Spirit-Filled Evangelizer
By Sharon Harman
This is our last official teaching for Pope Francis’ Joy of the Gospel. Last week I started Chapter 5, where we learned that the Holy Spirit is the source of the inspiration and the joy to evangelize, as well as the One who completes the work of salvation in the hearer. We were exhorted to reach out both with the words of salvation, as well as the actions that demonstrate God’s love. Today we will finish Chapter 5 by talking about intercessory prayer, the Blessed Mother, and then I will try to briefly summarize what we have learned.
Many of us are here at this prayer meeting because someone prayed for us. Here at the end of the exhortation, Pope Francis reminds us of the power of intercessory prayer as we reach out to all those to whom God sends us. St. Paul is a wonderful example for us. The introductions to many of his letters are full of concern for people. In Philippians he says,
“I constantly pray for you in every one of my prayers for all of you….because I hold you in my heart.” In Romans he declares “I am longing to see you so that….we may be strengthened together through our mutual faith, yours and mine.”
His letters are also full of prayers of gratitude for the new believers in each city. In I Co. 1:4:
“I give thanks to God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus.”
Paul found joy in what God was doing in the lives and hearts of people he met. The great men and women of God were great intercessors. We know that through our prayers, we join God in his desire that all men and women come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We join him in establishing his Kingdom and in fighting the powers of darkness.
One of the most powerful intercessors we have is Mary, the Mother of the Church. She is the one who yielded most perfectly to the Holy Spirit, and she can lead us in loving her Son more completely. With her, we better understand the spirit of evangelization. Pope Francis devotes several pages to explaining how Jesus gave Mary as Mother to the Church as one of his last acts as he was dying on the Cross. When he spoke to John and said, “Here is your Mother,” and said to Mary, “Here is your son” (Jn. 19:26-27). Jesus also indicated the mutual relationship that all believers can have with his Mother. In a way, every Christian is, like Mary, a bride of God’s word, a mother in the sense of being one who brings forth Christ to the world, who loves Jesus deeply and reveals him to others. As a true mother, Mary is with us in our daily struggles and constantly surrounds us with God’s love. She whose heart was pierced by a sword understands our human pain and suffering, and leads us in how to love others who are in need of God’s love.
Pope Francis asks Mary, as the Mother of the Living Gospel, to intercede that this new phase of evangelization be accepted by the entire Church. He invites believers to look to her to help us proclaim the message of salvation to all. She only desires that all love her Son Jesus and that each one knows of his love for them. When we look to Mary, we see that humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong who do not need to treat others poorly in order to feel important themselves. We can ask her maternal intercession that the Church may become “home” for many peoples. The book closes with a beautiful prayer from Pope Francis. Here is just the first part of that prayer:
Mary, Virgin and Mother,
you who, moved by the Holy Spirit
welcomed the word of life
in the depths of your humble faith:
as you gave yourself completely to the Eternal One,
help us to say our own “yes”
to the urgent call, as pressing as ever,
to proclaim the good news of Jesus.
For the last few minutes I’d like to briefly review some of the highlights of our study. Let’s open our Bibles to Is. 52:7-10:
I would like to invite everyone to stand. We are going to practice what we have been learning. When I give the signal I’d like to ask you to take one minute to reach out to the people around you and share with them the Good News of Jesus’ saving, personal love for them. Speak from your heart. Receive joy from each other. Affirm the beauty you see in each other.
who brings good news”
The joy that is pouring forth from you is beautiful. When you speak or when you hear that God reigns, it is beautiful. The team that gave these teachings is hoping that what we have heard and read in the last couple of months will be like seed that is planted in our souls; that it will take root and slowly grow into a continual harvest of souls for God’s Kingdom. But we have some work to do so that the seed falls on good ground. Weeds of selfishness and complacency have to be rooted out. Pope Francis exhorts us to stop being indifferent to the poor and those on the margins of society, to reach out and be involved in people’s lives. We have learned that evangelizing is not about what we do, but who we are. We cannot give away what we ourselves do not posses.
There are some cultural challenges to living the Gospel, too, like the emphasis on money and over-exposure to mass media. Threats to the family weaken the fabric of our entire society. Unfair economic systems and attacks on religious freedom stifle Christians in various countries.
We know that not every chapter of this exhortation will touch each person equally; you may or may not grasp certain points. But we should all grasp the heart of the Gospel message, that God the Father has revealed his immense love in the crucified and risen Jesus. It is a message of great joy for each person - that they are infinitely loved. What a blessing to be reviewing this message on Palm Sunday, on the Eve of Holy Week.
Let’s open to Zechariah 9:9-10,
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war-horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall command peace to the nations;
his dominion shall be from sea to sea
and from the River to the ends of the earth.”
As our King comes to us during this season, humble yet victorious, let us imitate the crowds of Palm Sunday; let’s raise our voices of praise and rejoicing to Him! We proclaim “His dominion shall be from sea to sea….to the ends of the earth!” The whole world is hungry for God, the fields are white with harvest. Where will God find a people who are ready to share His love with all? If not us, then who?
Community Gathering, March 20, 2016