WHAT IS EVANGELISATION? PART 3

Fr Billy Swan

Below is the third 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 and Part 2, click below:

https://www.thehookoffaith.com/single-post/what-is-evangelisation-part-1

WHAT IS EVANGELISATION? PART 2

The Shape of Evangelisation

It may seem strange but the first thing we need to do to evangelise is to do nothing before we wait and pray. This is what Jesus asked his disciples to do before his Ascension, to ‘stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high’ (Luke 24:49). This takes us back to the truth that evangelisation is a divine enterprise and that the Holy Spirit is the principal agent of evangelisation. It is God’s work and not ours. Herein lies the importance of all our out-reach initiatives and ideas being born of prayer and supported in prayer. Waiting and praying checks our human impulses to go it alone, to rush ahead of the Master and to create a Church in our image rather than become the Church the Master intends. And so, our first task is to wait and pray for the fire of the Spirit to come.

The Second basic component of evangelisation is the personal. I must be evangelised before I evangelise. Karl Barth, the Swiss Protestant theologian from the last century, was once asked by a journalist towards the end of his life: “Dr Barth, what was the most profound of your many theological insights?”. The journalist was expecting a long and complex answer. Instead, Barth answered simply: “Jesus loves me”. Here is where evangelisation begins and the point to where we return time and time again. Only when we know in our bones that ‘Jesus loves me’ are we ready to evangelise. It is a truth that grabs us, giving our lives a new direction, purpose and meaning. It is the gift of God’s love and life that upholds us, renews us and changes us. In a conference he gave in the monastery of Gethsemane, Thomas Merton asked the question: “Who am I?” and replied: “My deepest realization of who I am is – I am one loved by Christ…The depth of my identity is in the centre of my being where I am known by God”.[1] Therefore, resting or abiding in the love of God or in the words of St Elizabeth of the Trinity ‘letting ourselves be loved’ is when that divine fire is lit within us.

For Pope Francis, this personal encounter with the love of God through Christ is the beating heart of evangelisation. In ‘The Joy of the Gospel’, he states: “ “What is essential is that the preacher be certain that God loves him, that Jesus Christ has saved him and that his love has always the last word” (para. 151). This could also be said of every Christian dedicated to the mission of evangelisation. What is essential is that we are convinced of God’s love towards us, that Jesus Christ has saved us and that He is our final hope.

This is why evangelisation is inseparable from what Vatican II called “the universal call to holiness.” To share the faith effectively, we must allow ourselves to be continually shaped by the love of God, so that this love overflows not only in our words but in how we relate to others and how we engage with the world.

The mission to cultivate this deep and personal relationship with Christ is central to the work of Alpha, Sycamore, Faith on Fire and FOCUS groups who are all represented here today. A suggestion for how this can be done is to create spaces to tell our story of how God’s saving power has touched our lives or to write our own ‘Magnificats’. In the ‘Magnificat’ from Luke’s Gospel, Mary glorifies the Lord for his presence and action in her life and in salvation history. St Patrick did the same with his Confessio. Patrick was a convincing evangelist because he was a witness first. If you were to write your ‘Magnificat’, how would it go and what would you say? Here is an invitation to tell your story! One way to understand evangelisation is to tell the story of how God’s grace has touched our lives and how our story finds its place in the greatest story ever told of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. It pushes us to become aware of how God’s saving love has touched our own lives in a clear and concrete way. And in the measure that we are clear about our own experience of God, the more confident we will be to help others identify their experience of God’s love too.

The third basic feature of evangelisation is the inter-personal. We are not content just to be disciples of Christ but want to make disciples. We are not content to be on fire but want others to catch fire too. The conviction that ‘Jesus loves me’ means that ‘Jesus loves you too’.

Here is the treasure that we possess that we must not keep for ourselves but share with everyone in a way that offers hope and new life. In the words of the late Pope Benedict XVI: “There is nothing more beautiful than to know him and speak to others of our friendship with him” (24th April 2005). An example to illustrate. A parishioner of mine is currently in hospital and gravely ill. Recently he spoke about his suffering and mortality. With the inspiration of the Spirit, I shared this message with him: “I believe that Christ is with you in this dark place of suffering and is leading you on a journey that will lead to light. He loves you, suffers with you and goes ahead of you on this road, leaving a space for you to move into where light and joy awaits. Whether you reach that place before you die or after, once you are united to Christ, he will take you there and all will be well”.

Here is the hope that does disappoint for it is based on the power of Christ’s love that overcomes all things and from which nothing can separate us. Evangelisation proclaims that saving power in the present in a way that anticipates the future.

Interpersonal evangelisation also has to do with how we engage with those we encounter. The common experience of being human is the bridge that unites us with those we seek to evangelise. Interpersonal evangelisation communicates a deep respect for those we encounter as we share the Gospel with warmth, tenderness and most of all with love. Inter-personal evangelisation is how I relate to you at the level of being human which is the first way we experience each other. Therefore, if I am here giving an eloquent speech on evangelisation and then later at coffee I fail to engage with you, and come across as sad, cold or aloof, then my behaviour contradicts my message. That is why Pope Francis talked about the simple and basic virtues of human relationships as essential elements of what he called ‘pre-evangelisation’ – saying ‘please, ‘thank you’ and ‘I’m sorry’ and being joyful witnesses to the faith that gives life. Evangelisers love people, drawn close to them and care for them. It is the power of charity and mercy that can melt the hardest of hearts, inviting them to believe again.

This takes us to another helpful way of understanding inter-personal evangelisation as telling people what we love. I recently met a grandmother who was distressed because most of her children no longer participate in Mass. ‘What can I do to bring them back?’ she asked. ‘By telling them what you love’ I replied. ‘If you love the Lord, tell them why. If you love the Eucharist and the sacraments, tell them why you love them. Because when you love something or someone, you will always find the words and the ways to share it’. As we hear from the account of Pentecost, the Spirit gave them the ‘gift of speech’. This is what evangelisation is – telling people what we love and being on the look-out for every opportunity to do so – from the parent teaching their small children how to bless themselves to the Holy Father proclaiming the peace of the risen Lord on the balcony of St Peter’s – evangelisation is the vocation of all.

Having talked about evangelisation as telling people what we love, now is a good time to address a problem I mentioned earlier, namely our lack of confidence to evangelise. The key to having the confidence to evangelise is our love for what we believe in but also our conviction that it’s true. I follow closely the world of science and some of the recent scientific discoveries, instead of refuting our faith, have confirmed my conviction that our faith is true, giving me a confidence to dialogue with modern science. But this is also true for other areas too. People might object -‘well what about the scandals?’ Yes, the scandals happened and many people were hurt. But many bad things happened because Gospel teaching was ignored and not because it was lived. This takes us back to the harmony that is the fruit of holiness and the havoc caused by sin.

Friends we must believe in the gift that we have to share. In the words of Pope Francis: “We have a treasure of life and love which cannot deceive, and a message which cannot mislead or disappoint. It penetrates to the depths of our hearts, sustaining and ennobling us. It is a truth which is never out of date because it reaches that part of us which nothing else can reach” (Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel, 265).

To repeat a point I made earlier – I believe that every diocese, parish, school and home needs to re-evaluate our structures and practises with a clear-sighted aim in view – namely to attract people to the faith and form them as intentional disciples of Jesus Christ. We ought to keep this always in view when people approach us for baptism, First Holy Communion, Confirmation and Marriage - that these are not just occasions but moments of grace that initiate us into a way of life. If this is not happening, we need to have courageous conversations to explore the reasons why. All of us have a part to play in creating an evangelising spirit into the fabric of every aspect of Church life.

A fourth feature of evangelisation and one that is often overlooked is the liturgical. During the Rite of Baptism, the ears and mouth of the newly baptized are blessed so that the Lord Jesus “may soon touch your ears to receive his word and your mouth to proclaim his faith to the praise and glory of God the Father” (Rite of Baptism). Here at the very beginning of the Christian life, the truth is declared that our lives point to something greater than ourselves; that my life is not ultimately about me but about God’s purposes for me. From baptism onwards there is a forward impulse to go out from oneself to proclaim the Gospel and to evangelise ‘to the praise and glory of God the Father’.

At the end of the Eucharist, one of the dismissal formulae announced by the priest, deacon or bishop is: “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord”. In other words, let your whole life declare what is true - namely that Christ is alive, his kingdom is at hand and his love is the most powerful force in the world. Because of the celebration of the Mass, there ought to be an outward propulsion of missionary zeal in the congregation to return to our homes, friends, schools and places of work with a new energy to witness and evangelise. Every Eucharistic celebration ought to be a moment to renew our desire “to proclaim the newness of the Gospel with boldness in every time and place, even when it meets with opposition” (Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel, 259). This mandate to evangelise from the Eucharist also includes evangelisation within the Eucharist with the proclamation of God’s Word, the reception of Christ’s life within us at Holy Communion, the ministry of welcome, inclusion, meeting and greeting – all which form part of our celebration of God’s love for all. Eucharist is a moment to re-ignite the fire and carry it forth again.

The fifth component of evangelization is cultural. While the age of cultural Catholicism is waning, what is certainly needed is a Catholicism that is culturally engaged and alive. In modern times, Western culture in particular is in a state of flux leading to confusion and the de-stabilization of society.  It is no co-incidence that this has coincided with the decline of Christianity for as we know from the time of Patrick and Columbanus, the fruits of the Christian faith include social unity, peace, justice and the protection of human rights.

The Catholic response to social change must always be to evangelise the culture, to engage with the social issues of our time, to participate in public affairs and re-lay the foundations of a more just and stable society. This involves the celebration of all in the culture that is good and the calling out of aspects of our culture that are bad and that damage the common good. A savvy evangelist critiques culture while proclaiming the vision of the Gospel that offers greater promise and hope but yet stays grounded in history and leads to social change. In the words of Pope Leo XIV: “The Church is called to be a missionary Church that opens its arms to the world, proclaims the Word … and becomes a leaven of harmony for humanity” (Pope Leo XIV, 22nd May 2025 to Pontifical Missionary Societies).

The Good News of Jesus Christ is not lived in a vacuum or in private worlds. Its message must engage with the cultural influences with which it interacts - music, art, history, politics, law, ecology and education. In that light, the Gospel has two destinations that are connected - the first to awaken faith and the second to transform the world according to God's plan that is just and peaceful. These are not two separate things but form one mission to carry the Gospel by the witness of our lives in order to transform the world.

So let us not be afraid to carry the Gospel’s truth to the culture of our time. As we know this task is never easy and will certainly involve risk, danger and suffering. It certainly will mean leaving our comfort zones. But a faith that is never tested is one that will never grow. And while truth may suffer, it will never die. The fire we have must not be hid under a bushel but taken out into the market squares of modern Ireland.

Conclusion:

I would like to end this talk with a memory of my grand-mother’s open turf fire in her kitchen many years ago. In the evenings, she would light the fire and in the morning she would stoke the hearth to remove what she called the ‘Gríosach’ - the hot ashes or embers in a way that would re-ignite the fire again.

Friends, now is the time to shake away the embers and fan into a flame the gift of our faith. We are living in an extraordinary time of change, challenge and opportunity for the Irish Church. We must embrace this time for what it is – a new Apostolic age that calls us back to the basics of the Christian faith and to re-propose the Gospel with the conviction of the disciples after Pentecost and with the missionary zeal of St Patrick and the early Irish saints. 

Every generation of Christians needs to return to the basics of evangelisation – to pray for a New Pentecost, to be touched, moved and transformed by a personal encounter with Jesus Christ crucified and risen; to move out beyond ourselves to encounter others in Jesus’ name, to tell them what we love and believe to be true; to reclaim our confidence and to look for creative ways to share the joy of the Gospel; to celebrate our common life with others at the Eucharist where we are continually evangelised and are empowered to evangelise; finally, to share our faith publicly in ways that transform the culture in which live.

If the fire of God’s Spirit is lit in your heart in these days and if you light a fire in the life of someone else, think of the good that will be multiplied and how the Church will be transformed. And if this happens, here is the hope for the future opening out before us today.

I conclude with a prayer that captures the spirit of my talk. May all of us return to our homes, schools, parishes and dioceses with new hearts on fire with a desire to make Christ known and loved and with a confidence to share something too powerful and beautiful to keep to ourselves:

‘Come Holy Spirit, renew your wonders in this our day as by a New Pentecost in Ireland; that being one in mind and in heart and steadfast in faith with Mary the Mother of Jesus, we may advance your divine Kingdom of justice and peace, of truth and of love. Amen.’

END

[1] Cited by John Higgins, Thomas Merton on Prayer, Image Books, New York, 1975, p. 62.