WHAT IS EVANGELISATION? PART 2

Fr Billy Swan

Below is the second part of a three part series on evangelisation. It is the talk I gave at the recent 'Hearts on Fire' conference in Belfast on 25th June. To access Part 1, click below:

WHAT IS EVANGELISATION? - PART 1

And so, what is evangelisation and what does it look like? It is not a word that is part of our language and to be described as ‘evangelical’ might sound a bit like a ‘jump for Jesus Protestant’ but not someone who is Catholic. We also have another problem in that most of us are not comfortable with the notion of evangelising. It pushes us out of our comfort zones and to go public on what most of us keep private. A recent survey in the US showed that only 5% of Catholics saw it as their responsibility to bring others to the faith which was the lowest of all denominations. Many of us also lack confidence and fear it will lead us to confrontation.

Another problem is how the term ‘evangelisation’ is understood or mis-understood. I do some writing for Bishop Robert Barron’s ‘Word on Fire’ website. Last November we did some work here in Belfast and in Omagh with a wide audience of laity, catechists, priests and religious. From all the meetings we had, one question kept coming up, over and over again: ‘Why do more of the baptised not evangelise?’ The answer became obvious in that most of us don’t know what the concept means. This is a big problem for if evangelisation leads to faith and faith is the key to a renewed Church, and if most of us don’t know what evangelisation means, then what’s at stake is the future of the Christian faith in Ireland. All the more reason then, to clarify what evangelisation is and what it looks like.

The term ‘evangelisation’ comes from the Greek word evangelion which is found at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel where it states: ‘The beginning of the Good News (evangelion) about Jesus Christ the Son of God’ (Mark 1:1). At the end of the Gospel of Mark, the risen Lord says to his disciples: ‘Go out to the whole world; Proclaim the Good News (evangelion) to all creation’ (Mark 16:15).

Mark’s Gospel was the earliest of the Gospels and was written in Rome. He borrows the term evangelion or Good News, from the Roman Imperial usage of the term to announce a military victory. When the armies had won a battle and the enemies of Rome had been defeated, the victory was announced as ‘evangelion’ or ‘Good News’. As part of that declaration, the emperor was declared as a type of demi-god with the title ‘Lord’. Mark turns this on its head in a radically subversive way by announcing the superior victory of Christ because of his death and resurrection. So instead of the imperial ‘Kaiser Kyrios’ or ‘Caesar is Lord’, Mark announces ‘Christos Kyrios’ or ‘Jesus is Lord’. No longer was ultimate allegiance due to Caesar but to Christ. Here is the real ‘Good News’ – Christ’s victory in the battle of life over death, light over darkness, goodness over evil and hope over despair. Here is the victory of Christ for all time and places that we Christians believe in and that gives birth to a hope that is constantly new. In the words of Pope St Paul VI in ‘Evangelii Nuntiandi’, at the heart of evangelisation is a ‘clear proclamation that, in Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, who died and rose from the dead, salvation is offered to all men and women, as a gift of God’s grace and mercy’ (EN, 27).

Therefore, to be Christian is to be evangelical. It means that we have a fire within us to share the gift of faith in every situation and to live in such a way that attracts others to faith in him too. It is to bear witness to the unshakable hope that flows from our faith in Christ’s victory over every form of sin and darkness.

In the words of Pope Francis in ‘The Joy of the Gospel’, the basic content of evangelisation ought to be that: “Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you”. He added that evangelisation is simply sharing our friendship with Christ, noting that doing so ‘is the most beautiful thing we have to tell’.

Here is one of many examples of the late Pope Francis trying to re-energise the modern Church with the zeal and boldness of the early church whose foundational message was one of hope and mercy in Christ. In doing so, he calls us to a new Apostolic Age that is now here in Ireland, challenging any complacency that settles for a bland and tired cultural Christianity. Animated again with the missionary spirit of St Patrick, evangelisation compels us to review institutional and ecclesial strategies that were better suited to times past but don’t work well in a new Apostolic setting.

In these Apostolic times of plurality of cultures and traditions, I believe that we as the Irish Church need to be more clear about our mission, our aims and more attentive to our inner spirit. We need to become more intentional about how we attract and form disciples of Christ, sustain them in that commitment and train them to become ‘spirit-filled evangelisers’. But how can we do this? Once we are clear about the content of evangelisation, how do we do we do it and what does it look like?

Part 3 next week.