ST. LOUIS – January 1 to 5. “Be the light,” the theme of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) SEEK24 conference, inspired young men and women to let their light shine before others and glorify God.
Bishop Earl Fernandes, who served as one of the speakers this year at the conference held in St. Louis, encouraged young adults to go a step further.
The bishop challenged youth to take their light to the peripheries of the world, to let their light shine before all men and women, so that every person can experience the joy of Jesus Christ.
The SEEK conference is organized by FOCUS, a lay apostolate with missionaries present on college campuses, for individuals to experience the love, hope and real presence of Jesus Christ through His Church. Thousands of people from across the world gather each year to encounter Christ at the conference through prayer, fellowship, talks and entertainment.
At this year’s conference, Bishop Fernandes spoke about what it means to be an evangelizing community. He reflected on Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel).
In his talk titled “Pope Francis and the Characteristics of an Evangelizing Community,” Bishop Fernandes explained how the Church is called to evangelize in the present day.
He told those gathered that they need to have an “entrepreneurial spirit” in evangelizing to others. Every person, he said, is called to take the role of priest, prophet and king and spread the joy of the Gospel.
However, the bishop said, the context in which people must evangelize has changed. Pope Francis wrote in Evangelii Gaudium that the Gospel must be spread ad gentes, to the nations.
“We need to restructure our efforts around the person of Jesus Christ and making Him known,” Bishop Fernandes said.
Young men and women, and all evangelizers, must spread the Gospel message to the peripheries, or the outskirts, of the world. They must step out of their comfort zone and take the Gospel to places where people do not know Jesus Christ and share it with people who are no longer active in His Church.
Bishop Fernandes asked those gathered to contemplate what that mission entails.
“We are the one people of God who reveal the many faces of God,” he said.
The bishop told those gathered that they need to adopt a mode of mission rather than maintenance. Evangelizers must have a missionary spirit and be unafraid to share the person of Jesus Christ with others.
“We are a Church that goes forth,” Bishop Fernandes said.
He said the ultimate end of evangelization is the salvation of souls.
Bishop Fernandes considered how missionaries, such as FOCUS missionaries who serve on college campuses, go out day after day and invite college students to the Catholic Church.
Missionaries must go out and share the Good News with people. They need to “meet them where they’re at,” the bishop said, and he added that they must be bold.
Taking initiative in evangelization is a characteristic of an evangelizing community, the bishop said.
He told the audience that missionary disciples must be proactive rather than reactive. They need to seek those who have fallen away.
The bishop said that visiting people in prison or visiting people in nursing homes who have no family to visit them are ways to be missionary disciples. Bringing children to sing at nursing homes is a way to spread the beauty and joy of the Gospel.
From his experience ministering to the imprisoned, Bishop Fernandes said many people in prison have real faith and a real conversion to Christ, and they want to know that they are not forgotten.
The bishop said accompanying others is another characteristic of an evangelizing community. Every person is in a different place in their faith journey, and being a missionary disciple requires offering accompaniment and meeting a person where they are in their journey.
“Jesus says to go the extra mile,” Bishop Fernandes said.
He said some people can be frightened by other people or by the prospect of encountering new people. In fear, there can be a tendency for people to build walls around themselves, closing themselves off from others.
Bishop Fernandes said the alternative to building walls is dialogue. People will find that they share “far more in common” with other people, he said, than differences.
Being an evangelizing community demands patience and requires discernment. It also requires joy, which, the bishop said, is the greatest experience that goes forth from evangelization.
Bishop Fernandes said people often notice him smiling while he celebrates the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. He said he smiles because he knows Jesus Christ, and he knows that he is loved by Him.
“The Apostles rejoiced to see the risen Lord,” the bishop said.
Missionary disciples also need to introduce others to the joy of Jesus Christ and hand on their experience of knowing the Lord so other people can encounter Christ.
“Go forth with joy,” Bishop Fernandes encouraged the audience.
Keith Bray, a seminarian for the Diocese of Columbus, enjoyed Bishop Fernandes’ message on evangelization. Bray was one of several diocesan seminarians who attended the SEEK conference.
“The idea of going out, being an evangelizing Church but not turning in on oneself, the idea that when people stop attending Mass, people stop showing up, that’s something that we should take note of,” he said.
“I’ve heard people say that the thing they like about the Catholic Church is that you just go in and go out and then no ever talks to you and it’s great, and that’s actually a detriment. That our bishop recognizes that, I think that’s really huge.”
Bray, who is in his first year of seminary at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Cincinnati, said the Church is the Body of Christ, a community of persons. He said it is important for a person to evangelize and invest in the community at their parish. Evangelization can be taking note of who is no longer present at Mass and reaching out to them.
Samantha Alphonso, a student at the University of California, Irvine, related to Bishop Fernandes’ talk. She is involved with FOCUS on her college campus and seeks to evangelize to students.
Alphonso said accompaniment is a characteristic of evangelization that stood out to her.
“I think that part’s really important, actually getting to know a person and getting used to each other,” she said.
Alphonso, who is a California native, said it is difficult sometimes to know how to evangelize to other students.
Evangelization can be different for each person, and focusing on forming a relationship with a person first is important. Bishop Fernandes’ words about accompaniment resonated with her.
“It was reassuring in that way of – every one of us – we each have a different part of God in us,” she said. “We reflect Him differently. There’s other ways to get His love across and Who He is.”
Below is the complete text of Bishop Fernandes’ address at the SEEK conference titled, “Pope Francis and the Characteristics of an Evangelizing Community”:
Pope Francis and Evangelization: Co-Responsibility in the Mission of Evangelization
Seek 24, St. Louis, Missouri
January 2, 2024
My Dear Friends in Christ,
I’m very happy to be with you again in St. Louis for SEEK 24. Last year was my first experience of SEEK, and it was electrifying. Last year, I spoke to you about being a “spiritual entrepreneur”. In doing so, I wanted to capture the idea that if we were truly to evangelize the culture, we need to have an entrepreneurial spirit.
I was ordained as a bishop twenty months ago. At the installation, I highlighted two top priorities for my diocese: evangelization and vocations. I am happy to report that this year alone, we had 16 new seminarians begin their formation, and, in twenty months, have more than doubled the number of seminarians. In my first year as bishop, there were no priests ordained; this year, I will ordain five. Vocations and evangelization go hand in hand.
Ten years ago, in his first year as Pope, the Holy Father wrote The Joy of the Gospel. There he gave us the essential program of his pontificate, which involves being a missionary Church. More than 15 years ago, he had been the ghost writer of the Aparecida document. The bishops of Latin America realized that the faith could no longer be transmitted by osmosis from one generation to the next. Parishes and families were having difficulty handing on the faith. They began to develop a strategy for countering the trends. What they acknowledged then has been brought to the whole church through Pope Francis’s exhortation The Joy of the Gospel, but also through other works such as the From Christendom to an Apostolic Age and the new book The Religion of the Day. We must acknowledge the context in which we must evangelize – our mission is ad gentes – to the nations, to the peoples who have never really heard of Christ or encountered him in a deeply personal way.
For the Pope, the whole missionary endeavor begins with an encounter with Christ. Evangelii Gaudium begins:
“The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ, joy is born anew.” (Pope Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 24 November 2013, 1.)
Just as Pope Francis begins with the encounter with Christ, so too our late-Pope Benedict XVI began his first encyclical with this encounter, writing:
Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. (Pope Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est, 25 December 2005, 1)
We gather here to meet Christ, the One who gives our life direction and who brings us joy. We also come to encounter one another as brothers and sisters. We do not exist in a vacuum, adrift from relationships; rather, we are inserted into a determined people and share a common lifestyle. We are the one People of God who reveal the many faces of God. (cf. EG, 115-118)
Pope Francis has a dream for the Church. In Evangelii Gaudium, he writes:
I dream of a “missionary option”, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, 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. (EG, 27)
To understand what he means, consider his words during his visit to Brazil. There, he spoke of our “Continental Mission”, which is both programmatic and paradigmatic. The programmatic mission is a series of missionary activities; while, the paradigmatic mission:
“involves setting in a missionary key all the day-to-day activities of the particular churches. Clearly this entails a whole process of reforming ecclesial structures. The ‘change of structures’ will not be the result of reviewing the organizational flow chart, which would lead to a static reorganization; rather, it will result from the very dynamics of mission.” (Pope Francis, Address to the Leadership of CELAM, 28 July 2013)
He dreams of a new missionary spirit. Only from this paradigmatic choice to be a missionary Church will authentic reform, vital for evangelization, flow. Just as wind pushes against a sail and causes a boat to move upon the water, so too the Spirit of God pushes the whole Church to go forth into the world, attentive to the signs of the times and the needs of the people, jettisoning that which is obsolete. Pope Francis adds that “What makes obsolete structures pass away, what leads to a change of heart in Christians, is precisely missionary spirit.”
Characteristics of an Evangelizing Church
It is in this “missionary spirit” that the Church goes forth (cf. EG 20-24). Paragraph 24 of Evangelii Gaudium begins with these words:
“The Church which ‘goes forth’ is a community of missionary disciples who take the first step, who are involved and supportive, who bear fruit and rejoice.” (EG, 24)
In his address to the General Congregation of Cardinals before the 2013 conclave, then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio said:
“When the Church does not go out of herself to evangelize, she becomes self-referential and then she gets sick. […] When the Church is self-referential, without realizing it, she believes she has her own light. She ceases to be the mysterium lunae and gives rise to the grave evil of spiritual worldliness. […] Simplifying, there are two images of the Church: either the evangelizing Church that comes out of itself, […] or the worldly Church that lives in itself, of itself, for itself. This should illuminate the possible changes and reforms that will have to be made for the salvation of souls.”
Thus, I want to outline the characteristics of an evangelizing Church, which the Pope himself names in Evangelii Gaudim (24), characteristics which we have, but which could also be more prominent. First, we are a Church that goes forth, which the Holy Father described in this way:
“Instead of just being a church that welcomes and receives by keeping the doors open, let us try also to be a church that finds new roads, that is able to step outside itself and go to those who do not attend Mass, to those who have quit or are indifferent. The ones who quit sometimes do it for reasons that, if properly understood and assessed, can lead to a return. But that takes audacity and courage.” (Interview with Antonio Spadaro, 21 September 2013)
To go forth to the spiritual and existential peripheries demands courageously leaving our comfort zone.
Second, the community of missionary disciples takes the first step: it shows initiative. Pope Francis invites us to be “imitators of God” by having foresight. God seizes the initiative with us and calls us to do the same with those at the peripheries. The term primerear captures this idea. We need to be proactive rather than reactive. We need to be spiritual entrepreneurs for Christ. The Holy Father writes:
“An evangelizing community knows that the Lord has taken the initiative; he has loved us first (cf. 1 John 4:19), and therefore, we can move forward, boldly take the initiative, go out to others, seek those who have fallen away, stand at the crossroads and welcome the outcast.” (EG, 24)
Third, the evangelizing community is involved or engaged with its members. The clear majority of the faithful are lay Catholics who have been made priest, prophet, and king through baptism. They have talents and expertise to offer the Church and the world. The bishops and priests have the task of animating the vocations of those who also serve beside us in the Lord’s vineyard. Do we engage those who are truly expert in our community in the work of evangelization?
The Holy Father sometimes uses the word balconear, which means to stand by the window or balcony to see what is happening, but without personal engagement. A person sees and criticizes everything without ever personally getting involved in the mission. The Pope proposes Jesus as the opposite of this sort of person:
“Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. The Lord gets involved and he involves his own, as he kneels to wash their feet. He tells his disciples, ‘You will be blessed if you do this.’ An evangelizing community gets involved by word and deed in people’s daily lives; it bridges distances. It is willing to abase itself if necessary, and it embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others.” (EG, 24)
I think in the Catholic world, especially with the overuse of social media and dwelling excessively in the blogosphere, we can fall into patterns of gossip and negativity or simple resignation. We critique everything but without offering a constructive proposal. One key to evangelization is to reflect upon what it is that the Church has to offer or Who it is that the Church offers to the world.
Fourth, a community of missionary disciples accompanies others. Speaking in Assisi, Pope Francis said:
I repeat it often: walking with our people, sometimes in front, sometimes in the middle, and sometimes behind: in front in order to guide the community, in the middle in order to encourage and support; and at the back in order to keep it united and so that no one lags too far behind, to keep them united. (Francis, “Meeting with Clergy, Consecrated People, and Members of Diocesan Pastoral Councils,” Cathedral of San Ruffino, Assisi, 4 October 2013.)
Accompaniment entails guiding, encouraging and supporting, and uniting. We journey with our people, even if the future is not always certain. As we accompany others, we learn the art of dialogue. We live in a time of epochal change. We, who announce the Gospel, cannot evangelize by neglecting the new forces at work affecting new generations who have their own expectations and aspirations, including those who are coming to this country.
I spoke earlier of the suffering of many, but others are frightened of change and frightened of strangers. Rather than seeing a brother or sister as a member of the family, they see them as a threat or competitor. What will this new person mean for me, my future, and my existence?
In the face of this existential fear, one approach would simply be to build a wall around ourselves, but this would never banish their fear. This would not help them live in a new way or experience the joy that comes with freedom offered by Christ and the Gospel. The alternative to building walls is dialogue. At the heart of dialogue is the communication of one’s own personal life to others. It is a sharing of the existence of others in one’s existence.
It is not always about proving oneself right. It is about a mutual sharing that deals with how to live in harmony, while offering the best of our Tradition. Despite our theological, personal, and even political differences, I think through dialogue we begin to learn that we share far more in common.
Fifth, the evangelizing community is fruitful. In paragraph 24, the Holy Father refers to the parable of the weeds and wheat, writing:
“An evangelizing community is always concerned with fruit, because the Lord wants her to be fruitful. It cares for the grain and does not grow impatient with the weeds. The sower when he sees weeds sprouting among the grain does not grumble or overreact. He or she finds a way to let the word take flesh in a particular situation and bear fruits of new life, however imperfect or incomplete these may appear.” (EG, 24)
Fruitfulness demands discernment and patience. The fundamental task is discernment. The parable of the weeds and wheat speaks of distinguishing what is from the Son of Man, who sows good seed, the children of God, in the field from the weeds, the children of the Evil One, sown by the Devil. In Greek, the word used for weeds is zizania, which specifically refers to ryegrass. Zizania looks like wheat as it begins to grow, but only when it is mature can one discern the difference.
Jesus cautions his disciples of the need to be patient and to discern because things are not always initially clear. While farmers discern between wheat and weeds, the Church embraces people, who have the possibility of responding to the Divine Initiative and who, by grace, can be transformed from sinner to saint, from weeds to wheat. Following Jesus’ example, we try to be patient. Patience in the art of accompaniment and discernment allows the whole Church to move forward.
Pope Francis sees patience as a mark of holiness:
“I see holiness in the patience of the People of God … I often associate sanctity with patience; not only as hypomoné, taking charge of events and circumstances of life, but also as a constancy in going forward, day by day. This is the sanctity of the militant Church also mentioned by St. Ignatius.” (Interview with Antonio Spadaro, 21 September 2013)
The final characteristic of an evangelizing community is joy. It celebrates even small victories in the work of evangelization. (cf. EG, 24) Joy is the greatest experience of the Church that goes forth. The Eucharist is the source and summit of all life in the Church. The Eucharist is the sacrament which nourishes Christian joy.
It is the strongest sacramental sign of the Paschal Lordship of Christ, recalling his victory over sin and death. In the Eucharist, Christ is among us. The joy that He has won is preserved and shared. Eucharistic joy is not incomplete or fading like the pleasures of this world; it is a lasting joy. Joy is fruit of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus breathed on the Apostles at Easter, when they rejoiced to see the Risen Lord!
The Church celebrates the Eucharist with the spousal joy of one promised to Christ. It is a foretaste of the eschatological banquet in which those invited will share in the heavenly banquet of the kingdom in its fullness. Through the Mass, the Church brings the world joy. Thus, the Holy Father writes:
“Evangelization with joy becomes beauty in the liturgy…The Church evangelizes and is herself evangelized through the beauty of the liturgy, which is both a celebration of the task of evangelization and the source of her renewed self-giving.” (EG, 24)
I think we need to examine whether our local church and parishes demonstrate the joy, which flows from the Eucharist? The Eucharistic Revival affords an opportunity for the Church in the United States to experience and celebrate the nuptial joy of a community that is loved by the Lord, a clear mark of a community that evangelizes and is herself evangelized!