Category Archives: Adult Faith Formation

In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis reminds us of the good news that God is offering salvation each and every person and that we are called to live out that salvation in the life of the community that we call the church.  “God has found a way to unite himself to every human being in every age.  He has chosen to call them together as a people and not as isolated individuals.  No one is saved by himself or herself, individually, or by his or her own efforts” (§ 113).  While we are each saved by God’s good grace, we are called to live this out in our lives as members of God’s own community.  So it is in the context of being a community that we need to understand what it means to be an evangelizer.

To evangelize is to spread the good news; it is to share what we have found to be good and true and life-giving with all those around us.  The Christian church was founded as a self-replicating community.  In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus sends out his disciples to preach and baptize: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).  Each of us, as members of the community of disciples of Jesus, is called to participate in spreading the good news and inviting others into relationship with God through Jesus.

Some in the church are tasked with particular roles in the evangelizing mission of the church.  The clergy are responsible for preaching and ensuring that we have access to the sacraments; teachers make sure that the faith is handed on to new generations.  We even have missionaries who carry the gospel message to places where it has not yet been heard or embraced.  But these are just a part of the overall evangelizing mission of the church.  The church as a whole is called to be evangelizing; the church as a whole has a mission to spread the good news and invite others into relationship with God.

This means that we cannot rely on those whose official job description is to preach and teach.  Pope Francis reminds us:

“In virtue of their baptism, all the members of the People of God have become missionary disciples.  All the baptized, whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelization, and it would be insufficient to envisage a plan of evangelization to be carried out by professionals while the rest of the faithful would simply be passive recipients.  The new evangelization calls for personal involvement on the part of each of the baptized.  Every Christian is challenged, here and now, to be actively engaged in evangelization; indeed, anyone who has truly experienced God’s saving love does not need much time or lengthy training to go out and proclaim that love” (§120).

We are all a part of the evangelizing mission of the church.  And this means that we cannot sit in the pews of our church and wait for people to show up to hear the gospel.  We are tasked – by Jesus – to go out to the world and invite people into relationship with God.  We do this through our everyday witness to our faith; we do this through the conversations and relationships we have; we do this by reaching out to those who need our help.  But we have to go out to do it.  To be an evangelizing church means that we are a church that goes out into the world in order to draw the world closer to God.  It is an awesome task!

Jesus’ life, death and resurrection could be summarized as a resounding “YES” in answer to this question!

Jesus’ encapsulates His teaching as “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength” and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31, Matt. 22:37, Luke 10:27). The first instruction, concerning our relationship with God, comes from Deuteronomy 6:5. The second, concerning our relationship to each other, is from Leviticus 19:18.

In the Church, this balanced relationship between God and our neighbor is often explained with reference to the crucifix. The vertical piece of wood represents our relationship with God and the horizontal is our relationship with our neighbor or “brother”. Helpfully, just in case anyone chooses to be selective as to who “my neighbor” or “my brother” actually is, then, Jesus tells us the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).

So what would Jesus think of Pope Francis’ question, “How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?” I find it interesting that this appears in a paragraph (53) discussing the commandment “Thou shalt not kill”.

In the section entitled “No to an economy of exclusion,” the Pope also calls into question the “trickle-down theories” advocated by those who support “The Market” and “Laissez Faire” economics espoused by thinkers like Adam Smith and Ayn Rand. Those whose consciouses make them uncomfortable often cite: “The poor will always be with you” (Mark 14:7). However, it is enlightening to note that Jesus is echoing Deuteronomy 15:11: “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be open-handed towards your fellow Isrealites who are poor and needy in your land.” Indeed, the Laws given by God to the People continuously make special provision for the poor along with the “widows and orphans.”

For many in the Church, our faith life is about our relationship with God in heaven and saving our souls. We also pray for the souls of our loved ones. However, we are often uncomfortable with those others in the Church who feed the hungry, visit those in prison, clothe the naked and serve the sick. This kind of activity may be acknowledged as “corporeal works of mercy” but is often also labelled – in a disparaging way – as mere “social work” and is seen as taking attention away from piety.

In Romans, St. Paul talks about being justified or saved by faith, but how do we know that we actually have faith? That one isn’t deluded or deluding one’s self?  Jesus said that “by their fruit you will know them” (Matt. 7:16-20) and, in the Parable of the Sower, Jesus praises “hearing the word, receiving it, and bringing forth fruit” (Mark 4:20). This seems to suggest that, as far as Jesus is concerned, belief results in “fruit” and that faith will yield good fruit.

The book of James builds on this by asking the very practical question: “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?” Hence, the author concludes that “Faith by itself, if it not accompanied by action, is dead.” He also says “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.”

In all this I am guided by what Jesus says about judging between the sheep and goats (Matt. 25:31-46). Those whom He says are blessed by His Father and receive the kingdom are those who fed Jesus when He was hungry, invited Him in when they saw Him as a stranger, clothed Him when they saw Him naked, cared for Him when they saw Him sick, and visited Him in prison. For as Jesus says, “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for Me.”

In conclusion, the Pope named himself as ‘Francis’ recalling one of the most beloved and acknowledged  ‘good’ people who ever lived.  For many of us, St. Francis is the closest example of what Jesus would have been like. In the early 13^th century St. Francis was part of a non-materialism reform movement sweeping through Europe. His followers were to focus on poverty, simplicity, chastity and obedience and he emphasised the humanity of Jesus. St. Francis, known for his joyfulness, recalled for many the joyful early Christian communities we know from the Acts of the Apostles where all shared what they had in common and no one was in need. Their interdependence, on each other and therefore on God, resulted in joyfulness.

In his critique of our acceptance of poverty and injustice, Pope Francis is saying to us:  Perhaps the “something” which we are all searching for in life is the realization that we are our brother’s keeper and accepting that truth is the joy of the gospel.

In his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis’ view of women is ambiguous, showing sympathetic acknowledgement of abuse (211, 212, 214) women often face, while also becoming entangled in stereotypical generalizations elsewhere (46-49,103,139-141, 284-288) where womanhood is always associated with motherhood. The Pope says that, “the legitimate rights of women to be respected, based on the firm conviction that men and women are equal in dignity, present the Church with profound and challenging questions which cannot be lightly evaded.” However, he then goes on to affirm that “the reservation of the priesthood to males, as a sign of Christ the spouse who gives himself in the Eucharist, is not a question open to discussion.”

The Pope also says, “it can prove especially divisive if sacramental power is too closely identified with power in general.” He also notes that the idea that ordination simply confers power not only robs the Church of valuable contributions from women, it presents a misguided view of the priesthood and the sacraments. “The configuration of the priest to Christ the head – namely, as the principal source of grace – does not imply an exaltation which would set him above others,” Pope Francis writes. “In the Church, functions do not favor the superiority of some vis-a-vis the others.”

Perhaps, a problem lies in the fact that the Roman Catholic Church’s organizational structure, with the Pope as head, is a hierarchical structure and, no matter what he says about power not being “understood as domination, but the power to administer the sacrament of the Eucharist,” the exclusion of women based on their gender from being a member of the priesthood, and hence from decision making, seems to many women and men to be a problematic distortion of power.

The Pope acknowledges that “we need to create still broader opportunities for a more incisive female presence in the Church,” including “the possible role of women in decision-making in different areas of the Church’s life.” But within a hierarchical structure what does this actually mean? Women may lead Religious Education in a Parish, the Outreach Program, perhaps even the Finance Committee, but the priest is always the boss and, according to the Pope, the boss will always be male.

If we look to the Bible, we can find a very different description of the relationship between men and women.  In the Gospels, for example, women are often key figures in the evolution of Jesus’ mission.  Mary’s ‘Fiat’ and ‘Magnificat’ are key to any understanding of discipleship; her giving birth to Jesus is akin to the moment of Consecration at Mass as she brings Jesus to the world. Elizabeth’s understanding and joy as she welcomes Mary, recognizing the baby in Mary’s womb as her ‘Lord’ without doubt or hesitancy, is the blueprint for all followers of Christ.  Anna heralds Jesus. Mary encourages Jesus to begin His mission at Cana. The Syrophoenician woman challenges Jesus’ understanding of His mission. The Samaritan woman is the first person to hear Jesus say He is the Messiah and she is the first missionary. A woman anoints Jesus for His burial while His apostles are still arguing about who will be the greatest. Martha declares that Jesus is the Messiah. Women support the itinerant disciples and accompany Jesus to Jerusalem and the Cross. Women are the witnesses to (and thus the link between) His death, burial and resurrection. Mary Magdalene is the Apostle to the Apostles. Women receive the Holy Spirit along with men at Pentecost. St. Paul talks of the key leadership roles played by Prisca, Lydia, Phoebe, Chloe, and many other women. Obviously motherhood is not the only role women fulfilled in the early Church.

Interestingly Jesus said, “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother” (Matt 12:50) and “blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it” (Luke 11:28). Mary is the mother of God, but what is most important about her is that she did the will of Jesus’ Father in heaven; she heard the word of God and observed it. Mary is important because she was a disciple and did what was asked of her.

In conclusion, where does Evangelii Gaudium leave women? I suggest that the Catholic Church will take women seriously in all their potentiality (and not just as mothers) when the Church returns to the radical urgency of the first generation of Christians. To do so we need to rid the Church of the domestication that occurred when Christians realized that the ‘Second Coming’ was not going to happen immediately. If it wasn’t coming quickly then that necessitated that the Church had to ‘fit into’ the prevailing cultural and social norms of the Roman Empire which meant taking on the prevailing cultural views of the place of women in the Church. There is nothing wrong with these traditional roles – as mother and consecrated virgin — but they can deprive the Church all the other talents that God has given women. I am reminded of the Parable of the Talents and the judgment of the servant given one talent who hid it in the ground, unused, awaiting the Master’s return.  Will the Church be judged, in a similar way, for hiding, unused, the talents of generations of women?

Pope Francis begins his Apostolic Exhortation (Evangelii Gaudium) saying that “the joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus.” But is this true? Is this your experience of the people who claim to be Christians in your life? The Pope then says that “those who accept God’s offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness,” but are the Christians you know “aglow with the Spirit,” as St. Paul puts it (Romans 12:11)? Or are they as sinful, sorrowful, empty and lonely as everyone else?

Yet the Pope himself clearly shines forth with joyfulness, as did Mother Theresa of Calcutta. When I met Jean Vanier, I felt his joy as if it were an energy filling the room. So I know that the joy, which the Pope speaks of, actually exists! But why is it not experienced in the lives of all Christians? Pope Francis is very aware of this, admitting that “there are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter.”

Perhaps we once felt excited by Jesus and committed ourselves to living God’s will for us, but we now feel lifeless and end up resentful, angry and listless as Pope Francis writes? We still go to Mass, perform corporal and spiritual works of mercy, donate to Church appeals. But is being a Christian really about a ‘to do list’ where we earn heaven via those in need (on whom we perform our works of mercy)? Have we “lost our first love” (Revelation 2:4)?

The Pope’s answer is to “invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting Him encounter them.” If I don’t think I require this invitation then I need to ask myself how joyful I am. Would anyone meeting me know I was a Christian?

In case we doubt the importance of joy in the life of a Christian, the Pope gives example after example from scripture about how joy is the sign of being close to God. The Pope doesn’t quote his fellow Jesuit, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who said “Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God,” but he could have! However Pope Francis does assure us that our joy in our relationship with God is not one sided. He reminds us that God rejoices “over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing, as on a day of festival” (Zeohaniah 3:17) or, as a scripture scholar once told me, the last segment of this quotation can also be translated as “every time God thinks of you, God dances for joy!”

What examples do we have from scripture of persons whose response to God is filled with joy? Jesus of course, but also King David! In Paul’s sermon at Antioch he refers to the statement made by God concerning David: “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will” (Acts 13:22, cf Isaiah 13:13-14). I suggest that this beautiful compliment, “a man [or woman] after My own heart,” should characterize every Christian. David sinned, but he honestly admitted his faults and returned to God asking for forgiveness. He trusted God, he was grateful; he sought out God’s will and was obedient. He was filled with joy as when he danced (2 Samuel 6:14) as the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Jerusalem, much to the embarrassment of his wife! David and God were in a close relationship with each other which was constantly being renewed.

As humans we will always stray but “whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that He is already there, waiting for us with open arms,” as Pope Francis says, “with a tenderness which never disappoints but is always capable of restoring our joy, He makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start anew.” As our Savior says of himself, “Behold I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5). “How good it feels to come back to Him whenever we are lost!” Pope Francis says with evident joy.

This joy is longed for by all of us! So when we feel genuine joy in someone, we are attracted, we want what they have. Joy is for sharing, joy is pure energy which makes us feel alive! Without it life is flat as if we are living by rote, existing rather than living! Evangelization is the sharing of this joy and as St. Francis of Asisi said “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” May our joy speak for us as it attracts everyone we meet to Jesus!