In the Gospel today the Lord shows forth that his plan for Evangelization is not just some sort of haphazard, shoot from the hip program where he wanders about aimlessly. Rather he had a plan to visit specific cities at specific times. And, in order to prepare for his visit, he sent an entourage ahead of him to prepare the town for his visit and also to arrange for the necessary preliminaries. The texts says quite clearly: At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. (Luke 10:1).
Now these lead teams, these evangelizers, received seven basic instructions from the Lord on how to effectively evangelize. These seven basic habits are also for us who have receive the mandate to evangelize (cf Matt 28: 19). Let’s look at them briefly:
1. Supplication – Jesus said, The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Hence before any effective evangelizing takes place there must be prayer. In my own parish we are preparing to go out two by two in the Fall. Prior to this we have prayed for over a year, holding Eucharistic holy hours, praying at Mass and Bible study for a fruitful team of laborers sent, not by man, but by God. On Pentecost Sunday 50 people signed up to walk door to door. They are the fruit of prayer. So step one for effective evangelization is to have a praying community asking for laborers. When we go door to door fifty others have signed up to stay in Church and pray as we walk. Habit one: Pray!
2: Sobriety. The Lord tells them Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves (Luke 10:3) We do have to be sober about the fact that we are in world that is both critical of and hostile to our faith. We are bound to experience persecution, ridicule, anger, being ignored, misunderstanding, misinterpretation, misrepresentations and just plain missiles. That we experience the world’s hatred or anger does not mean we have done anything wrong. The Lord was clear that the hatred of the world was a sign of true discipleship: If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. (John 15:18-20). Too many Christians today want the world to like them and think that holiness is about winning a popularity contest and being nice. Well the fact is that Jesus did not end up on the cross by winning a popularity contest and just being nice. He had enemies and so do we. We are not to hate them. We are to love them but we have to be sober about accepting some degree of hatred from the world. And to those who have won the popularity contest and have no enemies Jesus warns: Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets (Luke 6:26). The true disciple and true evangelizer will experience some degree of hatred, anger and scorn. We must be sober about this. We do not look for a fight, but hatred will come. An old spiritual says, “I been ‘buked and I been scorned. I been talked ’bout sures yo’ born…..” Habit 2 is sobriety
3. Simplicity – The Lord tells us to travel light: Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way (Lk 10:4) We are to bring nothing along that will weigh us down or hinder our task. The fact is we all have a lot of baggage in this life that hinders us from the more important work of Evangelizing our family and others. Too many parents barely know their kids because they work long hours at jobs to pay for a life style that is too expensive. On top of this we add endless projects and pursuits that keep us running all over God’s green acre. Perhaps good in themselves, they become too much of a good thing and we end up barely knowing the first people we are to evangelize, our children. The Lord says, lighten up, less, is more, simplify and do with less. Do what is more important first: God, family, parish and community. Learn to prioritize and say “no” when necessary. Bottom line is that we have too much baggage, too many distractions and the Gospel goes unlived and unpreached. The unusual instruction “Greet no one along the way” means that we ought not allow any relationship to hinder us either. There are folks who can sidetrack us hinder our progress and we ought to limit such contacts charitably.
4. Serenity – The Lord says, Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household’ (Luke 10: 5) Though the world may be hostile at times, the Lord tells us, upon entering into any place to say “Peace to the his household.” We do not go forth with hostility but with a serene joy and love. We must love those to whom we announce the Gospel. We are to radiate a serene confidence, joy and peace. We are not picking a fight or trying to win an argument. If we need to clarify a misunderstanding someone has we ought to do so peacefully and with serene confidence. Because we are confident in the truth we are serene in it. Shalom, peace is at our core, not hostility or aggressiveness.
5. Stability– The Lord instructs us Stay in the same house…..Do not move about from one house to another. (Luke 10:7) Thus the Lord tells us to find our place and stay there. In the end, the best evangelization takes place where there are deeper relationships. But deep relationships cannot exist when we are running all over the place and relating to others only superficially. We ought to stay put more with family, parish and community and have deep roots. Too many people barely know their own family. No wonder the faith is not passed on in the diffuse, rushed and sporadic climate of the family. Find home and stay there routinely. Build deep relationships.
6. Sensitivity – the Lord says Eat and drink what is offered to you,…..cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.’ In other words the Lord counsels simple human kindness where we do not criticize about unnecessary things like the quality of food, or matters of preference. Further he counsels that we have a charge to bring healing and help to others. We may cure the sick by physical cures but the kind of healing necessary is often more emotional and spiritual. We ought to manifest care for others. Even the simple act of listening to someone can bring great healing. Without simple human kindness, declaring that the Kingdom of God is at hand can not only be empty but it can make the kingdom seem odious. The say to others that the Kingdom of God is at hand means that they can start living a whole new life. We ought then to manifest kindness, bring forth cures by helping people find wholeness and healing from the many blows this world inflicts. The Kingdom of God is not only about doctrine, it is about healing, holiness, and the wholeness that comes from both as well as from true doctrine.
7. Soulful Joy– The disciples returned with great joy and the Lord celebrates with them and helps to deepen their joy. There is nothing worse than a sour-faced saint or a bored believer. In the end, the greatest evangelization is to manifest a joy at what God is doing in our lives. This joy is not a sentimental emotional joy necessarily but a deeper serene joy rooted in confidence, hope and love. Do people see you in this way? If they do the ground is fertile for evangelization. St. Peter says, Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have (1 Peter 3:15). Now of course giving an answer presupposes that someone notices the hope and joy in us and noticing this they ask. Does anyone notice this about you?
So then here are seven habits of divinely inspired evangelizers as taught by the Lord himself.
I love this!
Thank you !
Would if be possible to publish these reflections the day before or even the afternoon before the day? If I do to the 6:30 am Mass is would be nice to have been able to reflect on them the night before. Thank you very much for these very inspirational reflections. They are very helpful.
I will try. I tend to prepare my homilies up to the last moment but will try to follow your request to the best of my ability.
These are stellar: how easy and how often we forget ourselves and breach one of these instructions, particularly sensitivity? Our Lord tells us to use a spoon to feed others, not a sledgehammer. Thank you for this marvelous meditation! May we all apply it diligently to our own witness.
Amen. Thanks
If you combined your 2 and 4, Monsignor (which are conceptually linked) you would have scope to expand on a very interesting and practical aspect of Our Lord’s plan which you have already built into your parish’s challenging and ambitious evangelization project: the 72 disciples were sent out in pairs (cf. the similar instructions reported at Mk.6:7 as having been given to the Twelve, who, we are told, were also sent out in pairs – not , incidentally, the event shown in the Duccio panel above because there are only eleven Apostles in it, so that must be a depiction of the Great Commission at Galilee, also noted by you).
Every best wish for that project, by the way. I pray that it will be fruitful both in confirming the faith of those who participate (and stimulating all in the parish to be ready to give an account of why their faith brings them joy: 1Pet.3:15) and in drawing others to Jesus who is the way the truth and the life (Jn.14:6).
Yes, I guess when I look at the text I can really find about 12 teachings embedded. So you are right, combining might have made room for more.
Fatih is a tall order. I find it a subtle process in evangelizing to family members, friends and even more so with public aquaintences without apearing to proseletize and put them on the defensive. Evangelizing for me is more like sailing through troubled waters while trying to stay the course and maintain my grounding in my fatih. I can’t realy say that it has any positive affect on those involved and I can only pray to God that something good eventually grows out of it. There is no immediate results and more often it’s like planting seeds that come to pass like the parable of the sower and how the seeds fell upon various types of soil conditions. Then there is the other side where I wonder if I am living up to the what is evangelized to me.
Wonderful 7 S,s One more may be incleded that is SUDDEN . One should not postpone evangelisation until tomorrow, lest it wont be done at all
After a great homily I heard this morning, yours Msgr. made my evening. The video was so inspiring.
I too wish you much success with your parish’s evangelizing. Let us all follow B-XVI in his quest.
Thank you.
Dear Fr., I like your reflections a lot..they are very inspiring and thought provoking..may God bless you in your mission..
Dear Msgr.,
I love how you soundly draw these principles from the very text. It strikes me as a wonderful model for parish wide evangelization initiatives… As a father of a growing family, I appreciate the exhortation to “travel light.” To be attentive to our children, put down the projects and go build relationship so I meaningfully share Jesus Christ. Ahh, to be more intentional.