If we find something we enjoy, one of the first things we do is reach for our phone to take a photo and share it. Our first impulse is to spread the news so that others can experience it too. If we do this for a great plate of food or a beautiful view, how much more should we be wanting to share the Gospel with people around us, who haven’t heard it yet!
Missionary discipleship comes from a deep and personal experience of being unconditionally loved by God. Pope Francis reminds us that, ‘anyone who has truly experienced God’s saving love does not need much time or lengthy training to go out and proclaim that love’.
To share the Gospel effectively we need to develop our ability to speak simply about our own relationship with Jesus and how it changes and enriches our life. It is equally important to joyfully and openly live that relationship in the way we love and serve others, resisting the temptation to live in a ‘holy huddle’ with other like-minded Christians. We are called to go out and engage with all kinds of people in our workplaces and neighbourhoods, as Jesus did, loving people and genuinely seeking to serve, accompany and learn from them.
As St Pope John Paul II said, ‘… the moment has come to commit all of the Church’s energies to a new evangelisation and to the mission ad gentes [to the nations]. No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples’.
If you’d like to talk to learn more about how your parish can share the Gospel more widely, contact: proclaim@cam.org.au or phone Lorraine on (03) 9287 5576.