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by The Most Reverend Sam Jacobs, DD, Bishop of Alexandria, LA
The word "disciple" is not used in the
New Testament, but the concept of disciple is found 261 times in the Gospels and in the
Acts. Reflecting on these scripture references helps to develop an insight and
appreciation into the understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Where
discipleship focuses primarily on relationship to another, as Master, evangelization is
one of the ways a disciple of Jesus ministers and lives out being a follower under
discipline and under directive. As we reflect on both discipleship and evangelization, we
will see how discipleship is at the heart of evangelization.
One becomes a disciple when called by Jesus himself. In scriptures, many people followed
Jesus and came to Jesus for a variety of reasons: to be taught, to be healed, out of
curiosity, and some even to test him. Some sought to be his disciples as they would other
Rabbis. But when Jesus said, "I'm giving you my body to eat and my blood to drink and
my body is real food and my blood is real drink and unless you eat my body and drink my
blood you shall not have life everlasting" (John:6),many disciples no longer walked
with him. When it came to a faith moment, a time to put their total selves in Jesus, they
could not walk with him any longer.
But in Jesus' ministry, only those called by him personally became and remained his
disciples. He called Peter, James, Andrew, John, Levi, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna.
But not all who were called accepted discipleship. When the rich young man came, and Jesus
offered him discipleship at the total price of his life, he walked away sadly. And some
disciples did not remain faithful when it came to the test of time. Judas betrayed Jesus.
The call of the disciple, then, transcends social, religious, and ethnic considerations.
And gender. This call of Jesus demands a response that is special because it is so
radical. Jesus called his disciples to a total break with anything which would prevent
unconditional commitment to ministry. When we are in the work of evangelization, that is
what God is calling us into: unconditional commitment to the ministry
Jesus said, "Whoever would save his life will lose it; whoever will lose his life for
my sake will save it." Peter and his companions left their families, their livelihood
as fishermen, to become fishers of men. Levi left his lucrative position as a tax
collector and Mary Magdalene turned away from her former way of life to become a disciple.
What prevented some from following was this radical demand of total self-surrender,
commitment. "Jesus, I'll go so far, but don't ask more than that of me. I'll get
involved in evangelization, but don't ask me to go all the way with you."
Discipleship has to be total commitment of one's life to Jesus. No matter what Jesus asks.
"You're in it with me or you're not in it with me." You're in the boat or you're
out of the boat!
Jesus said, "The foxes have lairs; the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of
Man has nowhere to lay down his head. Can you walk the journey with me?" Jesus said,
"Whoever puts his hand to the plow, but keeps looking back, is unfit for the reign of
God. Can you walk the journey with me?" That's discipleship.
Discipleship means entering into a lifelong relationship with Jesus. This is the plan of
God. And Jesus is the pattern, the model disciple, under the discipline of the Father. He
did only what the Father told him to do. He spoke the words of the Father. He was
discipled, in that sense, by the Father.
So we need to know what it means to be a disciple in relationship to Jesus. Then we have
to look at Jesus and his relationship to the Father. Jesus, in his humanity, was so in
love with the Father that he desired to commit his whole life to doing the will of the
Father. "My food is to do the will of my Father." It was not enough for Jesus to
know this in his heart; he wanted to make public his relationship and his commitment. He
wanted his life to be a public witness to his union with the Father, not just a private,
vertical relationship. He wanted his deeds to be a witness of the love of the Father.
This intimacy with the Father and the Spirit did not happen overnight. For thirty years
Jesus was under formation in the religious environment provided by Mary and Joseph and by
the covenant relationship with Yahweh. He heard the Scripture in the synagogue every
Sabbath and was immersed in God's saving deeds throughout the various religious
celebrations. The Shema was not just words with Jesus, but the Shema was his
rule of life. "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole
mind, your whole soul, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself." That was his
whole life. Thus, he was impelled by the lead of the Spirit to go down into the Jordan
River to be baptized by John not because of sin, but because of his consuming love and
desire to serve and to do the will of the Father.
In Luke 3:2122, "When all the people were baptized, and Jesus was at prayer after
likewise being baptized, the skies opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in visible
form, like a dove. A voice from heaven was heard to say, 'You are my beloved Son. On you
my favor rests."' This is just a hint of Jesus' life with the Father.
This relationship is identified analogously in the parable of the vine and the branches
and is exemplified in the living out of the Sermon on the Mount. This relationship cannot
be something experienced years ago as a child or as a young adult. It must be a now
relationship,
alive and developing today, always open to the new gifts of God's personal love in the
present moment. A relationship that is nurtured daily in the quiet of prayer and intimacy,
in word and sacraments, in the desert of purification and in the valley of restoration.
The call to holiness for a disciple is concomitant with the call to evangelize. How can
one effectively proclaim God's love and witness Christ if that love is not effectively
visible in the person's life7 How can the Spirit empower us to evangelize if the life of
the Spirit is dormant or stagnant within us? The disciple is not merely to learn from
Jesus, but to share his whole life with him, without reservation, even to embracing the
cross. Jesus says, "As I have done, so you must do." Whoever wishes to be my
disciple must deny his very self, take up his cross each day, and follow in my steps.
"
The disciples learn how to face the trials and persecutions which are part of life because
of their relationship and commitment to Jesus and his mission for them. His life is their
life. His mission is their mission. His way of service is their way of service. Disciples
have been called, formed, and sent out by Jesus in the power of the Spirit to proclaim the
good news of salvation with signs and wonders confirming their proclamation.
In the Scriptures, there is a direct relationship between evangelization and the gifts of
the Holy Spirit. Jesus evangelized and confirmed the words he was sharing with signs and
wonders. He led the Samaritan woman at the well, he led her from the external fact that he
was a male Jew, to the internal faith realization that he was the Messiah. He exercised
the gift of the word of knowledge, telling her that the man she was living with was not
her husband. As she was brought to the grace of salvation, the power of the Spirit was
evident. When Jesus healed the man blind from birth, he was able to bring him from
physical blindness to physical sight, from spiritual blindness to spiritual insight.
The power of the Spirit is manifested in the process of evangelization both when the
person experiences the miracle and when the person comes to the moment of faith: faith
proclamation in the saving work of Jesus Christ. For it is the Spirit that opens the heart
to the fullness of truth: the heart of the unbeliever, the searcher, the sinner, the
backslider, the indifferent or the inactive person. It is the grace of the Spirit that
triggers the response of faith and deeper commitment in the person who freely chooses to
say, "Yes!" to Jesus and call upon His Name.
The discipleevangelist is merely the instrument of choice in the hands of God. We are all
instruments in the hands of God. Over and over, the same process, which is the plan of God
for salvation, is played out in the new Testament accounts. And if the scriptures are to
be models for us, then what does this say about us today? We are called today by God to be
his disciples with the same mission: to evangelize.
The call to evangelize is not a new call. Even though our Holy Father has coined the term
"new evangelization," what he says is that it must be new in method, new in
expression, and new in zeal. But it is the same evangelization, the same plan of God. That
doesn't change. The people who are doing it are changed. It's the new people of God, with
new zeal, with new enthusiasm, with new commitment. That's the newness. The plan is the
same. The new evangelization needs new witnesses, people who have experienced a change in
their lives because of their contact with Jesus. And who are capable of passing on that
experience to others. It's based on a relationship with Jesus and following the plan of
God, passing on that gift that God has given you to someone else.
The commission to continue and extend the work of evangelization was given with great
clarity by Jesus himself to the apostles before his ascension. "Go, therefore, and
make disciples of all the nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. Teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you, and know that I
am with you always, until the end of the world " (MT 28:1920).
Disciples make disciples. That's what we're about: proclaiming to the world the good news
that God loves us, has redeemed and is redeeming the world through Christ.
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The ever-increasing demands placed on
us by the world we live in pose the possible temptation of neglecting our raison
d'etre, Evangelization, for the many "urgent" and too often unimportant
things that clamor for our constant attention. Whether one is a cleric, a religious or a
lay person, the temptation is the same: leave the essential mission of the Church to
someone else, or to some better time.
In Evangelii nuntiandi, his "magna carte" on Evangelization, Pope Paul Vl
poignantly states, "the task of evangelizing all peoples constitutes the essential
mission of the Church. It is a task and mission which the vast and profound changes
of presentday society make all the more urgent. Evangelizing is in fact the grace and
vocation proper to the Church her deepest Identity. She exists in order to evangelize..
{No. 14).
This most deeply held value we should be willing to live and die for, as did the men
and women of old and as do so many modernday martyrs. This mission must get constant
priority on our Daily List of Activities. We cannot afford to leave this task to someone
else or to some other time, for there is no one else to whom we can leave it, and there is
no better time for proclaiming the Gospel.
We are it! Suitable or unsuitable as
they may have seemed in the eyes of their contemporaries or in their own, it was to
disciples like us that the Lord entrusted this mission: "Go into the whole world
and proclaim the good news to all creation ' (Mk 16: 15). Had the first disciples not
been diligent in making evangelization their main apostolate and daily activity, you and I
would not even be around to talk about it. Our duty is to follow those men and women
empowered by the Holy Spirit received at Pentecost, who immediately began to proclaim the
marvels of God with boldness to all they met. They wasted no time! They knew they could
not afford to postpone or to leave this allimportant duty to others. They were convinced
that the Church, and each one of them as Church, exists in order to evangelize, to
proclaim the Good News to all creation.
In this same spirit, our Holy Father John Paul II for over twelve years has consistently
called the Church to a "new evangelization: new in fervor, new in method, and new
in expression.. (Haiti, 1983) This new evangelization is one which must touch every
level of our being, of the Church and of the world, renewing and empowering us with the
same missionary zeal and enthusiasm for the Faith that set the early Church in motion. In
this way, all that we say and do as Church will be impregnated with the evangelistic
impetus that characterized Jesus' own life, a zeal that will enable us effectively to
"go and make disciples of all the nations " (Mt 28:1 9).
This new evangelization is not limited to the Pope and a few Cardinals, but the duty
of all the baptized. "Evangelization is a duty of the People of God" (Ad
gentes, No. 35). It is crucial that each do his or her share. The conversion of
millions of human beings depends on it. As the Holy Father reminds us, "We cannot
be content when we consider the millions of our brothers and sisters, who like us have
been redeemed by the blood of Christ, but who live in ignorance of the love of God. For
each believer, as for the entire Church, the missionary task must remainforemost,
for it concerns the eternal destiny of humanity and corresponds to God's mysterious and
merciful plan" (Redemptoris missio, No. 86). The time has never been better to
contribute to the unfolding of such a plan!
In his reading of the signs of the
times, John Paul II has prophetically declared the dawning of a new missionary age such as
the Church has never seen before. As Pastor of the Universal Church, he solemnly declared
in Redemptoris missio, No.3:
"I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the Church's energies to
a new evangelization and to the mission ad gentes. No believer in Christ, no institution
of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples."
And as a friend of mine would say when preaching, "Are you with me,
Church7"
The Holy Father sees the dawning of the third millennium as a new Pentecost of
missionary zeal and evangelistic fruitfulness, a great time for all believers to give a
united witness to Christ before the whole world. As the first followers of Jesus, we must
become convinced that, "Now is the acceptable time! Now is the day of salvation (2
Cor 6:2).
While we do have the same call, we do
not all share the same talents and gifts. If you lack knowledge of the Faith, take time to
acquire it. The New Catechism is an excellent means. If you lack training and practice in
giving personal witness and proclaiming the kerygma, make it a priority to seek
such training and practice. There are various training programs and schools of
evangelization throughout the country. For information on those nearest you, contact:
ACCSE/2000: Evangelization 2000, 3045 4th St., NE, Washington, DC 20017; (202) 5262814.
If you lack boldness or the motivation needed to witness to Jesus Christ wherever you go,
do not let the sun go down without remedying this situation. Ask the Lord explicitly to
renew your zeal as a disciple committed to continuing His mission on earth. Beg Him to
help you capture His vision for this new springtime which is about to dawn for
Christianity. Begin today to remove from your life whatever
hinders you from being the evangelizer you are meant to be. Believe me: you will be
surprised at what you will see!
It is time to prepare for the Great
Jubilee Year 2000. A great harvest of souls for the Lord as a birthday present! Let us
focus our entire attention on evangelization the mission for which we exist. Perhaps we
can implement what the Marianist fathers and brothers profess in their Rule:
"Whatever does not contribute to the mission, we delete from our life. EVERYTHING!
Everything we do is meant to contribute, directly or indirectly to our mission (The
Society of Mary, Rule, Art. 5.1).This is a focus on the essential, a focus that lights
the blaze necessary "to set the earth on fire" (Lk. 12:49).
If we are to see God's light shine in the darkness as it did that first Christmas 2000
years ago, we must take up our call with greater urgency than ever. If we commit ourselves
to making evangelization a priority in our lives, we will witness numerous conversions and
Church growth such as those experienced by Peter, Paul, and the early Church. If we do so
in the Pentecost power of the Holy Spirit, we also will be able to convert three thousand
souls with a single sermon, and not have to worry about preaching three thousands sermons
to convert a single soul.
A world of fragile peace and broken promises awaits the Good News of the Gospel. Someone
has to tell the world about the Redeemer. If not us, who? If not now, when? To the extent
that all believers and Church institutions translate into their daily lives the Church's
most deeply held, core value, the very mission of the Redeemer, and thus reflect the
ardent missionary zeal of Christ and of His first followers to that extent will the Church
and the world enjoy a new springtime of blessings during the next 1000 years.
Former Director, Prayer Campaign of EVANGELIZATION 2000, Martha Fernandez-Sardina, SFO,
speaks on a variety of topics related to evangelization, prayer, and Christian growth.
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I am writing this letter while giving two weeks of teachings
at the John Paul 11 Bible School in Radway, Alberta, Canada. This school, under the
immediate supervision of Bishop Raymond Roy of St. Paul, Alberta, was founded in 1984 as
an outreach of the Charismatic Renewal of Western Alberta. Each year the school accepts
about 25 students from all over the world for one year of Bible study.
What is unique about the school is that each student is vividly conscious of answering a
special call of the Lord. The stories the students tell about themselves are a revelation
of how powerfully God is working in the lives of his people today, even in a society which
seems, from so many outward signs, to have forgotten him. Some students have come as a
result of an almost miraculous conversion story, others come simply to increase their
closeness with God.
After the year of study, they go on to a variety of activities in the service of the Lord.
Some are hired as parish youth ministers; a number have served in Catholic evangelization
teams such as NET, in Canada and the US. At least five have entered the seminary for the
Catholic priesthood, and the remainder have returned home to serve more intensely in their
local parishes.
The visit of Pope John Paul II to Edmonton was the occasion for founding the Bible School.
In Tertio Millennio Adveniente, Our Holy Father announced that the Church will be
celebrating the year 2000 as an extraordinarily great jubilee, marked in a special way by
the "New Evangelization." He writes:
"The term Jubilee speaks of joy; not just an inner joy but a jubilation which
is manifested outwardly, for the coming of God is also an outward, visible, audible and
tangible event."
Preparation for 2000 is "the heremeutical key" for the pontificate of Pope John
Paul II. He has convoked periodic synods of bishops to discuss the many matters of concern
to the Church, but the theme underlying them all has been evangelization as laid down by
Pope Paul Vl in his landmark Apostolic Exhortation on Evangelization In the Modern
World.
Clearly, people are hungering for the gospel and its moral values. I see one of the
greatest evidences of this hunger in the response of voters to the politicians calling for
greater acknowledgment of family values. The political issues involved exceed the modest
limits of our newsletter, but the issues that are being discussed indicate that Catholic
efforts at evangelization will meet receptive hearts and minds. Consequently, this issue
of The GoodNews Letter focuses on "The Church as Evangelizer."
As always, we are deeply grateful to those who have contributed so graciously to the
effectiveness of the Institute's ministry on behalf of the word of God by writing such
excellent articles for this issue of The GoodNews Letter. The titles of the
articles alone tell us how the Church remains a true instrument of evangelization in our
own day.
As we pray the Prayer for the Decade of Evangelization, we ask the Lord to bless
the efforts of his Church as we, as members of Christ's body, reach out to share our joy
in the Lord with the whole world.
Sincerely in Jesus, Risen and Lord,
John Burke, OP, Executive Director
Continued in Part 2...
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