Evangelization: Another
Word For Welcome
by Frank P. DeSiano, CSP
It’s Saturday morning. You woke up a little later than usual, and you’re lounging around in your bathrobe when the front doorbell rings.
You’re not expecting anyone, not on Saturday morning. You peek through the curtains and see two eager people, certainly overdressed for this early on a Saturday. You cringe, “It’s the Jehovah’s Witnesses again,” you think – or the Mormons – or the Seventh-Day Adventists.
You don’t answer the door. You think, “Maybe they’ll go away.” And usually, if no one answers, they will.
But what if you opened it? What do you imaging would happen? Who would be talking to you? Would it become a Scripture-quoting contest or a smiling match to see who was the most sincere? And, more important, what do they want from you?
Perhaps they’d be content to ask you a few religious questions like “Have you accepted Jesus as your Savior?” Perhaps it would go no further. For some people, evangelization is bringing people to a here-and-now experience through which they acknowledge Jesus as their personal Savior. For others, it may mean getting you enrolled in a set of classes or a Bible-study group. For yet others, it may be to give you a Bible.
But would that be all? Is that what evangelization is all about?
Called To Evangelize
From a Catholic point of view, evangelization has to be more than that. We are called to be a community that worships and celebrates the Eucharist together, a community that breaks bread and gathers around a common table. Even if some do not think of evangelization this way, Catholics certainly do.
When Catholics evangelize, we do not invite people to a here-and-now experience but to a process that leads to many experiences. And we invite them not merely to an individual conviction but to a communal celebration that contains the powerful proclamation of Scripture and the profound consummation of Communion.
For this reason, no Catholic can evangelize in isolation from his or her parish community. Whenever we talk to another, whatever we share with another, we are ultimately inviting them to join us around the table of the Lord to eat and drink the Lord with us.
This is why Catholic evangelization must revolve around the parish, the local community where the Eucharist is celebrated. We are representatives of that community, calling people to experience God with us in that community.
Thus Catholic individuals do not evangelize – Catholic parishes do. Individuals evangelize in the name of their parish.
Not In My Parish!
I spend much of my time helping parishes to evangelize better. And a good deal of my energy goes into overcoming the resistance of Catholics to the word “evangelization” and even to the experience – even through this is what a parish is all about.
It’s easy to understand this resistance. Catholics can’t identify with those religious evangelizers who interrupt people’s Saturday mornings. We are more private and proper about our faith. After all, in America religion is not a public thing. Except for a few safe occasions like invocations at graduation and blessings at civic dinners, we prefer to keep our faith under wraps.
Further, we feel that evangelization is what people like Billy Graham do. Catholics don’t do it. And we feel even more that evangelization has a tainted reputation. It’s never gotten beyond the Elmer Gantry phase. For all the esteemed evangelists like Billy Graham, we cynically chuckle at the foibles of those who have abused their ministry.
But does evangelization have to mean intruding on people on Saturday morning? And does it have to be sullied with the reputations of those who used their ministry to exploit the public? Cannot evangelization mean something holy and decent? And will not Catholics, according to our traditions and customs, evangelize differently?
We Are All Evangelizers
Catholics have always evangelized to some extent. Who hasn’t heard of the Legion of Mary visiting the “fallen aways”? Didn’t Father always have an instruction class for the curious? And haven’t we always had converts?
Indeed, we have. But today the impetus of evangelization, summarized by Pope Paul VI in his 1975 apostolic exhortation, On Evangelization in the Modern World, clarifies the fact that we are all evangelizers, that evangelization is the primary mission of the Church, and that evangelization has as much to bring us as it does the unbelievers and the “fallen aways.” We all need to hear God’s Good News again and afresh. Evangelization has to do with us, our children, our relatives, our neighbors and friends, even as much as it has to do with the pagans of Africa or Asia.
An important element of Catholic evangelization is respect for the religious heritage of others. Evangelization is not proselytizing. We proselytize when we undermine the faith of others in an attempt to get them to join our faith. Evangelization does not attack the faith of others. Rather, it calls everyone to know the Good News of salvation, even those who come to church every Sunday, and focuses especially on those who have given up their faith and those who have no religious family.
We can all think of relatives and friends who are alienated from their faith. We also know people who have no church but express curiosity or have questions about life’s meaning. We can make a list of people whose lives could be renewed by belonging to a community of faith. These are the people evangelization is trying to reach.
Overcoming Resistance
If parishes do not evangelize, they fail their basic mission. Even more, they are in danger of becoming comfortable “clubs” rather than true communities. And, most dire of all, their very future as parish church is threatened.
If sixty percent of those who worship as Catholics are over sixty-five, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that in twenty or thirty years, parishes will have less than half of their present membership unless they reach out to others, build up their communities, and demonstrate the Good News of their lives.
But first parishes need to get past their reluctance about evangelization.
The basic task is to see evangelization not as something strange or “kooky” but rather as a part of everyday Christian and Catholic life. Once we realize this, our hesitancy will diminish.
The next step is to realize that, through RCIA and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, parishes are already reaching out to the unchurched and to those alienated from Christ. In each parish, people are being initiated into the Church. Maybe it’s only two, maybe forty-two. And in each parish, people return to the Church through the Sacrament of Reconciliation (what used to be called “confession”). Evangelization basically means doing things to increase the readiness of people for RCIA or for Reconciliation. It’s not a strange or weird activity – it’s basic parish ministry.
The final step is to realize that, like it or not, we are always evangelizing. People know we are Catholic. They see us going to church. Our words, deeds, and gestures are either welcoming signs or scandals. We have no choice but to evangelize. Our only choice is to evangelize well or to do it poorly.
Getting Started
Fifteen years after Paul VI’s On Evangelization in the Modern World, it’s time for us to start taking our Catholic mission seriously, to put hesitancy aside and take up evangelization, not by proselytizing or being disrespectful but simply by welcoming others to the life we share. Here are a few suggestions.
Read On Evangelization in the Modern World. You can get copies of this from the U.S. Bishops or the Paulist National Catholic Evangelization Association. (The Evangelization Office of the Diocese of Cleveland has made copies available for you. Address below.)
Pray daily for people who are away from the Church and for those who have no religious faith. This will give you a chance to get others interested in evangelization.
Become informed. Contact your local diocesan office of evangelization. If your own Bishop doesn’t have an office, contact the office in the next diocese. Ask them for literature about evangelization and program outlines. You can also contact the Paulist national office or the National Council for Catholic Evangelization.
Talk to your pastor. Give him literature. Give him articles like this one. Offer to help in the parish’s evangelization effort.
Talk to your parish council or advisory board about evangelization. Ask what they are doing for the unchurched and the inactive Catholic.
Explore the possibility of starting an evangelization committee in your parish. Your diocesan office can help.
Start inviting friends and neighbors to your church. Some may be sensitive or touchy about worship services, but you can invite them to socials and other gatherings. Learn how not to be shy about your faith.
Be optimistic. It’s the Lord who is drawing people to Himself. We are only God’s instruments, only a means for making God’s grace present to others. And yet, what a dignity that is.
Make Room At The Table
Every parish has hundreds of inactive Catholics, and within the boundaries live hundreds of people who have no church of their own. Every parish has the greatest gift to share: the faith and grace to assemble around the Lord’s table, to hear God’s Word proclaimed, and to share in the sacred meal.
The table is not set for us to keep to ourselves. It is a table meant to be shared, even as it has been shared with us. Indeed, how can it be the Lord’s meal unless it is shared?
Let’s make room around the table. Let’s invite people to our parishes. Let’s make our parishes places we’re proud to have people visit. And let’s love others by offering them the one unbreakable sign of love we have received: the grace of our faith.
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To obtain printed copies of this brochure contact:
Office of Evangelization
Catholic Diocese of Cleveland
1031 Superior Avenue, #751
Cleveland, Ohio 44114
(216) 696-6525, Ext. 4530
“Originally published in Liguorian, May, 1990, reprinted with permission from Liguorian, One Liguori, MO 63057.”