Though it is true that this mission demands great generosity on our part, it would be wrong to see it as a heroic individual undertaking, for it is first and foremost the Lord's work, surpassing anything which we can see and understand. Jesus is the first and greatest evangelizer.[9] In every activity of evangelization, the primacy always belongs to God, who has called us to cooperate with him and who leads us on by the power of his Spirit. The real newness is the newness which God himself mysteriously brings about and inspires, provokes, guides and accompanies in a thousand ways. The life of the Church should always reveal clearly that God takes the initiative, that he has loved us first (1 Jn 4:19) and that he alone gives the growth (1 Cor 3:7). This conviction enables us to maintain a spirit of joy in the midst of a task so demanding and challenging that it engages our entire life. God asks everything of us, yet at the same time he offers everything to us. – Evangelii Gaudium, # 12.
Much of our society's values is grounded in a sense of accomplishment. As children we are urged to win trophies, commendations, merit badges. When we do succeed, we are often told by those who love us that they are proud of us. Naturally we want to repeat that which makes people proud of us. So we strive for even more trophies, even more commendations. When we graduate from school, which many of us do multiple times, we are "awarded" a diploma. Our loved ones shower us with gifts and once again remind us of how proud they are of us. As we move into adulthood, the world of employment is also layered with the need to accomplish, to produce, to succeed.
The task of evangelization does not work in this kind of culture. The Scriptures remind us over and over again that when we preach God's Word, either in word or through example, it is not we who accomplish anything. Rather it is God who works through us. People who evangelize must completely surrender their lives and their need to succeed to the work that God would accomplish through us.
Those of us who preach from a pulpit are frequently lured into a sense of accomplishment by the compliments that come our way when we are able to move people through our homilies or sermons. Yet if we are going to remain true to the joy of the Gospel, we must constantly remind ourselves that it is God's Word we preach, not our own. If I am particularly eloquent or if my words stir the hearts of the faithful, I must credit that to God's grace, to the Spirit who works within me, who uses me.
True joy, therefore, comes when I realize that my feeble efforts have been transformed through God's grace. As St. Paul reminds us, Jesus is the wisdom of God and the power of God. He accomplished the greatest act of human history by making himself vulnerable, by allowing God's will to be accomplished through him. Consequently, at the end of his life he was able to commend his spirit into the Father's hands knowing that God's reign had been served by his obedience. Therein lies true joy.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Adminstrator