Sunday, January 30, 2022 – Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time- Cycle C

RENEWAL
Vatican II recognized the need to return to our original charism. Gaudium et Spes was a path forward to engage the world around us. Lumen Gentium serves as a reflection on who we are as a Church, here to glorify God and announce the Good News. If you have not read these documents of the Second Vatican Council, or if it has been several years since you have done so, I exhort you to read these documents, which are still relevant today and are more accessible than ever before. “By her proclamation of the Gospel, [the Church] draws her hearers to receive and profess the faith, she prepares them for baptism, snatches them from the slavery of error, and she incorporates them into Christ so that through love for him they grow to full maturity.”

4 Pope St. John Paul II was the first to use the term “New Evangelization,” and in response to the question about what he meant by it, he said: “The commemoration of this half of the millennium of evangelization will achieve its full meaning, if as bishops, with your priests and faithful, you accept it as your commitment; a commitment, not of re-evangelization, but rather of a new evangelization; new in its ardour, methods and expression.”

5 Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, picking up the theme of evangelization, taught that our faith is not merely a program but rather an opening of the heart … to a person: Jesus Christ.
6 Then – and now – we have to think of new ways to evangelize and re-evangelize the world.

Even more recently, our Holy Father Francis has laid out a vision for the universal Church, building on the teachings of his predecessors: “I dream of a ‘missionary option,’ that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming every-thing, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation.”

7 Pope Francis has repeatedly urged everyone – clergy and laity alike – to leave the comfort of our homes, churches, rectories, etc., and imitate Jesus in seeking out the lost and bringing them the Good News of salvation. Clearly, the Holy Spirit is moving us to return to our roots.
Questions for reflection:

•  What qualifies someone to be a missionary disciple in your eyes?
• How can we assist people to open their hearts to the person of Jesus Christ?
• What new methods must be employed in the New Evangelization? Name an example of the New Evangelization in action.
  
•  If you were Peter and God asked you to spread his kingdom all over the Diocese of Pensacola– Tallahassee, where would you start?
•  If you were asked what is the “kingdom of God," how would you respond?
• What do you think our society would look like if we were all in full communion with God?

Bishop William A. Wack