Today, in our Church, is known as World Mission Sunday.
Where were you in December 1975?
What were you doing?
That was fifty years ago so remembering may take some time!
On December 8th of 1975 the then Pope, Paul VI issued a document with Latin title “Evangelii Nuntiandi” The English title reads, ‘Evangelization in the Modern World.’
It is available on the Vatican website, www.vatican.va
In my opinion, the document has been one of the most radical documents to ever come from the Vatican.
Again, in my opinion, it is one of the least read and least attended to.
No. 21 of the document reminds us that the primary importance in evangelization is not proclamation but rather witness.
We do not primarily talk about the person of Jesus, rather we live the person of Jesus.
Evangelization, I suggest is not about proclamation but, rather imitation.
No 21 reads:
“Above all the Gospel must be proclaimed by witness. Take a Christian or a handful of Christians who, in the midst of their own community, show their capacity for understanding and acceptance, their sharing of life and destiny with other people, their solidarity with the efforts of all for whatever is noble and good. Let us suppose that, in addition, they radiate in an altogether simple and unaffected way their faith in values that go beyond current values, and their hope in something that is not seen and that one would not dare to imagine.
“Through this wordless witness these Christians stir up irresistible questions in the hearts of those who see how they live: Why are they like this? Why do they live in this way? What or who is it that inspires them? Why are they in our midst? Such a witness is already a silent proclamation of the Good News and a very powerful and effective one. Here we have an initial act of evangelization. The above questions will perhaps be the first many non-Christians ask whether they are people to whom Christ has never been proclaimed, or baptized people who do not practice, or people who live as nominal Christians but according to principles that are in no way Christian, or people who are seeking, and not without suffering, something or someone whom they sense but cannot name. Other questions will arise, deeper and more demanding ones, questions evoked by this witness which involves presence, sharing, solidarity, and which is an essential element, and generally the first one, in evangelization.”
I would like to suggest that giving witness to Christ today requires precisely that we build communities that are wide enough to hold our differences.
What we need is not a new technique, rather a new sanctity; not a cooler dress, rather a more inclusive embrace; not some updating of the gospel to make it more acceptable to the world, rather a more courageous radiating of its wide compassion; not some new secret that catches peoples’ curiosity, rather a way of following Christ that can hold more of the tensions of our world in proper balance so that everyone, irrespective of temperament and ideology, will find themselves better understood and embraced by what we hold most dear.