Praise be Jesus and Mary.
This past Sunday I was outside walking around just before Vespers, heading towards the church,
and I met four young men, probably between the ages of 14 and 18, and they weren't Catholic.
They asked me if they could have permission, if it was okay, to walk around the property or go in the church.
And they said, you know, can we ask you some questions? I said, sure.
And the first question that one of these young men asked was, what do Catholics think about evangelizing?
Now, Sunday, this happened on Sunday, happened to be World Mission Sunday.
And our Holy Father was holding a synod of bishops in Rome on the new evangelization.
And in his speech to the bishops, the Holy Father said, the church exists to evangelize.
This is what Catholics think about evangelizing. The church exists to evangelize.
Now, we,
being members of the church, should take this message of the Holy Father to heart.
Because
how, what percentage of Catholics are evangelizing?
And yet, that's what the church exists for.
The church, the mystical body of Christ, carries on the mission of Christ,
which is a mission of salvation.
We go to the church, and we go to the church, and we go to the church, and we go to the church, and we go to the church.
We go to all the nations of the world. For what?
To proclaim the gospel, to save souls.
That's the mission ad gentes, to those who haven't yet heard the gospel.
But now we have a new evangelization that must take place, and that the Holy Father is calling for.
He says,
The missio ad gentes, or announcement of the gospel, to those who do not yet know Jesus Christ,
and his message of salvation, constitutes one part of evangelization.
But the other, the new evangelization, is directed principally at those who, though baptized,
have drifted away from the church, and live without reference to the Christian life.
So, we are at the point in the life of the church,
when we need to evangelize our own,
those who are already baptized.
It means, though they are baptized, they still haven't heard the message of the gospel, so to speak.
Poor catechesis, poor instruction on the part of parents,
or for indifference on their own part, whatever the reason might be.
But the problem is so wide,
so widespread, throughout those countries that were once Christian,
that we need a new evangelization.
Well, this refers, of course, to all of us.
The church exists to evangelize.
We need to look at our lives, and ask ourselves,
what am I doing, member of the mystical body of Christ, member of the church, called to evangelize?
What am I doing, practically speaking, to evangelize?
To do my part in the mission of the church?
Let's all answer the call of the Holy Father as generously as possible,
each one according to his abilities, according to the grace given by Christ,
for the salvation of souls.
And we entrust this new evangelization, of course,
to Our Lady, who is the star of the new evangelization.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.