Jesus of Nazareth came to evangelize, that is, to bring the Good News—in Greek, euangelion—the Good News of salvation. This He did by His preaching, by His miracles, by His example, by His death and Resurrection, and above all by the gift of His Holy Spirit. In turn Jesus sent His apostles to evangelize, and we read in the Acts of the Apostles how closely their ministries resembled His—in their preaching, in their miracles, and in their forming the first generation of the Church.
Every subsequent age of the Church has also evangelized. The Church spread from a tiny sect within ancient Palestinian Judaism to embrace the whole Roman Empire, despite the fact—or maybe because of the fact—that she was persecuted. The Church spread beyond the boundaries of the Empire to embrace the Germanic peoples who had overrun the Empire, eventually flowering in medieval Christendom. In the colonial period, the Church spread throughout the New World. She sent missionaries as far as China and Japan, and more recently to Africa.
In every instance, this evangelization was not simply about the spread of a message, but above all about the encounter with a person, the risen Jesus of Nazareth, whose glory transcends the limits of space and time. Evangelization makes the person of Jesus known, in His love and in His mercy. Above all, evangelization makes it possible to have a relationship with Jesus, a personal relationship that gives new dimensions of meaning to our lives and demands from us a change of heart, a change in the way we live.
All of this is certainly clear in the mission to the nations, to those who are not Christians. But it is also clear in the ongoing proclamation of the Gospel within the Church. Those of us who have been followers of Christ all our lives still need to hear that Gospel. This is why it is proclaimed at every Mass. We need to come to know Jesus better. We need to come to know His perfect goodness, to be embraced by it and to take our own measure in comparison with it. This is why Christians pray. This is why we examine our consciences, why we go to confession regularly, why we perform works of penance and charity. Evangelization always leads to conversion and is welcome or not welcome to the extent that its hearers are willing to examine their hearts and contemplate the possibility of personal change.
Making the Gospel Accessible
In the later years of his pontificate, the Servant of God Pope Paul VI increasingly spoke to the Church about evangelization, producing the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi in 1975. Bl. Pope John Paul II took this a step further and frequently talked about what he called the “New Evangelization.” With increasing clarity the popes have thus proposed that the purpose of the Church is first and foremost evangelization, the proclamation of Jesus Christ as the Word of Life and the Savior of the human race. The New Evangelization is about a new Spirit-given energy for the task of proclaiming the Gospel to the world, but significantly it is also about re-evangelizing those whose faith has grown lukewarm and those who have fallen away, presenting the Gospel to them in a way that is fresh and attractive, that makes Gospel blessings and Gospel demands more understandable and accessible.
This past fall we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the convening of the Second Vatican Council. In the council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium), we find this moving teaching on marriage, a teaching that presents marriage and family life as inextricably bound up with what we have come to know as the New Evangelization. Here is what the council said:
Christ, the great Prophet, who proclaimed the Kingdom of His Father both by the testimony of His life and the power of His words, continually fulfills His prophetic office until the complete manifestation of glory. . . . In connection with [this] prophetic function is that state of life which is sanctified by a special sacrament obviously of great importance, namely, married and family life. For where Christianity pervades the entire mode of family life, and gradually transforms it, one will find there both the practice and an excellent school of the lay apostolate. In such a home husbands and wives find their proper vocation in being witnesses of the faith and love of Christ to one another and to their children. The Christian family loudly proclaims both the present virtues of the Kingdom of God and the hope of a blessed life to come. Thus by its example and its witness it accuses the world of sin and enlightens those who seek the truth (LG, n. 35).
A Sacrament and Sign
Marriage is not only an institution of the natural law, appearing in every known culture on the earth; it is also, for those baptized into Christ, a sacrament, a sign that confers grace, an ordinary part of human experience that becomes an encounter with the divine. As such, it becomes a school of the lay apostolate, a place where faith is witnessed, a proclamation to the world of the truth that sets us free.
What the Council described as a “school” or “witness,” Bl. John Paul II specifically called an “evangelizing mission.” Christian couples are missionaries of love and life to one another, to their children, to family members who may have fallen away, or to families who may have never heard of Christ and His Good News (see Familiaris Consortio, n. 54). Moreover, such couples evangelize not only by the example of their lives, but also by an explicit and appropriate encouragement or word of faith shared with others.
Pope Benedict XVI, in his Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini wrote: “In the face of widespread confusion in the sphere of affectivity, and the rise of ways of thinking which trivialize the human body and sexual differentiation, the word of God re-affirms the original goodness of the human being, created as man and woman and called to a love which is faithful, reciprocal, and fruitful” (n. 85). At every point of Benedict’s teaching, there are human beings who disagree: who do not believe in the goodness of creation, who do not believe that sexual complementarity is necessary for marriage, who do not believe that marriage is to be lifelong or fruitful—or for that matter who do not believe in God. We who do believe must make our voices heard.
Marriage is integral to the New Evangelization. Marriage is not new in the sense of something appearing that has never existed before, but in the sense of something worth rediscovering. It is its own unique way of evangelizing. Parents evangelize each other; parents evangelize their children; in some cases children even evangelize parents. What’s new about that? Hasn’t this evangelization been taking place for centuries? Of course it has. But even if the pattern is the same, the persons involved are not. Every person is unique, as is every relationship. And every unique person and relationship unfolds according to the inner law that governs our hearts. This is what our society is forgetting and needs to be reminded of.
Stable marriages and family life build culture and, where this simple fact is being forgotten, culture is in decline. Marriage is good for the couple and good for the children. Married couples are generally happier, more prosperous, and longer-lived than their single or divorced peers. Children of stable marriages are better-inclined to success in their peer-group, in school, and later in life. But where marriages break up, this pattern for couples and their children is challenged and disturbed. This is where stable marriages and family life must challenge and change culture. Every time a cultural commentator says that marriage is dead or does not matter, stable marriages must witness to God’s fidelity and love as they embody it. They must witness to the truth of God’s plan for marriage, and sometimes, as the saying goes, they must do this with words.
I firmly believe that the New Evangelization can lead us to a renewal of marriage. It can recall for us the Church’s ancient ideals of marriage and re-propose them in our contemporary setting. Love is not simply a feeling; it is a commitment that demands generosity and responsibility. Love is not free from differences or disagreements; it is a strategy for dealing with them as respectfully and constructively as possible. Love is not an end in itself; it is a sacrament transparent of the divine, expressing and participating in the great mystery of Christ’s love for the Church. And since that love of Christ is forever faithful, marriage is as well.
There is much more that can be said on this subject, but let me conclude by offering my own words of encouragement to any couples or families that read my words. I admire you for the love and sacrifice that define your lives together and I pray that you will always be able, by God’s grace, to overcome any challenges that come your way. Above all, I pray that your love will always be a source of joy for you and a source of abundant life. This after all is what Christ came to bring us. Let Him be the center of your life and relationships.
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