Challenges of the new evangelization

EVANGELIZATION, of course, is a continuing concern of the Church. It’s her mission inherent in her very nature, since the Church is a pilgrim Church.

The Church is in some kind of a travel, a dynamic process that involves forming people in all their variety of conditions to be the People of God, the family of God, in perfect communion of life and love with God and among ourselves. That’s the goal.

It involves the living transmission of the entire faith, and not just parts of it, and everything else that goes into the making of a breathing and working Christian life.

Yes, it entails inculcating the doctrine and truths of faith in an organic way. But to be sure, evangelization is not just an intellectual affair carried out simply by giving classes, receiving talks, listening to sermons, etc.

Still the intellectual aspect of evangelization is, of course, very significant. Those involved in it—first the clergy and then the consecrated, religious as well as other committed lay people—really have to master the doctrine of the faith in such a way that they have it at their fingertips and able to explain it well anytime to anyone.

This, to me, is still a big challenge. For it is getting obvious that many of the clergy are not yet well-formed in terms of doctrinal grounding. Not only are there many still in their amateur stage and very sophomoric in their preaching. There are quite a number who are confused if not mistaken in some areas.

This is not to mention the many inconsistencies in their or our life and ministry, me included, that often give rise to scandals that turn off people en masse. It might be good to look into the formation given in seminaries and to also see if the continuing formation for priests and others is truly working.

The usual problem here is that the formation is in many instances shallow, irregular, and incomplete. It’s not integral. If it’s fiery in one part, it’s cold as dead in the others. Thus, we can see a priest who is very active in social concerns but is rather asinine in spirituality. Or vice-versa.

The formation of priests and other evangelizers is one challenge in the new evangelization. The other and bigger challenge is how to deal with a people who have become increasingly secularized and Godless.

There are already many analyses made on this phenomenon. Big things, like the scourge of relativism, are posed as one major cause. But to me, the basic problem is that people don’t pray and do not believe in the power of prayer anymore. They cannot relate to it. They cannot find God in it. They rather stick to their own ideas, opinions, views, ideologies.

It seems many people are now stuck with a very harmful attitude of believing in themselves more than in a superior being. This is now the new ethos, the new spirit of the world that challenges the evangelizers.

And this has led to a fragmented view of things that has become the new normal nowadays. Each one can be on his own, or some consensus can be made, but going to God is now largely considered passé. It’s now man, not God, who holds the key to reality, to what is true and false, good and evil.

With this kind of mentality, the consideration of morality can go in any direction. And so, some extreme aberrations are now in the offing. Thus, we have this sad phenomenon of terrorism and a wave of rampage killers who must have been inspired either by a fanatical spirit or a nihilist one.

Perhaps, if we are to probe into their mind and soul, we can find that they most probably think that what they are doing is right. They become invincibly convinced they are right. It’s a horrible prospect that we need to consider very seriously.

With this kind of world, how should the new evangelization be? How should the evangelizer be to be effective? These are questions that should challenge the Church now, understanding the Church to be not only the Pope and bishops and clergy, but all the people of God, including the laypeople

The challenges of the new evangelization have to be tackled by all of us. We need to pray hard, study, develop the virtues, wage continuing conversions, because there can be no other way to face them.

The very daunting challenges are asking us to be more consistent with our Christian life. We need to be more committed.