NEW EVANGELIZATION REQUIRES NEW APPROACHES AND NEW METHODS

20160720 NEW EVANGELIZATION REQUIRES NEW APPROACHES AND NEW METHODS

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: Green.

First reading

Jeremiah 1:1,4-10 ©

The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, of a priestly family living at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin.

  The word of the Lord was addressed to me, saying,

‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;

before you came to birth I consecrated you;

I have appointed you as prophet to the nations.’

I said, ‘Ah, Lord; look, I do not know how to speak: I am a child!’

But the Lord replied,

‘Do not say, “I am a child.”

Go now to those to whom I send you

and, say whatever I command you.

Do not be afraid of them,

for I am with you to protect you –

it is the Lord who speaks!’

Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me:

‘There! I am putting my words into your mouth.

Look, today I am setting you

over nations and over kingdoms,

to tear up and to knock down,

to destroy and to overthrow,

to build and to plant.’

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 70:1-6,15,17 ©

My lips will tell of your help.

In you, O Lord, I take refuge;

  let me never be put to shame.

In your justice rescue me, free me:

  pay heed to me and save me.

My lips will tell of your help.

Be a rock where I can take refuge,

  a mighty stronghold to save me;

  for you are my rock, my stronghold.

Free me from the hand of the wicked.

My lips will tell of your help.

It is you, O Lord, who are my hope,

  my trust, O Lord, since my youth.

On you I have leaned from my birth,

  from my mother’s womb you have been my help.

My lips will tell of your help.

My lips will tell of your justice

  and day by day of your help.

O God, you have taught me from my youth

  and I proclaim your wonders still.

My lips will tell of your help.

Gospel Acclamation

Ps118:36,29

Alleluia, alleluia!

Bend my heart to your will, O Lord,

and teach me your law.

Alleluia!

Or

Alleluia, alleluia!

The seed is the word of God, Christ the sower;

whoever finds this seed will remain for ever.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Matthew 13:1-9 ©

Jesus left the house and sat by the lakeside, but such large crowds gathered round him that he got into a boat and sat there. The people all stood on the beach, and he told them many things in parables.

  He said, ‘Imagine a sower going out to sow. As he sowed, some seeds fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Others fell on patches of rock where they found little soil and sprang up straight away, because there was no depth of earth; but as soon as the sun came up they were scorched and, not having any roots, they withered away. Others fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Others fell on rich soil and produced their crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Listen, anyone who has ears!’

NEW EVANGELIZATION REQUIRES NEW APPROACHES AND NEW METHODS

SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ JER 1:1.4-10; PS 70(71); MT 13:1-9  ]

Like the prophet Jeremiah, we are called to proclaim the Word of God.  In different ways and in different capacities, we too have been chosen. By virtue of our baptism, like the Sower in the parable, we too are called to sow the Word of God in the world.  More than ever, the urgency of the New Evangelization is impressed upon us by our Holy Father and his predecessors.

The work of the New Evangelization requires us to be prophet from both within and without.  This is rather challenging, for the proclamation of the Word of God to our own people is not much easier than proclaiming to non-believers.  The work of re-evangelization, which entails the conversion of the hearts of those who are already baptized and those who are supposedly good and active Catholics in the Church or even in priestly and religious life, is often met with skepticism, scorn and indifference.  But this is not surprising because, as the Lord warns us, a prophet is never accepted in his own country.  Jesus, too, was rejected by His own family, relatives and friends in His hometown; and by His fellow Jews as well.  This was the same experience of Jeremiah who was called to invite the nation to repentance.

In the light of what is said, we are afraid to be true prophets.  Fear is always in us because of the opposition, hostility and persecution we know is ahead of us when we proclaim the truth or urge people to repentance and renewal.  Indeed, whenever we seek to bring our own kind to renewal, often we would be met with rebuff and resistance.  Just like Pope Francis, trying to renew our Church is not an easy task.  Whether we are bishop, priest or lay leader, our attempts to renew the Church are often met with so much opposition that many of us give up trying to change or renew the Church.  We give up because no one is listening or ready to change.  We feel discouraged that not many are ready to join us or listen to what the Lord wants to tell them.  If we feel this way, the Lord is saying to us, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to protect you – it is the Lord who speaks!”   It is the Lord who will help us and make it possible for the Word to be heard.

Perhaps, some of us sincerely feel diffident, like Jeremiah when he was called.  He said, “Ah, Lord; look, I do not know how to speak: I am a child!”  If we are afraid or diffident, it is because we think we are proclaiming our own words.  If we are proclaiming ourselves or our philosophy, then of course we can feel diffident or afraid because we are not so sure of what we believe ourselves.  But the point is that we are not here to proclaim our own philosophy, as St Paul would say, “I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” (1 Cor 2:3-5)   Jeremiah was told to speak what the Lord had commanded him, not what he wanted to say.   When the Word of God consumes us, we cannot keep quiet. “O Lord, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed.” (Jer 20:7)

Consequently, before we can become a prophet, we must first be a listener of the Word of God.  Proclamation is always subsequent to hearing.  The Church is called to be listeners of the Word. “We announce to you the eternal life which dwelt with the Father and was made visible to us. What we have seen and heard we announce to you, so that you may have fellowship with us and our common fellowship be with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 Jn 1:2-3)  We must be students before we become teachers.  It is important therefore that the words come from the Lord and not from us.  “Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me: “There! I am putting my words into your mouth.”

Only when we are certain that what we say is not our thinking but the Word of God, can we speak with authority and confidence in the way Jesus taught.   We can also trust in His power to defend us when we are overwhelmed by opposition.  With the psalmist, we turn to the Lord and pray, “Be a rock where I can take refuge, a mighty stronghold to save me; for you are my rock, my stronghold. Free me from the hand of the wicked. It is you, O Lord, who are my hope, my trust, O Lord, since my youth. On you I have leaned from my birth, from my mother’s womb you have been my help.”

But listening is the first step.  The next challenge is to find new ways to proclaim the Word of God which is ever old and yet ever new.  The process of proclaiming the Good News however is the same, so are the principles.   This process and principles have been enunciated and demonstrated by the Lord.  As we have said, the process begins with the hearing of the Good News.   It is then followed by interiorization and then proclamation. Without interiorization, there can be no depth and no conviction.  The prophet must first digest and assimilate the Word of God before he could proclaim.  This was what the prophet Ezekiel did.  “He said to me, O mortal, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.  So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.” (Ez 3:1-3)

With regard to the principles and methodology, we must find a way to connect with our listeners.  New evangelization involves new methods and new ways.  We are called to follow Jesus.  His style of preaching was new.  He used parables and stories to communicate His message.  He knew that theoretical knowledge would not bring us to come to know God.  Jesus did not involve Himself in theological debates.  All He wanted was to transmit His experience of His Father’s unconditional love to His disciples.  So instead of giving some academic discourse about His Father, He used stories to help them connect with the different aspects of His Father’s comprehensive love.

Because the examples used were connected with their lives, the people could enter into the experience of Jesus’ love for His Father.  This shows that Jesus knew His audience well and was very much connected with the lives of His people.  He was observant of what they did, what they needed, their joys and struggles.  This means that for the work of New Evangelization, we must help our listeners to make sense of their lives, their struggles and their aspirations.   This explains why Pope Francis reminds us to go out to the ground, to the battlefield and to be with the sheep so that we know them enough to be able to help them effectively. In this way, they would be able to identify themselves with our message. 

New Evangelization also requires us to find new avenues to reach out.  In the past, people would come to the Church to seek God.  But today, like God, we must go out into the world to search for the people who are in the marketplace.  Indeed, this is what we have been doing.  Instead of waiting for young people to come to Church, we go to where they are; to the campuses, the shopping malls and the internet. Indeed, this was what Jesus did.  When He was prevented from teaching in the synagogues eventually, He took to the streets, at the shore of the lake and even the cross to preach His message.  The Good News cannot be chained or stifled by circumstances.  Like Jesus, we must transcend the environment.  If there is a will, there is a way.

When under constraints, we must find other avenues.  For Jesus, when the door was closed, He would find a window to proclaim the Good News.  He was not stereotyped or fixated in the way He proclaimed the Good News.  He was always finding new initiatives and new places to reach out to the people.  He even ate and drank with sinners, going into the sinners’ houses to be with them.  He went to where the people were.  We can take a page from Jesus and ask ourselves, where should we be proclaiming the gospel today, especially to our young people?

In the final analysis, let us be clear that conversion is not only the work of man.  The Parable of the Sower suggests that conversion remains a mystery.  “Some seeds fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate them up.  Others fell on patches of rock where they found little soil and sprang up straight away, because there was no depth of earth; but as soon as the sun came up they were scorched and, not having any roots, they withered away. Others fell among thorn, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Others fell on rich soil and produced their crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”   Our task is to do our part and cooperate with the grace of God.  But only God can bring about the harvest.  We are called to sow the seed, the Word of God, but only through grace does the seed fall on good ground and produce a good yield.  It is purely the grace of God as to where and how the Lord calls us.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved