The Context of the Goals - Go and Make Disciples
The Context of the Goals (¶80-88)
80. These goals are addressed to all Catholics in our
country: to every diocese and every parish; to every Catholic person and
every family; to the ordained, religious women and men, and the laity;
to the professional religious worker and the ordinary parishioner; to
large national organizations of Catholics and every parish committee; to
institutions like our Catholic colleges, high schools, and grade
schools as well as associations of the faithful. Although everyone will
pursue these goals with different gifts, no one can claim exemption from
them.
81. These goals are meaningless unless they are steeped in prayer.
Without prayer, the Good News of Jesus Christ cannot be understood,
spread, or accepted. These goals can be accomplished only by opening our
hearts to God, who gives to his children everything they seek,52 who responds when we knock, and who answers when we persevere in asking.53
At Mass, in the Liturgy of the Hours, in prayer groups, and in
individual prayer and devotions, we must ask unceasingly for the grace
to evangelize. The moment we stop praying for the grace to spread the
Good News of Jesus will be the moment when we lose the power to
evangelize.
82. These goals also are issued in accord with the ministry of evangelization that belongs to the whole Catholic Church.
This plan, the product of our reflection in the United States, adapts
to our situation the missionary goals of Christ's Church throughout the
world. They are offered in union with all Catholics everywhere, with
their bishops, and the Holy Father, the Vicar of Christ, the bishop of
Rome, which is the city of the apostles Peter and Paul. Unless
evangelization is done in the context of this universal Catholic
community, it is incomplete.54 We urge this spirit upon our Catholic brothers and sisters.
83. These goals must bear upon our everyday life, in the
family and the workplace, in our neighborhoods and associations, in the
way we live. Catholics will be able to affect people in everyday life
long before they are invited to a parish or to a formal religious event.
All evangelization planning basically strives to make more possible the
kind of everyday exchange between believers and unbelievers, which is
the thrust of evangelization.
84. The parish is the most fitting location for carrying
out these goals because the parish is where most Catholics experience
the Church. It has, on the local level, the same commitments as the
universal Church, with the celebration of God's Word and Eucharist as
its center of worship. Evangelization inevitably involves the parish
community for, ultimately, we are inviting people to our Eucharist, to
the table of the Lord. When an individual evangelizes, one to one, he or
she should have the Good News and the Eucharistic table as the ultimate
focus.
85. These goals assume that an evangelizing spirit will touch
every dimension of Catholic parish life. Welcome, acceptance, the
invitation to conversion and renewal, and reconciliation and peace,
beginning with our worship, must characterize the whole tenor of our
parishes. Every element of the parish must respond to the evangelical
imperative—priests and religious, lay persons, staff, ministers,
organizations, social clubs, parochial schools, and parish religious
education programs. Otherwise, evangelization will be something a few
people in the parish see as their ministry—rather than the reason for
the parish's existence and the objective of every ministry in the
parish. The spirit of conversion, highlighted in the liturgy and
particularly in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, should
radiate through the actions of all Catholics so that the call to
conversion is experienced and celebrated as part of our way of life.
86. Evangelization in the parish should be seen as a
collaborative effort that springs from a partnership between the clergy
and the laity. Priests have a special leadership role in carrying out
this plan, but they should not feel isolated, overburdened, or
frustrated in implementing it. Indeed, we even hope an increase in
evangelizing will attract more people to the priesthood and religious
life. The goals and strategies of our plan are not meant to be an added
burden on already overworked pastoral staffs, as if evangelization were
merely another program to be done. Rather, they should help parishes see
the evangelizing potential of their current activities, even as they
stretch parishes to develop new activities from a renewed spiritual
energy.
87. These goals also call for a consistency: evangelization must
affect the attitude of our Catholic life from top to bottom. We cannot
call for renewal only on the parish level; we cannot proclaim mercy only
for part of the year; we cannot welcome only some people. Everywhere
Americans see Catholics and Catholic institutions they should sense the
spirit of evangelization.
88. These goals, finally, will be carried out in the midst of a
culture that will make them difficult to achieve. This difficulty will
be, in part, a problem of communication because people may prefer
stereotypes of the Catholic Church to a true picture of our faith.
Another part of the difficulty will be social, because people will see
the Catholic Church only as an organization of a certain economic class
or educational level rather than as a richly varied and inviting
community. Also, a superficial pluralism makes it hard for people to
discuss faith seriously in our society. But most difficult of all will
be the moral issues, which make the Good News hard to hear by people
whose values are contrary to the Gospel and who must experience change
in order to hear the message of life we proclaim.
Notes