This mission was given to the Apostles as he sent them into the world, received by the church; the mission of each of the Christians to proclaim and witness to the Gospel—the very reason for our faith life and its fruit. So begins the first paragraph of an article in Bible and Life on Mission by a diocesan priest.
What is the image of a believer proclaiming the gospel? Some see it as a great burden, some devout believers as their role, and others not interested, and flee from its message.
At present we see a disinterest in religion growing in society. We have pseudo-religious groups using methods of propagation that distort the meaning of religion and this is well known among the believers, making the work of evangelizing difficult.
Priests find it difficult to tell the parishioners to spread the good news and they seem in many cases not to know how to approach the subject, devoting themselves to the pastoral work of the parish. Evangelization is an important part of Jesus' message but it is not unconditionally imposed on the community. So how does one go about making sense of the situation in which we find ourselves?
We disciples of our Lord have been saved by grace and are in a relationship with Jesus, an encounter, response, and mission. This mission is the fruit of our relationship with Jesus, the last step. Jesus doesn't send us out in the world without preparation. The steps before the sending are even more important. It's experiencing the love of Jesus in our lives and the happiness that follows; being able to participate in this work and benefit from this extraordinary gift.
In the gospel, we realize that Jesus first came to the earth to do the will of the Father. He gathered together the poor and the suffering and with much teaching and miracles showed us that God's kingdom was near. He called his disciples to be with him and live and eat with him and experience the joy of the Gospel.
When we look at the situation humanly and recall the betrayal of Judas, the death of Jesus on the cross, disciples abandoning Jesus; his efforts to educate the disciples ended in failure. It showed more than the weakness of the disciples the great love of God. He gave them the promised Holy Spirit to witness the great love of God for the whole world. He first evangelized the apostles and they became the tools to evangelize the world. They understood the truth of great joy and showed the poor and suffering his merciful love. Imbued with great joy they were not afraid of death in spreading the message.,
This joy of the Gospel is shown clearly in the incident of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. Seeing the supposed savior of the world on whom they believe died in such a gruesome and helpless way the disciples despaired and in defeat left Jerusalem for Emmaus. The place where they knew nothing of Jesus and had no relation with him. In this state of mind, the resurrected Jesus appeared to them and explained the passages of Scripture that referred to him. That evening at the table when he broke the bread and shared it at the table their eyes were opened.
What was the feeling of these two disciples when they met the one they thought was dead? When Jesus was explaining the Scripture to them was not their hearts filled with great joy? Which changed them completely and they returned to Jerusalem. The place where they had met Jesus, the place where Jesus died, where his enemies were, and where they also could meet death, but the joy of the gospel could not keep them from returning to Jerusalem. They were overcome with the desire to spread the joy of the Gospel.
The mission to spread the Gospel comes from the meeting with Jesus, intimacy, and the change in ourselves. It is not something we have to do but an overflow of the love that we have received. This is what is meant by evangelization. Christmas shows us the love of God in a visible way and the mission we have to spread the love to the world. Merry Christmas.
