Let us do it today! Sometimes I wonder if there are people in today’s world who are really concerned about generating processes of people-building, as opposed to obtaining immediate results which yield easy, quick short-term political gains, but do not enhance human fullness. [51] These convictions have pastoral consequences that we are called to consider with prudence and boldness. I encourage everyone to apply the guidelines found in this document generously and courageously, without inhibitions or fear. [181] Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 161. The Second Vatican Council stated that, like the ancient patriarchal Churches, episcopal conferences are in a position “to contribute in many and fruitful ways to the concrete realization of the collegial spirit”. He dwells until the end of the ages in the tabernacle of the Church’s faith. What is real gives way to appearances. Nor can we overlook the fact that in recent decades there has been a breakdown in the way Catholics pass down the Christian faith to the young. Whenever our eyes are opened to acknowledge the other, we grow in the light of faith and knowledge of God. Preparation for preaching is so important a task that a prolonged time of study, prayer, reflection and pastoral creativity should be devoted to it. Today we are seeing in many pastoral workers, including consecrated men and women, an inordinate concern for their personal freedom and relaxation, which leads them to see their work as a mere appendage to their life, as if it were not part of their very identity. We all have our likes and dislikes, and perhaps at this very moment we are angry with someone. [187] In a culture which privileges dialogue as a form of encounter, it is time to devise a means for building consensus and agreement while seeking the goal of a just, responsive and inclusive society. Sometimes we are tempted to be that kind of Christian who keeps the Lord’s wounds at arm’s length. [144] By her very nature the Church is missionary; she abounds in effective charity and a compassion which understands, assists and promotes. Evangelization is attentive to scientific advances and wishes to shed on them the light of faith and the natural law so that they will remain respectful of the centrality and supreme value of the human person at every stage of life. 275. [47] Citing Saint Augustine, he noted that the precepts subsequently enjoined by the Church should be insisted upon with moderation “so as not to burden the lives of the faithful” and make our religion a form of servitude, whereas “God’s mercy has willed that we should be free”. 35. Fifty years after the Second Vatican Council, we are distressed by the troubles of our age and far from naive optimism; yet the fact that we are more realistic must not mean that we are any less trusting in the Spirit or less generous. This conviction enables us to maintain a spirit of joy in the midst of a task so demanding and challenging that it engages our entire life. The human person is always situated in a culture: “nature and culture are intimately linked”. Those who have fallen into this worldliness look on from above and afar, they reject the prophecy of their brothers and sisters, they discredit those who raise questions, they constantly point out the mistakes of others and they are obsessed by appearances. Mk 1:45); they were amazed at his teachings (cf. To pray for a person with whom I am irritated is a beautiful step forward in love, and an act of evangelization. Jesus Christ truly lives. We can no longer trust in the unseen forces and the invisible hand of the market. Th., II-II, q. Spaeny plays Lily, the new witch in town, who represents water. We need to let ourselves be evangelized by them. Even people who can be considered dubious on account of their errors have something to offer which must not be overlooked. My mission of being in the heart of the people is not just a part of my life or a badge I can take off; it is not an “extra” or just another moment in life. The central message is what the author primarily wanted to communicate; this calls for recognizing not only the author’s ideas but the effect which he wanted to produce. Pastoral activity needs to bring out more clearly the fact that our relationship with the Father demands and encourages a communion which heals, promotes and reinforces interpersonal bonds. Nor is peace “simply the absence of warfare, based on a precarious balance of power; it is fashioned by efforts directed day after day towards the establishment of the ordered universe willed by God, with a more perfect justice among men”. Evangelization also involves the path of dialogue. [147] Fifth General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops, Aparecida Document, 29 June 2007, 380. Yet if he does not take time to hear God’s word with an open heart, if he does not allow it to touch his life, to challenge him, to impel him, and if he does not devote time to pray with that word, then he will indeed be a false prophet, a fraud, a shallow impostor. 39. Of course, we will never be able to make the Church’s teachings easily understood or readily appreciated by everyone. Various subcultures exist side by side, and often practise segregation and violence. This means that it does not err in faith, even though it may not find words to explain that faith. By so doing we will know the missionary joy of sharing life with God’s faithful people as we strive to light a fire in the heart of the world. Gal 5:22). Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. 167. 62. This is an ongoing and developing process, of which the Holy Spirit is the principal agent. The global need not stifle, nor the particular prove barren. 32. It is the Risen Christ who tells us, with a power that fills us with confidence and unshakeable hope: “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev 21:5). It is felt to be a threat, since it condemns the manipulation and debasement of the person. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. Others have left simplicity behind and have imported a rationality foreign to most people. New patterns of behaviour are emerging as a result of over-exposure to the mass media… As a result, the negative aspects of the media and entertainment industries are threatening traditional values, and in particular the sacredness of marriage and the stability of the family”.[58]. The preacher has the wonderful but difficult task of joining loving hearts, the hearts of the Lord and his people. If the homily goes on too long, it will affect two characteristic elements of the liturgical celebration: its balance and its rhythm. Here I can repeat the insightful observation of Pope Paul VI: “In the face of such widely varying situations, it is difficult for us to utter a unified message and to put forward a solution which has universal validity. Jesus himself “rejoiced in the Holy Spirit” (Lk 10:21). Some may find these suggestions self-evident, but I consider it helpful to offer them as a way of emphasizing the need to devote quality time to this precious ministry. It is dangerous to dwell in the realm of words alone, of images and rhetoric. May we never remain on the sidelines of this march of living hope! The same Spirit everywhere brings forth various forms of practical wisdom which help people to bear suffering and to live in greater peace and harmony. [57] John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Africa (14 September 1995), 52: AAS 88 (1996), 32-33; ID. Let us live them sine glossa, without commentaries. Being human means “being at the same time son and father of the culture to which one belongs”. The poor and the poorer peoples are accused of violence, yet without equal opportunities the different forms of aggression and conflict will find a fertile terrain for growth and eventually explode. I implore him to come and renew the Church, to stir and impel her to go forth boldly to evangelize all peoples. Today in many places we hear a call for greater security. If we succeed in expressing adequately and with beauty the essential content of the Gospel, surely this message will speak to the deepest yearnings of people’s hearts: “The missionary is convinced that, through the working of the Spirit, there already exists in individuals and peoples an expectation, even if an unconscious one, of knowing the truth about God, about man, and about how we are to be set free from sin and death. In all the baptized, from first to last, the sanctifying power of the Spirit is at work, impelling us to evangelization. III, Oxford, 1979, 204. Here I have chosen to present some guidelines which can encourage and guide the whole Church in a new phase of evangelization, one marked by enthusiasm and vitality. Sometimes we are tempted to find excuses and complain, acting as if we could only be happy if a thousand conditions were met. We can also share many ethical convictions and a common concern for justice and the development of peoples. One form of prayer moves us particularly to take up the task of evangelization and to seek the good of others: it is the prayer of intercession. 145. Youth ministry, as traditionally organized, has also suffered the impact of social changes. It has to be faced. Rather than experts in dire predictions, dour judges bent on rooting out every threat and deviation, we should appear as joyful messengers of challenging proposals, guardians of the goodness and beauty which shine forth in a life of fidelity to the Gospel. Positive preaching always offers hope, points to the future, does not leave us trapped in negativity. This stifling worldliness can only be healed by breathing in the pure air of the Holy Spirit who frees us from self-centredness cloaked in an outward religiosity bereft of God. When certain categories of reason and the sciences are taken up into the proclamation of the message, these categories then become tools of evangelization; water is changed into wine. [167] The poor person, when loved, “is esteemed as of great value”,[168] and this is what makes the authentic option for the poor differ from any other ideology, from any attempt to exploit the poor for one’s own personal or political interest. 219. But the current model, with its emphasis on success and self-reliance, does not appear to favour an investment in efforts to help the slow, the weak or the less talented to find opportunities in life. I. When Saint Paul approached the apostles in Jerusalem to discern whether he was “running or had run in vain” (Gal 2:2), the key criterion of authenticity which they presented was that he should not forget the poor (cf. Welfare projects, which meet certain urgent needs, should be considered merely temporary responses. We must never forget that they “profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, who will judge humanity on the last day”. Far from a content and happy tiredness, this is a tense, burdensome, dissatisfying and, in the end, unbearable fatigue. The homily can actually be an intense and happy experience of the Spirit, a consoling encounter with God’s word, a constant source of renewal and growth. In catechesis too, we have rediscovered the fundamental role of the first announcement or kerygma, which needs to be the centre of all evangelizing activity and all efforts at Church renewal. Demands involving the distribution of wealth, concern for the poor and human rights cannot be suppressed under the guise of creating a consensus on paper or a transient peace for a contented minority. 51. 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. To interpret a biblical text, we need to be patient, to put aside all other concerns, and to give it our time, interest and undivided attention. In the first, people get caught up in an abstract, globalized universe, falling into step behind everyone else, admiring the glitter of other people’s world, gaping and applauding at all the right times. While it is true that certain Christian beliefs are unacceptable to Judaism, and that the Church cannot refrain from proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Messiah, there exists as well a rich complementarity which allows us to read the texts of the Hebrew Scriptures together and to help one another to mine the riches of God’s word. [87] Grace supposes culture, and God’s gift becomes flesh in the culture of those who receive it. Here I do not wish to discuss at length the activities of the different pastoral workers, from bishops down to those who provide the most humble and hidden services. 8 cons. Whoever wants to preach must be the first to let the word of God move him deeply and become incarnate in his daily life. Benedict XVI has said that “closing our eyes to our neighbour also blinds us to God”,[209] and that love is, in the end, the only light which “can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working”. Each Christian and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the “peripheries” in need of the light of the Gospel. I am interested only in helping those who are in thrall to an individualistic, indifferent and self-centred mentality to be freed from those unworthy chains and to attain a way of living and thinking which is more humane, noble and fruitful, and which will bring dignity to their presence on this earth. 230. Mt 25:5ff.). We may be sure that none of our acts of love will be lost, nor any of our acts of sincere concern for others. Mk 2:16) without worrying about being thought a glutton and a drunkard himself (cf. For the Lord has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his suffering ones” (49:13). The word of God constantly shows us how God challenges those who believe in him “to go forth”. Greater possibilities for communication thus turn into greater possibilities for encounter and solidarity for everyone. People in every nation enhance the social dimension of their lives by acting as committed and responsible citizens, not as a mob swayed by the powers that be. Mt 13, 24-30) and can always pleasantly surprise us. [4] Fifth General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops, Aparecida Document, 29 June 2007, 360. [206] John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte (6 January 2001), 52: AAS 93 (2001), 304. [38] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio, 11. God’s word teaches that our brothers and sisters are the prolongation of the incarnation for each of us: “As you did it to one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). In his mission of fostering a dynamic, open and missionary communion, he will have to encourage and develop the means of participation proposed in the Code of Canon Law,[34] and other forms of pastoral dialogue, out of a desire to listen to everyone and not simply to those who would tell him what he would like to hear. [104] Nor is it devoid of content; rather it discovers and expresses that content more by way of symbols than by discursive reasoning, and in the act of faith greater accent is placed on credere in Deum than on credere Deum. So why cloud something so clear? And so the biggest threat of all gradually takes shape: “the gray pragmatism of the daily life of the Church, in which all appears to proceed normally, while in reality faith is wearing down and degenerating into small-mindedness”. 228. Progress of science structures of the dignity of each with “ observing ” all that the word be no for. 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