Along with the renewal of the personal call to holiness, the Great Jubilee Year is also a time for us to recommit our lives as confirmed, public witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been baptized in the Holy Spirit. For this we are thankful. The Grace of Pentecost has been given to us abundantly by God. We are lacking in none of the gifts of the Spirit. It is the Holy Father's prophetic conviction that this Great Jubilee can be a “new springtime of Christian life…if Christians are docile to the action of the Holy Spirit.”
What he bases this conviction on is his understanding of the historical plan of God since the Incarnation. Mary responded obediently to the invitation of the Father. A new springtime for the world took place as the Spirit overshadowed her and she conceived the Savior of the world. Beginning with Jesus' baptism in the Jordan with the anointing of the Spirit upon him—his Pentecost event— a new springtime of God's life occurred, the impact of which is still seen today. This new springtime manifested itself in a new local evangelization ministry in which Jesus proclaimed the mystery of the kingdom of God with signs and wonders as his credentials. By divine design his ministry of evangelization was limited primarily to the locale of his native land and people.
The apostles, along with the other 120, waited with expectantly for the coming of the Spirit as promised by Jesus. A new springtime of worldwide evangelization began on Pentecost Day almost 2000 years ago. Again by divine design, this new evangelization reached both Jews and Gentiles and spread rapidly bringing the Gospel of Salvation to the ends of the known world. Over the past 2000 years at various times a new springtime of evangelization has taken place: the evangelization of the barbarians in the early centuries of Christianity; the evangelization of Africa, of the Far East, of the Americas, of Oceania. In our own times, John Paul II has called for a re-evangelization of the civilized world.
In saying this, The Holy Father sees the Great Jubilee and the beginning of the third millennium of Christianity as a new springtime for the a new evangelization in the world by the followers of Christ and the spiritual descendants of the apostles. Listen to excerpts from various talks of the Holy Father:
“The task which awaits you — the new evangelization — demands that you present, with fresh enthusiasm and new methods, the eternal and unchanging content of the heritage of our Christian faith. As you well know, it is not a matter of merely passing on a doctrine, but rather of a personal and profound meeting with the Savior.” (OR Jan.14, 1991 pg. 4 Commissioning of families of the Neo— Catechumenal Way, Jan. 3,1991).
“The new evangelization will be a seed of hope for the new millennium if you, today's Catholics, make the effort to transmit to future generations the precious legacy of human and Christian values, which have given meaning to your life.” (John Paul II, Jan 25, 1999)
“Evangelization is not new in its content, since its theme is always the one gospel given in Jesus"It can and should be new in its ardor, its methods, and its expression. It must be heralded with new energy and in a style and language adapted to the people of our day.” (John Paul II)
“I see the dawning of a new missionary age, which will become a radiant day bearing an abundant harvest, if all Christians…respond with generosity and holiness to the calls and challenges of our time.” (Redemptoris Missio, n. 92)
“Since the work that awaits everyone in the vineyard of the Lord is so great, there is no place for idleness. With even greater urgency the 'householder' repeats his invitation: 'You go into my vineyard, too.'”(OR Jan.7, 1991 pg.14, Lineamenta. Taken from Apostolic Exhortation, Christifidelis Laici.)” May each one be able to feel this 'urgent necessity' of which St. Paul spoke, and make their own the words of the Apostle: 'Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!'” (1 Cor 9: 16). (OR, Feb. 18,1991. To a group of bishops from Argentina, ad limina visit, Jan. 18,1991).
We need to realize that the urgency for evangelization is stronger today than it was in the first century of Christianity. The world was much smaller in population and the world known by the first evangelizers was much smaller geographically. However, today, nearly two thousand years after the death and resurrection of Jesus nearly two thirds of the world's population has not heard of the Good News of salvation in the person of Jesus Christ. And what is more sadly, the one third who have been so graced and privileged, many of these need to be re-evangelized. Alarmed by the reality of these facts, John Paul II has said in his encyclical, Redemptoris Missio: “What moves me even more strongly to proclaim the urgency of missionary evangelization is the fact that it is the primary service which the Church can render in the modern world…which seems to have lost its sense of ultimate realities and of existence itself.” (n.#2) And in a later address he has said: “In countries with ancient Christian roots and where the baptized have lost a living sense of the faith, or even no longer consider themselves members of the church, and live a life far removed from Christ and the Gospel, what is needed is a 're-evangelization.'”
The urgency for Catholics to respond with a new zeal for evangelization is further under girded by the fact that if we don't, others will: “Whenever Christians no longer testify to their faith…others will come and claim the place vacated by Christians.”(June 25, 1988) This is true all over the world where the followers of Islam are aggressively making inroads in areas, which were predominately Christian, and various sects are attracting converts from those whose Christian roots are shallow.
The words of Jean Danielou should haunt us frequently from somewhere in the back of our minds: “There are whole stretches of humanity in which Christ has never been born. The mystical Christ is not yet complete. He is still incomplete, lacking members, and the perfect missionary prayer is for Christ to come in the whole world.”
