The New Evangelization: 'Set Out into the Deep'

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Special to the HERALD
(From the issue of 7/11/02)

During the next four weeks I shall be sharing with you a series of reflections on the New Evangelization to which our Holy Father continuously directs our attention. The following address was given at the Knights of Columbus Eucharistic Congress June 23.

We begin our reflection by recalling a very instructive scene recorded in chapter five of St. Luke’s Gospel. "While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch’" (Lk 5:1-4). Our Holy Father recalls this very scene at the beginning of his Apostolic Letter on the New Millennium. "Duc in altum! [Put out into the deep] These words ring out for us today, and they invite us to remember the past with gratitude, to live the present with enthusiasm, and to look forward to the future with confidence: ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever’ (Heb 13:8)" (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 1). Yes, "put out into the deep!" Recalling our profound dignity as disciples of Jesus, recommitting ourselves to our baptismal promises and responding to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, we eagerly and joyfully enter into these opening years of the third Christian millennium by being both evangelized ourselves and evangelizing. If we are faithful to the Lord’s invitation to reform and to proclaim the good news, this new millennium shall become the millennium of the new evangelization.

Indeed, the Holy Father tells us that this new millennium creates a new and opportune moment for evangelization. Once the persecutions ended, the remaining part of the first millennium was marked by relative peace in the Church and in the world, and by the Faith taking root in the hearts of men and women and in societies. After the Edict of Milan in 313, which made Christianity legal, the Church began to spread throughout the world without fear of persecution. The message of Christ was brought to the most remote corners of the world by Christians liberated and set on fire by the saving message of Jesus Christ. Deep division, war and disbelief, on the other hand, marked the second millennium. The second millennium was the scene of religious divisions, such as the schism of 1054, the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, and a perverse form of rationalism that led many to atheism. It also witnessed political and intellectual divisions which were manifested in many great wars. With each passing century, the weapons of war were honed so that each succeeding war displayed more horrific weapons of destruction than the last. In the end, the second Christian millennium was marked by mass destruction of property, genocide, biological, chemical and even nuclear weapons, and atheistic rationalism began to take root where Christianity had once flourished. What will mark the third Christian millennium?

As Christians, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to help shape the future of this third Christian millennium. We are disciples of Jesus Christ, and as such we have been commissioned to "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that [Jesus has] commanded." (cf Mt. 28:19-20). We must never lose sight of the fact that our Faith is a gift that we have received from God through the words and example of others. St. Paul reminds us: "But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?" (Rom 10:14)

Pope John Paul II reminds us in his Apostolic Letter on the New Millennium that the new evangelization is the Gospel responsibility given to us in this third Christian millennium. We must earnestly seek to build greater unity within the Church both among ourselves as Catholics, and with our separated brethren. We must reach out to those who have fallen away from the Faith because of weakness or trauma, and invite them to return home. After all, the family is never content unless all its members are present. Lastly, we must reach out to the unchurched. There are millions of men, women and children who have never heard of Jesus Christ, who have never had someone take the time to explain the history of salvation to them or the freedom won for us by Jesus Christ on Calvary. As individuals and as the Body of Christ present in society, we must bring the message of salvation to the men and women of the third Christian millennium.

How are we to do this? We must begin with ourselves. Transformation in Christ Jesus is essential if we are to be His witnesses. In order to carry out our mission to evangelize and re-evangelize our world, we must be converted. We must diligently work to eradicate sin in our lives and to grow in virtue, because sin is a darkness that obscures the light of Christ. Jesus tells us: "You are the light of the world" (Mt 5:14). In order to carry out the new evangelization, we must do all that we can to allow the light of the life of Christ that we first received in baptism to shine out as a beacon for others in a world permeated by the culture of death. Yes, since we are members of the Body of Christ, we must do all that we can to allow the light of Christ to shine out from the Church: in our parishes, in our worship, in our outreach and in our programs.

Again, how are we to allow the light of Christ to shine out both in our individual lives, and in the Body of Christ, the Church? By humbling ourselves and coming to the feet of the Savior who suffered, died and rose from the dead to restore us to the Father, and who is sacramentally present in all the tabernacles of the world. Our greatest treasure is the Eucharist, and when we actively participate in the Mass, and humbly adore Christ in the Eucharist, we come into contact with the living and risen Lord. Only Jesus Christ can set us free from sin. Scripture clearly teaches us: "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Jesus tells us: "I have come that you may have life, and have it abundantly." "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing" (Jn 15:5).

Is this not a message worth bringing to everyone we meet? No longer do men and women have to live in the bondage of sin. Jesus Christ has liberated us from sin, and through His grace we can be transformed into the image of the invisible God. Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, reminds us that in our efforts to bring the saving message of Christ to the world we must set "all pastoral initiatives … in relation to holiness" (no. 30). He reminds us in his Apostolic Letter on the New Millennium that "It is necessary…to rediscover the full practical significance of … the ‘universal call to holiness.’ … to make the call to holiness an intrinsic and essential aspect of [our] teaching on the Church ….

This as it were objective gift of holiness is offered to all the baptized. But the gift in turn becomes a task, which must shape the whole of Christian life: ‘This is the will of God, your sanctification’ (I Thes 4:3). … [I]t might seem almost impractical to recall this elementary truth as the foundation of the pastoral planning in which we are involved at the start of the new millennium. ... [T]his ideal of perfection must not be misunderstood as if it involved some kind of extraordinary existence, possible only for a few ‘uncommon heroes’ of holiness. … The time has come to repropose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living" (no. 30-31).

Holiness is necessary if we wish to effectively carry out the new evangelization, because we witness first through our lives, and, then, through our words. Pope John Paul II reminds us that the source of our holiness, both as individuals and as a Church, and the source of efficaciousness for this mission to evangelize and to re-evangelize is the Eucharist. He tells us, "It is therefore obvious that our principal attention must be given to the liturgy, ‘the summit toward which the Church’s action tends and at the same time the source from which comes all her strength" (no. 35). And again, "The Sunday Eucharist which every week gathers Christians together as God’s family round the table of the Word and the Bread of Life, is also the most natural antidote to dispersion. It is the privileged place where communion is ceaselessly proclaimed and nurtured. Precisely through sharing in the Eucharist, the Lord’s Day also becomes the Day of the Church, when she can effectively exercise her role as the sacrament of unity" (no. 36).

Therefore, let us "put out into the deep" for a catch as our Holy Father invites us to do. Empowered by our Eucharistic Lord, let us bring the saving message of Jesus Christ to everyone we meet. As individuals and as a Church, let us realize the great revelation entrusted to us by Jesus and let us set out on the roads and highways of the third Christian millennium to be lights to our world so much in darkness, and proclaim to the ends of the earth that "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that whoever should believe in Him should not perish, but should have eternal life" (cf Jn. 3:16).

May this third Christian millennium be marked by a fervent devotion to our Eucharistic Lord Who waits for us in every tabernacle throughout the world. May the Eucharist in turn empower us to efficaciously carry out the new evangelization which will both bring the saving message of Christ to those who have never received it, and reawaken faith in those who have forgotten it. And, may the Blessed Virgin Mary, from whom the Eucharistic Lord took His flesh, accompany us with her loving solicitude and heavenly power as we set out into the deep for a catch in this third Christian millennium. Amen.

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