Canadian Bishops’ “Essential Elements of Evangelization Today” is for all Catholics who desire to understand better & respond more zealously to their call to evangelize the modern world. It was written prior to the release of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel, but its approach & recommendations are similar, while providing a uniquely Canadian perspective. It acknowledges the context of a pluralist society, with different religions & belief systems. This pluralism, poses vast new challenges for our call to proclaim the Gospel in our world today. We cannot carry out the task of evangelization, assuming there’s a common Christian culture in the society around us. Instead, we’re in a situation where there are many other beliefs & philosophies. This is particularly the case in Canada, due to high levels of immigration from countries with a non-Christian background. In today’s pluralist society, the Christian faith is one option among others claiming the same character of truth & demanding the same adherence. We need to rediscover the vigor of the early Church & be inspired by its action, so that our proclamation of the Gospel will be credible & compelling to a world enamored with authenticity, broken by divisions & marked by inequalities. The core of the document considers how the proclamation of the Gospel should be guided. It should be oriented by 3 Greek words; martyria, that is, witness; koinonia, that is, communion or fraternity & diakonia, that is, service. The commission also insisted on the importance of each person’s living of the faith. “No disciple can communicate the Gospel in a credible way if he or she has not had a real interior encounter with Jesus. It’s also necessary to live authentically. The document referred to Bishop Francois de Laval, Canada’s first bishop, who said, “Let there be nothing in our lives or behavior that would seem to contradict what we say, or that would trouble the minds & hearts of those we want to win for God.” Although this was written before the publication of Pope Francis “Joy of the Gospel,” the text contains a reflection on the need for joy. “Joy is at the heart of the Christian experience,” it said, quoting Pope Benedict in his 2012 message for World Youth Day. The world, Pope Paul VI commented: “is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, for the Good News not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient, or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervor, who have first received the joy of Christ & are willing to risk their lives so that the Kingdom may be proclaimed & the Church established in the midst of the world.
Posted on: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 02:48:21 +0000
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