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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (March 12, 1987)
Poge 2 • Faith Today Faith Today • Page 3 Making the Gospel known on campus By Father David K. O’Rourke, OP NC News Service L et me tell you about Danny. After a fairly standard high school career in San Francisco he went to a state university in the Southwest. There he began attending Mass at the Newman Center. There were no great enlight enments and no one event or mo ment that he could label a conver sion. There were, however, some rumblings within. He had learned in his younger teens that life is not all easy. His father’s mother, a widow, had come to live with them when she was found to have cancer. He lik ed her, and they took good care of her. But for two years having someone dying in the house wasn’t easy. You don’t have par ties, you prepare meal trays, someone has to be at home and you don’t take vacations. Her death gave him a touch of seriousness. He found it hard to take some of his old fun-at-all- costs ways seriously. He spent more time by himself. But other wise he was still the bright, upbeat young man so liked by his friends. “Faith cannot be forced on anyone, but...faith won’t be embraced if the love it creates is never seen or heard.” At the Newman Center he was not a leader, but would help when asked. The only thing he did beyond the usual was to at tend the annual weekend retreat. So what happened? A group of young men and women decided to reach out to alienated Catholics and the unchurched. They ap proached him and he agreed to work full time on campus over the course of the next year. It would be an effort to invite others to see the faith community firsthand and to create oppor tunities for them to express con cerns freely without fear of being put down. In the preparatory ses sions Danny explored the Gospel’s meaning for people today. He learned that faith cannot be forced on anyone, but also that faith won’t be embraced if the love it creates is never seen or heard. What makes someone like Dan ny join an effort like this? Two things, it seems. Ever since the Second Vatican Council we’ve talked about the priesthood of all the baptized. People like Danny understand the idea, they ex perience the church as a vital community and they act on it. That is coupled with the touch of seriousness. Often some event or situation, usually at home, has made young people like Danny think about life. Parents send their kids to col lege with great hopes. They want them to get a good education, stay out of trouble and then get a good job. There are the usual fears — drugs, bad company and not making it. But most parents never dream that their kids will invest time and energy in making the Gospel’s meaning known. Is Danny an isolated example, to the point of being way out? Not any more. A recent survey at state and Catholic campuses found an increasing number of Catholic students willing to work as lay ministers in the church. From a summer to a few years to a career, the prospect of serving as a lay man or woman is appealing to more and more students. My generation looks at these young men and women in amaze ment. In a secularized society and at a time of turmoil, when even the church has problems, what makes these youngsters want to make the Gospel known? Our questions miss the point because they overlook the extraordinary vitality in so many church communities. The Masses at many Newman Centers are well attended and the centers themselves are active. Parishes have youth programs and many dioceses have youth ministries to support the parishes. Personal spirituality is taken seriously; people pray and they talk about it. Danny didn’t find his action so extraordinary. He felt it was his church, and he always knew there was a place in it for him. (Father O ’Rourke is on the staff of the Family Life Office in the Diocese of Oakland, Calif.) An invitation to soy yes' By Father Alfred McBride, O.Praem. NC News Service % « T he sign said, “Welcome home!’’ Attractively con structed, it stood off the * lawn next to the largest Catholic Church in a Midwestern city. # m The pastor and his parishioners were united in a campaign to invite alienated Catholics to “come home” to Christ and become active * members of a parish community. Their work is part of a national ef fort in evangelization. Usually, Catholics associate evangelization with TV preachers from the Protestant community. In fact, however, Catholicism has«a - strong interest in evangelization. Pope Paul VI once wrote a major document on evangelization calling it an invitation to say “yes” to Christ and the church He iden tified three audiences for evangelization: alienated Catholics; * unchurched people who are part of no religion; and “churched” people — those currently participating in the church. Father John Forliti of the Arch diocese of St Paul, Minn., in itiated a ministry to alienated * Catholics. Estimates suggest there are 15 million of them in the United States. He said: “I had been talking to a wise old Italian woman about divorce. She said it was due to TV. I asked her to be serious. "She then replied: ‘Divorce comes about because there is no love in the sex, no love in the talk and no love in the food.’ Her last remark caught me. If Christ is to be the bread of life he must be perceived as the bread of love. And the church, as the body of Christ, must be love in the food as well.” Father Forliti, who made an audio-cassette titled “Love in the Food” about his experience with alienated Catholics (NCR), thinks the best way to approach them is “with love, affection and understanding ” With this in mind, he started little groups of 12 alienated Catholics, urging them to get off their chests what bothered them about Christ and the church. Once they moved beyond the ventilation phase, he said, they seemed more open to reconsidering a return to the church. “I have not batted 100 percent but I have been fortunate in seeing fairly good results,” he said Pope Paul VI taught that the first audience for evangelization is the regular, active parishioner. He argued that practicing Catholics need to reaffirm and deepen their commitment to Christ and the church. Adolescence, young adulthood, middle age or the senior years are stages of life. Each needs to be entered with a mature faith — a faith equal to that life stage. But how are “churched” people evangelized? On an annual basis, the liturgies of Advent and Lent speak of moral challenge and spiritual renewal. The church’s worship summons Catholics to commit themselves in a deeper, more mature manner to Christ. Retreats, days of renewal and parish missions help re-evangelize Catholics. Catholics who are re-evangelized regularly become, in turn, the best evangelizers of their brothers and sisters who are alienated or unchurched Numerous reasons account for people being unchurched. But the real reason in many cases is that no one has ever invited them to a church. In the early church, one of the most powerful forms of evangeliza tion was the attractiveness of a lov ing community. Loving behavior and an affectionate sharing of the good news constitute a powerful method for attracting others to Christ. Evangelization is not meant to be a matter of argumentation. “Win an argument and lose a soul,” is an old saying that applies here. A homely bit of advice from St. Francis de Sales also applies well to evangelizers: “Honey catches more flies than vinegar.” (Father McBride is a well-known religious educator and lecturer.) They couldn't keep it to themselves By Father John Castelot NC News Service W hen St. Paul was on his way back to Jerusalem at the end of his last mis sionary trip, he stop ped off at Caesarea. There he stayed a few days at the home of “Philip the evangelist, one of the seven” Greek-speaking Jewish Christians selected to assist in the administration of the Jerusalem r community (Acts 21:8). They were deacons in the literal sense of “servants, assistants.” Very shortly their ministry bran ched out to include other func tions. Philip is a good example. After the martyrdom of Stephen (another of the seven), Philip went down to the town of Samaria and there proclaimed the Messiah” . (Acts 8:5). Later he moved south in the direction of Gaza. As he went along the road through the Negev, the desert area in the south of Judah, he en countered a court official of the queen of Ethiopia. Headed home,, after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the official was riding in his carriage, reading the book of Isaiah. Philip asked whether he understood what he was reading and when he replied that it was difficult without someone to interpret it for him, Philip grasped the opportunity (Acts 8:26-35). In both instances, Philip exercis ed the ministry of an “evangelist.” The word is actually very general, denoting one who proclaims the good news of what God has done for humanity in Jesus Christ. Because the term is so broad, it is difficult to pin it down to a specific “office” in the communi ty. All Christians were, by reason of their baptism, heralds of the good news. It was so full of ex citing potential for all, that they couldn’t keep it to themselves. They shared it with everyone they met. However, if all Christians were evangelists in this sense, it seems that some were especially gifted. This is strongly suggested by the fact that evangelists are listed along with “apostles, prophets, pastors and teachers” as having received a special gift from the risen Lord “in roles of service for the faithful to build up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11). They rendered this service in a sort of stable way within the local community. Or they could have built up the body of Christ elsewhere, contributing to the body’s geographical growth and development. The only other time the word “evangelist” appears in the New Testament is in second Timothy, Chapter 4, where we read: “As for you, be steady and self-possessed; put up with hardship, perform your work as an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” The close connection between putting up with hardship and serv ing as an evangelist suggests that witnessing to the good news can be difficult. Not all will welcome it. In fact some may resent it. Evidently people like Timothy, Paul’s companion, bravely put up with hardship. So the good news continued to spread, taking root and transforming society. (Father Castelot is a professor of Scripture at St. John’s Seminary, Plymouth, Mich.) FOOD... “The difficulties of our time awaken the boldest dreams, the best powers of mind and heart..., especially in the young. Readiness to share and commit one’s life without reckoning the cost is aroused. People have begun to ask...What can I do? What can we do?” (Pope John Paul II addressing young people in Austria, September 1983). Ruven Reyes and Adolfo Aguila, young men in their 20s, live with three priests and seven other young men planning for the priesthood in a modest home called Casa Comboni in Los Angeles. Part of their preparation to serve as Comboni Missionaries includes weekly visits to squalid residential hotels. Going door to door, the seminarians greet the residents, telling them about the cathedral nearby and its services. In a highly transient area, they try, bit by bit, to build a rela tionship with people. Occasional ly they have the satisfaction of seeing someone they have counseled find a way to move to better quarters. It isn’t easy. Some people shut them out rudely; others, fearful of any authority figure, make the students yell through closed doors. Occasionally it is dangerous. They speak of teen gang members shoving past them ...for discussion What is the first image that comes to mind for you when you hear the word “evan gelization”? What does the word “evangelization” really mean? If anything you do comes under the heading of evangelization, what might it be? Why does Father David O’Rourke say that faith can’t be forced on anyone? Why does Father Alfred McBride say that evangelization isn’t really an argumentative endeavor? What is the key to reaching out to alienated Catholics as Father McBride discusses it? What three groups are iden tified by Father McBride as the audiences for evangelization? ...for thought on a narrow, second floor hallway racing to a fight. Yet, says Aguila, it is “wonder ful, great, beautiful. This is a taste of the future when we’ll be working with the poor” as Com boni Missionaries. Reyes adds that the hotel visits are “essential for us. We don’t teach them. They teach us by the experiences they suffer.” Their attitude comes as no sur prise to Jesuit Father Anastacio Rivera, director of the Spanish Speaking Apostolate for the Los Angeles archdiocese. For 12 years he has worked in Hispanic ministry. He has given much time to preparing lay Hispanics for ministry among the Spanish-speaking. “There is a tremendous amount of good will among Hispanics,” he says. But Father Rivera believes the training for these lay leaders must be easily accessible — because of the strange hours so many Hispanics work and the uncertainty of their lives. And don’t overload people’s circuits, he says. “Make the training very practical, something they can immediately apply in service to their own groups.” “My greatest joy in ministry is when I see our people develop a sense of God’s presence in their lives and become enthused about reaching out to others,” he says. SECOND HELPINGS A Credible Way to Exist as Church, by Bishop Raymond Pena of El Paso, Texas. “Evangelization involves a dialogue from within the realities of people’s daily struggles, joys, dreams and hopes,” Bishop Pena said in this speech. “It is our task as Christians at the close of the second millennium to evangelize, to proclaim the Gospel, so that all may know that Christ and only Christ can fill the void which we experience in contemporary society," Bishop Pena added. Many people find it difficult to find meaning in a materialistic and technological society, he observed.“Our way of being church flows from our understanding of how we be come credible in a meaningless society.” (Published in Origins, Oct. 23, 1986. Write: Origins, 1312 Mass. Ave. N.W., Wash ington, D.C. 20005. Single copy, $3.00.)
