What would our parish region look like if everyone who was moderately connected to these parishes understood and lived out the call to evangelize?  I don’t know for certain,    but I can guarantee that things would be different, and perhaps the Archdiocese wouldn’t be at the  beginning of a massive undertaking to re-examine parish regions, resources, and the entire way we’ve been doing ministry for decades now. This is not meant to be an indictment of just the parishioners, just the staff, or just the clergy. But since we hear the Gospel this weekend give us a detailed account of Jesus calling His disciples to Himself and then sending them out into the world to preach the Good News, it’s definitely a good opportunity to ask why we are reticent to live as though we are sent.

There must be thousands of reasons why people are hesitant (or even opposed) to evangelizing.  But if Jesus calls His disciples to Himself and then sends them out to the world, and the Church asks us to reflect on this reading, obviously we have to overcome those barriers and start doing the work  of the Church, which is to worship God, serve the marginalized, and bring others to Christ.
 
Evangelizing is messy. If we tell other people about our relationship with Jesus and why the Church is important, we will be held to a higher standard. That’s certainly true, but proclaiming the Good News isn’t the same as saying that our lives are perfect or that we aren’t still works in progress.
 
Maybe we feel like it’s not our job. The Church should be the ones who are evangelizing. While that’s certainly true, the fact remains that by virtue of our baptism, we are members of the mystical Body of Christ. We are the Church, and it is our job  to bring others to Christ, like it or not. 

Perhaps some don’t evangelize because they don’t want to seem like they are judging someone else’s life choices. One of the highest values of our society is being nice/nonjudgmental/tolerant. We are never excused from being charitable, of course, but Jesus sends His followers out to preach repentance. It may not be popular today, but if we are convicted of the fact that Jesus sends us out to do His work, then how can we say no?
 
Above all else, I think people don’t evangelize because we don’t fully appreciate what we have received. If we understood fully the incredible gift that is given to us in our faith, then we would never, not even for an instant, hesitate to preach to anyone who would stand still long enough for us to talk to them about Jesus and how He changed our lives.
The Archbishop, in his recent pastoral letter, asks us to radiate Christ. We have to fully receive, love, and participate in a common life with Jesus if He is to shine forth in our actions, so that’s where we have  to start. Take some time this week to examine the source of any hesitation in your heart, and ask God to heal those things. Once we appreciate the gift that God has given us in the Church, in our Faith, in the sacraments, then we will become what we were meant to be and we will see deep transformation in our parishes and ultimately, in our lives.
 
Prayers always,
Fr. McC