gpmj12
Active member
What happened to the New Evangelization? It was all the rage for a while. The term “new evangelization” has been cropping up in papal exhortations and Church documents since 1975. However, almost 60 years after Lumen Gentium, the Catholic Church is still struggling through an identity crisis, trying to process Vatican II even while the First World de-Christianizes. At least one person has openly wondered whether the Church is interested in the gospel; most likely, he’s not the only one. I’m sure we could answer that question if we all knew what the gospel message is supposed to be.
Recently, a regular Catholic Stand reader challenged me to “try dissecting the hundreds of reasons why the pews are bare.” There are actually hundreds of thousands of reasons why people are leaving Christianity to become “nones.” Their motives aren’t all intellectual, emotional, historical, political, or cultural. Their “nonversion” stories are as individual as they are, even though they most likely share points in common. Since doing full justice to the common issues would require more space than I can devote to even a series of essays (the tyranny of word counts), I’ll have to write the book “Ordinary Papist” wants.
In the meantime, I can address the problem of stopping the loss by commenting on the New Evangelization and what that task entails.
The Encounter with Christ
Evangelization comes not simply from grudging duty but from the eagerness to share Christ with others. Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction” (Deus Caritas Est 1). Likewise, Pope St. Paul VI stated that “it is unthinkable that a person should accept the Word and give himself to the kingdom without becoming a person who bears witness to it and proclaims it in his turn” (Evangelii Nuntiandi 24).
For many Catholics, however, that moment of transcendental grace hasn’t happened. Instead, “Catholic” and “Christian” function more as generic set identifiers—the latter more generalized than the first—than as expressions of a reality central to their lives. They aren’t eager to share the evangelion because they don’t really know what the “good news” is or why the news is good. It’s not something that possesses them, changing their whole approach to life. Not to say that their Catholic Christianity is meaningless or without influence, but instead that it competes with other meaningful and influential tribal identities for primacy.
And often loses.
Minus this experience of Christ, this transcendental “click” or “a-ha” moment, our religion becomes a mere club, a fraternal NGO with a predilection for arcane rituals and cheesy décor. Sure, it comes with some social benefits and helps some people struggling with addictions, but it’s nothing you’re excited to share with non-members. Without that experience, the partition between necessary and unnecessary doctrines becomes a distinction without a difference. You can attend Mass regularly yet still be a “practical atheist”—in Pope St. John Paul II’s words, “living as if God does not exist” (Evangelium Vitae 21).
The Kerygma Enigma
Evangelization properly starts with the kerygma, “the initial and essential proclamation of the gospel message,” as apologist Hector Molina explains it:
As evangelizers, we must first know the kerygma if we are going to effectively communicate it to others. Unfortunately, for many Catholics the kerygma remains an enigma. They may know certain aspects of it, “God loves you,” “Christ died for your sins,” but they are not able to confidently and systematically share this core message of salvation with others. … [This] is a challenge that must be addressed. It is not enough for pastors to tell their parishioners that they are called to evangelize. They need to teach them how to evangelize. [Emphasis in original]
But I would go further: The New Evangelization has to start with a re-evangelization of the Church, especially in the post-Christian West. This means a return to the basics, to a new emphasis on the original kerygmatic message of the apostles. By no means should we interpret this call to return to our kerygmatic foundation as an excuse to junk the doctrinal superstructure we’ve built upon it over the centuries. However, the superstructure is only as solid as the foundation on which it’s built. We can’t expect people who haven’t been evangelized to be catechized appropriately, let alone evangelize others.
Evangelization and the Real Presence
Evangelization, spreading the gospel message, is the Church’s primary mission in the world. By saying this, I don’t deny the Eucharist’s centrality to the Church’s life. However, people who haven’t been truly evangelized don’t “get” the Eucharist or the doctrine of the Real Presence. For years, many stayed in the Church because of social pressure and loyalties. They now leave because, for them, the Eucharist isn’t a sufficient reason to stay. And those raised without religion don’t seek the Real Presence out unless they know why they ought. Thus, the priority of the kerygmatic message:
But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? (Romans 10:14)
In a sense, the Church tends to presume that we who are born, baptized, and raised Catholic have already been evangelized. Consequently, our faith formation programs try to build the doctrinal house within us without checking to see if the kerygmatic foundation has been firmly laid. And so, we go through First Confession, First Communion, Confirmation, and even our (first) marriage ceremonies as rites of passage, often as not to humor our well-meaning families, although we’re unsure how much, if any of it we really believe. Especially the doctrine of the Real Presence.
Broken Souls in a Broken World
Just what is the gospel message at the center of evangelization?
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11)
We are all sinners. We are broken souls living in a world that’s broken as a consequence of human sin (Romans 3:9-18). As flawed, failing mortals, we are incapable of saving ourselves from ourselves. Christ came into the world not to confirm us in our special okayness or to restructure our systems but rather to lead us back into friendship with God. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have come to call not the righteous but sinners” (Mark 2:17). His ministry, sacrifice, and resurrection constitute the kerygma.
Evangelization, understood as the proclamation of the gospel message, is as necessary today as it was 2,000 years ago. But it must start within the Church’s walls before it can spread outside them. We can’t afford the presumption that those who are baptized as infants have already been sufficiently evangelized. Indeed, most doctrinal and liturgical quarrels wracking the Church speak to a fundamental disconnection from the kerygma, replacing faith in Christ with faith in political institutions and secular ideologies. We must return to St. Peter at Pentecost, proclaiming Christ’s sacrifice, salvation, and repentance (Acts 2:14-42).
Conclusion: Where Evangelization Begins
One bishop reportedly groused, “The apostles gave one sermon and made 3,000 converts. We give 3,000 sermons and don’t make a single convert.” For every convert we do make, according to the Pew Research Center, seven baptized Christians apostatize. Certainly, a return to the kerygma won’t stop the hemorrhage of believers by itself. However, reconnecting the Church with the kerygma will shed better light on other issues plaguing us and obstructing our mission. Indeed, returning to the kerygma will return us to our mission: evangelization, “making disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19-20).
One last thought: The gospel message is both universal and personal at the same time. If your first response to Christ is “What can we change?” rather than “How can I change?” you have not been evangelized. People must change before systems and institutions can change. The gospel is hard because it doesn’t allow us to pass the buck. It demands that we accept ownership of our sins before we can surrender them to Christ. If you want to change the world, start with the little piece of it right inside your heart. That’s where evangelization begins.
Recently, a regular Catholic Stand reader challenged me to “try dissecting the hundreds of reasons why the pews are bare.” There are actually hundreds of thousands of reasons why people are leaving Christianity to become “nones.” Their motives aren’t all intellectual, emotional, historical, political, or cultural. Their “nonversion” stories are as individual as they are, even though they most likely share points in common. Since doing full justice to the common issues would require more space than I can devote to even a series of essays (the tyranny of word counts), I’ll have to write the book “Ordinary Papist” wants.
In the meantime, I can address the problem of stopping the loss by commenting on the New Evangelization and what that task entails.
The Encounter with Christ
Evangelization comes not simply from grudging duty but from the eagerness to share Christ with others. Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction” (Deus Caritas Est 1). Likewise, Pope St. Paul VI stated that “it is unthinkable that a person should accept the Word and give himself to the kingdom without becoming a person who bears witness to it and proclaims it in his turn” (Evangelii Nuntiandi 24).
For many Catholics, however, that moment of transcendental grace hasn’t happened. Instead, “Catholic” and “Christian” function more as generic set identifiers—the latter more generalized than the first—than as expressions of a reality central to their lives. They aren’t eager to share the evangelion because they don’t really know what the “good news” is or why the news is good. It’s not something that possesses them, changing their whole approach to life. Not to say that their Catholic Christianity is meaningless or without influence, but instead that it competes with other meaningful and influential tribal identities for primacy.
And often loses.
Minus this experience of Christ, this transcendental “click” or “a-ha” moment, our religion becomes a mere club, a fraternal NGO with a predilection for arcane rituals and cheesy décor. Sure, it comes with some social benefits and helps some people struggling with addictions, but it’s nothing you’re excited to share with non-members. Without that experience, the partition between necessary and unnecessary doctrines becomes a distinction without a difference. You can attend Mass regularly yet still be a “practical atheist”—in Pope St. John Paul II’s words, “living as if God does not exist” (Evangelium Vitae 21).
The Kerygma Enigma
Evangelization properly starts with the kerygma, “the initial and essential proclamation of the gospel message,” as apologist Hector Molina explains it:
As evangelizers, we must first know the kerygma if we are going to effectively communicate it to others. Unfortunately, for many Catholics the kerygma remains an enigma. They may know certain aspects of it, “God loves you,” “Christ died for your sins,” but they are not able to confidently and systematically share this core message of salvation with others. … [This] is a challenge that must be addressed. It is not enough for pastors to tell their parishioners that they are called to evangelize. They need to teach them how to evangelize. [Emphasis in original]
But I would go further: The New Evangelization has to start with a re-evangelization of the Church, especially in the post-Christian West. This means a return to the basics, to a new emphasis on the original kerygmatic message of the apostles. By no means should we interpret this call to return to our kerygmatic foundation as an excuse to junk the doctrinal superstructure we’ve built upon it over the centuries. However, the superstructure is only as solid as the foundation on which it’s built. We can’t expect people who haven’t been evangelized to be catechized appropriately, let alone evangelize others.
Evangelization and the Real Presence
Evangelization, spreading the gospel message, is the Church’s primary mission in the world. By saying this, I don’t deny the Eucharist’s centrality to the Church’s life. However, people who haven’t been truly evangelized don’t “get” the Eucharist or the doctrine of the Real Presence. For years, many stayed in the Church because of social pressure and loyalties. They now leave because, for them, the Eucharist isn’t a sufficient reason to stay. And those raised without religion don’t seek the Real Presence out unless they know why they ought. Thus, the priority of the kerygmatic message:
But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? (Romans 10:14)
In a sense, the Church tends to presume that we who are born, baptized, and raised Catholic have already been evangelized. Consequently, our faith formation programs try to build the doctrinal house within us without checking to see if the kerygmatic foundation has been firmly laid. And so, we go through First Confession, First Communion, Confirmation, and even our (first) marriage ceremonies as rites of passage, often as not to humor our well-meaning families, although we’re unsure how much, if any of it we really believe. Especially the doctrine of the Real Presence.
Broken Souls in a Broken World
Just what is the gospel message at the center of evangelization?
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11)
We are all sinners. We are broken souls living in a world that’s broken as a consequence of human sin (Romans 3:9-18). As flawed, failing mortals, we are incapable of saving ourselves from ourselves. Christ came into the world not to confirm us in our special okayness or to restructure our systems but rather to lead us back into friendship with God. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have come to call not the righteous but sinners” (Mark 2:17). His ministry, sacrifice, and resurrection constitute the kerygma.
Evangelization, understood as the proclamation of the gospel message, is as necessary today as it was 2,000 years ago. But it must start within the Church’s walls before it can spread outside them. We can’t afford the presumption that those who are baptized as infants have already been sufficiently evangelized. Indeed, most doctrinal and liturgical quarrels wracking the Church speak to a fundamental disconnection from the kerygma, replacing faith in Christ with faith in political institutions and secular ideologies. We must return to St. Peter at Pentecost, proclaiming Christ’s sacrifice, salvation, and repentance (Acts 2:14-42).
Conclusion: Where Evangelization Begins
One bishop reportedly groused, “The apostles gave one sermon and made 3,000 converts. We give 3,000 sermons and don’t make a single convert.” For every convert we do make, according to the Pew Research Center, seven baptized Christians apostatize. Certainly, a return to the kerygma won’t stop the hemorrhage of believers by itself. However, reconnecting the Church with the kerygma will shed better light on other issues plaguing us and obstructing our mission. Indeed, returning to the kerygma will return us to our mission: evangelization, “making disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19-20).
One last thought: The gospel message is both universal and personal at the same time. If your first response to Christ is “What can we change?” rather than “How can I change?” you have not been evangelized. People must change before systems and institutions can change. The gospel is hard because it doesn’t allow us to pass the buck. It demands that we accept ownership of our sins before we can surrender them to Christ. If you want to change the world, start with the little piece of it right inside your heart. That’s where evangelization begins.