“Non nova sed noviter” By Fr. Roy Cimagala Chaplain Paref-Springdale School Lahug, Cebu City Email: roycimagala@gmail THAT’S Latin for “not new things but in a new way.” Talking about the New Evangelization, this Latin adage comes in very handy as it gives us a clear guideline on how to go about this task that is immensely necessary and urgent these days. As the Year of Faith grinds to its final sprint these coming months, we need to give fresh impulses to our duty to proclaim the gospel, the very same old gospel preached by Christ and now taught by the Church, but giving it new dressing, attuned to the temper of our times. We have to do this duty right, since what good would it be if we get fired up and do a lot of innovative and creative things and yet missing the point? It’s like a runner who runs the fastest among many other runners, but out of track. He will never reach the finish line. First of all, we need to be sure of our fidelity to the doctrine of our faith, understanding doctrine as Christ’s very own teaching that is handed down to us in tradition, in sacred Scripture and the magisterium of the Church. We need to acknowledge its essentially divine and supernatural character, without forgetting that it too has a human element that obviously is subject to the dynamism of our human condition. We need to study the doctrine well, convinced that we can never have enough of it, since it is both eternal and temporal, always in need of deepening and polishing and adapting and all that. It’s a living thing. We have to understand that this doctrine of our faith enables us to get in touch with God, and to see and understand things the way God sees and understands them. It’s indispensable for us to prosper in our prayer, and in the task of our own sanctification, and that of the others and of the world itself. It does not only give us some temporal advantages. It’s not meant so much for those, though it certainly does give us some temporal good. It’s meant more for our eternal goal, our supernatural end of union and identification with God whose image and likeness we are, and whose adopted children we also are. That’s why we should be eager to know the doctrine and excited to live it. When we study it, let’s realize where it comes from and where it is supposed to lead us. We are not simply dealing with theories and hypotheses. We are dealing with the eternal Word of God, as old as eternity and as new also as eternity. Given that character of the doctrine of our faith, we should realize then that it requires to be presented in ever new ways while remaining faithful in its substance. We should be wary of simply parroting doctrine until we make God’s word stale and dead as mud. This obviously means that we understand and assimilate the doctrine so well that we can talk about it freely and correctly, in the language and style that the people of today can understand and get moved. We need to learn how to proclaim the doctrine and God’s word to all kinds of people—young and old, rich and poor, intellectuals and manual workers, leaders and followers, etc. While it’s true that each one of us has his distinctive style and way of doing things, we should try our best to be open to all and quite versatile. We have to learn to be all things to all men. If the young want things done in rap or in R&B, for example, then let’s do it the way they want it. This is obviously possible only when we are truly with Christ, the Son of God who became man in order to reach us and to bring us back to God. There is no other way. Christ is the very source, pattern and end of any effort to adapt while remaining faithful. Let’s be clear about that. And so, we should realize that for any new evangelization to take off and fly, it has to be done in a positive and constructive way always, even when we have to point out some negative things. It should also be set in friendly and dialogal tones, never in an imposing and bitter way. What is also needed is that this new evangelization should be a constant thing, not just a passing idea. It should be done all the time and everywhere—especially in the media and now in the new areopagus of cyberspace.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 11:17:31 +0000
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