What is the goal of evangelization?
You can probably think of so many answers to this question. (To communicate God’s love, to spread the Good News, to bring Light to those in darkness, etc.) At the Pilgrim Center of Hope, we often answer this question with, “To guide individuals, families and neighborhoods toward finding a deeper relationship with Christ.” Indeed, today’s gospel reading invites us to realize the beautiful implications of this goal. Jesus unfolds a scroll from the book of Isaiah and reads:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
From your own experience of encountering a deeper relationship with Christ, I know you certainly can relate to that liberation. As baptized Christians, we have been anointed by the Spirit of the Lord to do these things. Isn’t it astounding to think that God works such miracles through weak creatures like us?
Pope Paul VI in his encyclical, Evangelii Nuntiandi, put it this way: “The person who has been evangelized goes on to evangelize others. Here lies the test of truth, the touchstone of evangelization: it is unthinkable that a person should accept the Word and give himself to the kingdom without becoming a person who bears witness to it and proclaims it in his turn.” (24)
You can probably think of so many answers to this question. (To communicate God’s love, to spread the Good News, to bring Light to those in darkness, etc.) At the Pilgrim Center of Hope, we often answer this question with, “To guide individuals, families and neighborhoods toward finding a deeper relationship with Christ.” Indeed, today’s gospel reading invites us to realize the beautiful implications of this goal. Jesus unfolds a scroll from the book of Isaiah and reads:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
From your own experience of encountering a deeper relationship with Christ, I know you certainly can relate to that liberation. As baptized Christians, we have been anointed by the Spirit of the Lord to do these things. Isn’t it astounding to think that God works such miracles through weak creatures like us?
Pope Paul VI in his encyclical, Evangelii Nuntiandi, put it this way: “The person who has been evangelized goes on to evangelize others. Here lies the test of truth, the touchstone of evangelization: it is unthinkable that a person should accept the Word and give himself to the kingdom without becoming a person who bears witness to it and proclaims it in his turn.” (24)
Through our lives, every word and every action, we are representatives of Jesus Christ.
Do we realize that we are indeed anointed? Let us prayerfully discern this imperative question for the remaining days of the Christmas season: How much am I allowing the Spirit of God to work through me so that the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed may see His Light and be liberated?
Want to learn more about evangelization? Feel free to visit us at the Pilgrim Center of Hope, a Catholic evangelization ministry. Online: http://www.pilgrimcenterofhope.org
Do we realize that we are indeed anointed? Let us prayerfully discern this imperative question for the remaining days of the Christmas season: How much am I allowing the Spirit of God to work through me so that the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed may see His Light and be liberated?
Want to learn more about evangelization? Feel free to visit us at the Pilgrim Center of Hope, a Catholic evangelization ministry. Online: http://www.pilgrimcenterofhope.org
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