gift is not only for us, but also to give it to others.
And it also leads us to live ever more fully what we have received, to share it with others, with a sense of responsibility and to walk together along the often tortuous and difficult paths of history, awaiting its fulfilment with vigilance and diligence.
Let us ask the Lord for this grace, to take this Christian vocation in our hands and thank the Lord for this treasure which he has given us,. And try to communicate it to others.
Footnote: The Council at Jerusalem (acts of the Apostles – Chapter 15)
1 Certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders. 3 So they were sent on their way by the church, and as they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, they reported the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the believers.[a] 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. 5 But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses.” 6 The apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter. 7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “My brothers,[b] you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers. 8 And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; 9 and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. 10 Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? 11 On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” 12 The whole assembly kept silence, and listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 After they finished speaking, James replied, “My brothers,[c] listen to me. 14 Simeon has related how God first looked favorably on the Gentiles, to take from among them a people for his name. 15 This agrees with the words of the prophets, as it is written, 16 ‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen; from its ruins I will rebuild it, and I will set it up, 17 so that all other peoples may seek the Lord – even all the Gentiles over whom my name has been called. Thus says the Lord, who has been making these things 18 known from long ago.’ 19 Therefore I have reached the decision that we should not trouble those Gentiles who are turning to God, 20 but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled[e] and from blood. 21 For in every city, for generations past, Moses has had those who proclaim him, for he has been read aloud every sabbath in the synagogues.”
