We are faced with an entirely new situation in the history of Christian evangelisation. “The early Christians lived in a pagan society untouched by the Good News. Our culture is deeply shaped by rejection of that News and by a sustained effort to live life on explicitly non- or even anti-Christian grounds. If we are not absolutely clear about that, much effort will be simply wasted.”
By Ben Butera
I’m not a big fan of the term “The New Evangelization” because in the end, and in any age, there is either good evangelization or bad evangelization. Either we are preaching The Good News effectively, or we are not. And The Good News is not just some concept of humanitarianism, but boils down to this: “Always remember that Jesus Christ, a descendant of King David, was raised from the dead. This is the Good News I preach” (2 Tim 2:8, New Living Translation).
The word “new” in everyday language is also misunderstood as meaning “better”, when all it really means is not existing before or already existing, but experienced for the first time. And sometimes what is new is “worse”, like “New Coke”, from a long time ago in a nation far, far away.
Christians in the new evangelization around the year 2021 must sometimes feel like Christians in the old evangelization around the year in 221, preaching to a pagan society and anxious about persecution, but this recent article points out one striking difference between then and now:
“The early Christians lived in a pagan society untouched by the Good News. Our culture is deeply shaped by rejection of that News and by a sustained effort to live life on explicitly non- or even anti-Christian grounds. If we are not absolutely clear about that, much effort will be simply wasted.”
The story of God and Man in salvation history is told in terms of covenants, family and adoption. Considering the quotation above, I think of an orphan who does not know there is a very wealthy and loving father extremely eager to adopt him or her as his own child. Today, it’s more like the orphan already heard the story about some mysterious “father” long ago, but either does not believe it or does not care. Worse yet, the child may see the father as an enemy or some kind of competitor. Today’s “new” evangelization is the more daunting task.
Being pessimistic, I fear it will all end up like the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22, where a king dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests. Although the guests were well informed, they refused to come. Some ignored the invitation, but the rest mistreated the king’s servants and killed them, so the enraged king destroyed them and burned their city.
Being optimistic, I think of the Blessed Virgin Mary holding back the wrath of God and buying us time. There is also the story of Abraham interceding for Sodom in Genesis 18. For the sake of a few righteous people, an entire city could be spared.
So what can we do? We pray and evangelize however we can, but simply striving to be holy may not only benefit us in the next life, but benefit everyone in this life too.
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