Year of Faith: The Responsibility of new evangelisation

As the synod of Bishops comes to a conclusion here at Rome, There is a fresh wave of renewed zest for the new evangelisation in the universal church. The year of faith has been inaugurated by the Holy Father and special celebrations would be organised all over the world in all the dioceses to celebrate the gift of faith that we have received. After the conclusion of the synod of bishops, after a lot of exchange of thought, theology and experience, sharings and interventions, the vital question before us is, NEW EVANGELISATION", but, whose responsibility? Our responsibility, it is more important to consider it as "new evangelisation: my responsibility". Freddy Gage tells of visiting two churches back to back, and it was a great lesson for him. These two churches were in opposite direction. He saw that one church was dying, the other was growing and thriving. The first had a big sign out in the front that said, All are welcome, come on in. But this church was dying. The other was thriving, but it's sign wasn't on the outside, but just inside on the exit door, you could only see it from the inside as you made your way out. The sign was saying, "You are now entering the mission field go out and bring others in. Just as Jesus said, go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in. Pope Benedict XVI in his recent letter Porta Fidei reminded all of us that The Door of Faith, Porta Fidei, is always open for us. The Door is never closed. Passing through that door means embarking on a journey that lasts a lifetime. It is a journey that begins with baptism and ends with the passage through death to eternal life. Pope Benedict has constantly recalled the need to discover again the all-important journey so as to experience the joy and enthusiasm of meeting Christ, Christ who leads people out of the desert into the fullness of life. Each one of us are called to make our efforts to bring Christ to others. As the Holy Father rightly says, it is Christ who leads the people to accept the truth, the salvation rendered by Him. Each one of us should aim at making Christ known in all possible ways, then the conversion of heart happens by the grace of God. Though it is our responsibility, responsibility of each one of us, we have to trust in God. For He is The Lord of the Vineyard, we are only His labourers. The fashion today is to look towards the self as being the only source of trust. Self-help groups and manuals abound and there is a basic distrust of others. The human race has been shown time and again, both corporately and individually, to be both feeble and sinful. The People might not mean to fail, but they often do not have the power to not to. We are all overwhelmed at times by forces and circumstances over which we have no strength. There is a song which I found suits so much at this juncture, it goes this way: God is with us, God is with us, So our great forefathers sang, Far across the field of battle, Lo their Holy war cry rang Never once they feared or faltered Never once they ceased to sing, God is with is, God is with us!

Christ our Lord shall reign as king! The change occurred in the fifth line never once they feared or faltered has been changed to the more accurate though at times they feared and faltered. All men and women, even the strongest and the bravest fear and falter at times, and fail to deliver. Trusting in humanity, other people or ourselves has dire consequences. Let us trust in God. And God will never leave us or forsake us, and He will be with us unto the end of the world, God has your back when you preach and teach the Word of God despite how people may react against you because if God is for us, who can be against us. And if God is for you, you should never be afraid to preach and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ because the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. The gospel of Christ has saving power, healing power, delivering power, resurrection power, and the only way people can get saved, they need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. They need to hear that God so loved the world that He gave us only begotten Son Jesus Christ who came and died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead with all power in his hands, in that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but shall have everlasting life. This is the message that people need to hear so they can turn to and trust in Jesus Christ for their salvation, and we cannot be afraid to preach and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. There should be enthusiasm amongst our own people to be the New Evangelizers. Archbishop Longley of Birmingham, England, in his interventions in the synod of bishops mentioned the example of Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman, and how Cardinal Newman himself was intellectually convinced of the claims of the Catholic Church, he knew that this is where the Lord was leading him, and yet for himself he needed his heart to be touched. His beautiful motto, "cor ad cor loquitur," ["heart speaks unto the heart"] is a very fitting motto for the process for the work for the New Evangelization. We have to find ways of touching people's hearts, as well as engaging their minds. The two must go together; we cannot neglect either. But the thing that touches people's hearts is the example of Christian life within families, within marriages, reaching out to the poor and those who are in particular need in local societies, and a desire to actually love in the sense of being willing to give of ourselves, to spend our own energy for the good of others, this will show our faith. To close, Pope Benedict XVI in his homily during the papal mass of the inauguration of the year of faith and commemorating the 50th anniversary of Vatican II said, If today the Church proposes a new Year of Faith and a new evangelization, it is not to honor an anniversary, but because there is more need of it, even more than there was fifty years ago! Recent decades have seen the advance of a spiritual desertification. In the Councils time it was already possible from a few tragic pages of history to know what a life or a world without God looked like, but now we see it every day around us. This void has spread. But it is in starting from the experience of this desert, from this void, that we can again discover the joy of believing, its vital importance for us. Let us fulfil our responsibility. "Woe to me If I do not preach the Gospel" (1 Cor 9:16).