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A few years ago, my family and I went to Yellowstone National Park. It was amazing because we absolutely marveled in the majesty of God’s creation. But, we also saw the results of natural disaster - in this case, forest fires. There were some sections of the park when all you could see were burned down forests. It was a reminder that God wastes nothing and even in seasons of struggle, God is active. Because even from the remnants of destruction, life was flourishing.
As you may know, there are some species of plants that need fires to reproduce. There are some seeds that lie dormant for many years, waiting for fire to activate them into germination.
The Catholic Church in the West is similar to these plants. We have been dormant for so long that it may take God’s fire (the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit + the fire of suffering) to make us fruitful again. We know that throughout the ages, God has used scandal, decline, pain, and suffering to open up His Church to bearing fruit.- The early Christians were hunted down and martyred for the faith - and the Church grew leaps and bounds.
- Arians once outnumbered orthodox Catholics. Yet, we grew from this struggle too.
- The Protestant Reformation led to the Counter-Reformation and a growth in many areas of mission and renewal.
- Here in the USA, Catholic persecution in the early days of our country led to a strong sense of Catholic identity and culture.
In today’s scandals and problems, God wants to do something in the Church.
**But, God isn’t going to transform the Church without first transforming individuals.
**Individuals won’t be transformed until evangelists become more effective
**Evangelists won’t be more effective until they understand those they seek to evangelize better.
**Evangelists won’t understand others better until they know the culture well and how to respond.
So, let us begin with exploring the culture.
The Catholic Church has always understood that the local Churches need to respond to their surrounding cultures. Think of St. Paul trying to evangelize in Athens - he tried to be "all things to all people" in order to "share the Gospel".
As Vatican II states:“The Church, living in various circumstances in the course of time, has used the discoveries of different cultures so that in her preaching she might spread and explain the message of Christ to all nations.” -GS
Francis put it this way:
“It is imperative to evangelize cultures in order to inculturate the Gospel. In countries of Catholic tradition, this means encouraging, fostering and reinforcing a richness which already exists. In countries of other religious traditions, or profoundly secularized countries, it will mean sparking new processes for evangelizing culture, even though these will demand long-term planning.” -EG
Therefore, understanding cultural trends can help us to understand how we must respond appropriately. To go back to our example from nature - parts of our Catholic forest have burned. We need to understand the effect of the fire on the surrounding ecosystem and help spur growth in the midst of this tragedy. We can do this by knowing not only what the causes of the fire have been, but how we can help the forest recover and thrive once again. We are unable to return to what the forest was once, but can see that a new one grows just as strong.
We must start by understanding our ecosystem (modern culture) and the ramifications it is having on the forest (The Church).
Examining Modern Culture
--Most people of today care more about 'now' than 'later'. If you were in a forest fire right now, what would consume your thoughts? Survival. You wouldn’t be worrying about a big presentation in a few weeks. In the same way, many modern people (esp. young people) are not concerned with the distant future (e.g., death, heaven, etc).
Which means our traditional approach to evangelizing & sharing The Gospel is ineffective in many modern contexts. If you are focused on proclaiming the "far off" notion of heaven to someone that doesn't look beyond next week, you will be ineffective. No amount of complaining about the problem will solve it.
Furthermore, we have to shift our strategy in order to reach others, not just expect them to change in order to accept our proposal of faith.
Christians can respond in several different ways, which we will explore below.
--Shame has taken over guilt. This cuts both ways for Catholic evangelists. We have to understand how a culture of shame affects others and we have to understand how it affects us. Shame and guilt are very similar, but are distinct as well.- Guilt says to someone, “you have done something bad”. Shame says, “you are bad.”
- You know you are guilty when your conscience convicts you. You know you are shameful with others fail to honor you, shun you, or are ashamed of you.
- Guilt can be dealt with by being forgiven. Shame is only dealt with when one is accepted for who they are, without conditions.
For the sake of argument, we will not talk about the problems of a shame culture, but rather what Catholic evangelists need to do with it. Shame can heighten the feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and isolation.Even many devoted Catholic disciples are struggling with the epidemic of loneliness, so we should expect it in others, who don't have the gift of Jesus that we do! Modern folks really do want person-to-person interaction, but many don’t know how to seek it out and find it. You and I can be the balm for others who need these relationships.
So, in our evangelization, we can’t just build a relationship and not offer more. We must preach Good News - but the way we do so has to take into consideration the issues we have highlighted above. If you don't know where to start in preaching the Gospel, this post can help you get started.
3 Tips For Catholic Evangelists Facing Modern Culture
1 - Focus on hospitality and deeper relationships. Even though we live in a society that can instantly connect with others, we also live in a very shallow culture, at least in terms of face-to-face relationships. More and more people report being lonely and disconnected from others. They lack meaning and purpose. The Church has THE response to the problem, but we know the Church has a crisis of loneliness too! So, in order to reach the world, we have to start with building meaningful and personal relationships with others around us.
This starts with hospitality. Not just communal hospitality (which is also important), but personal hospitality. Inviting others you don’t know well to your house or lunch. Being available to others in the midst of a crazy schedule. This is consider radical, in our modern world, because so many people don’t regularly experience interpersonal connection with others in a meaningful way. This is especially true for young people. So, Catholics who are willing to risk intimacy and relationships with others, over the long term, will have a much higher ability to connect with modern people, build trust, and thus be able to evangelize them.
2 - Contextualize and inculturate the Gospel. We cannot leave truth behind. Thus, the truth of the Gospel (and all Catholic doctrines) must still be proclaimed and taught. But, the assumption that we “just need to teach the faith” doesn’t take into consideration that some hearts aren’t attuned to receive truth yet. So, we must prepare the soil of the heart to receive the seed of the Gospel. This is first done by relationships - as we covered above.
Second, we need to understand what barriers are in the way of receiving the grace of the Gospel message and responding in faith / hope / love.
Third, we need to find new ways of proclaiming the kerygma in a way that others will be willing to receive it as “good”. In other words, the most common way of proclaiming good news is from a sin/guilt perspective - Jesus can free us from our sins that we are guilty of. But, if someone doesn’t feel guilty, but shameful, then they may feel that you (or Jesus) rejects them by rejecting their actions.
Fourth, while we can talk of heaven being our destiny, but that is far off for many. For someone unworried about 'later' + not having a felt need for salvation / forgiveness, the message will not be relevant & may fall flat.
So, the best option is to inculturate and contextualize Good News for modern people. Here is what I suggest:- Jesus came to heal us and make us whole, not only when we die but 'now'!
- Jesus wants to help us with anxiety, meaning, loneliness, & more. He wants to do this NOW.
- Jesus wants to offer us all salvation (freedom, healing, and wholeness) NOW.
This is where we start with Good News that can help modern people, but not where we end. Ultimately, we have to continue on to forgiveness, repentance, and responding in faith to grace. But, we don’t necessarily start there.
This message resonates with many. It is the Church's responsibility (you & me) to make sure we don't answer questions that folks aren't asking, but communicate in a way that is not only relevant, but salvific, for today's culture.
3 - Serve those who need service the most. The early Church found the marginalized in their society (widows, orphans, disabled, sick, etc) and cared for them. The higher classes dismissed the early Christians as insignificant, because they were so counter-cultural. The Christians were serving the rejects. But, this witness of love to the downtrodden eventually changed the world, because so many were impressed with the selflessness and service to the needy.
The modern Church needs to do the same. We need to look beyond the false dichotomy or service and/or evangelization. Can you imagine what impact we could have if we helped to end the opioid crisis and brought the Gospel to former addicts? What kind of witness could we give the world if we radically served the immigrants who were coming to the USA (even if we don’t all agree on the political solutions surrounding immigration)? These are just a couple of examples of serving the marginalized and the effect it might have not only on the health and wellbeing of these folks, but their very salvation.
The world is crying out for Good News - but if it doesn't have Catholics who know how to communicate it, how will they have a chance to respond?
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