It's Okay To Be Evangelical

Over the past 10 years, as I have shared with friends and acquaintances some of the exciting ministry taking place within the Catholic Church, I have used the expression “evangelical Catholic.” When I do, invariably someone will reply, or imply, “Isn’t that an oxymoron?” — a contradiction in terms. It is fun and sometimes a challenge to assure them that it isn’t an oxymoron but that Catholics are increasingly in the forefront of evangelization.

 The term “evangelical” can have various shades of meaning but by in large it refers to a Christian who is committed to the advancement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by word and deed. This evangelical imperative provoked Pope Paul VI to ask in 1975, “Does the Church or does she not find herself better equipped to proclaim the Gospel and to put it into people’s hearts with conviction, freedom of spirit and effectiveness?” Catholics did not turn away from this question but in response spawned many movements within the Catholic Church that have provided a new surge of evangelical activity by Catholic men and women.

 Though there was a new surge in response to Pope Paul’s encyclical, being evangelical was not a new thing for Catholics. For instance, Bishop Sheen pioneered religious radio in 1950, speaking to more than 4 million listeners in the States and receiving in response as many as 6,000 letters a day, with one third of them coming from non-Catholics. He provided the first-ever religious telecast and his program, Life is Worth Living, reached approximately 30 million people each week. Bishop Sheen “had a deep passion for helping others find faith” and to see lives changed by Christ. He believed, “ ‘Conversion’ in Greek is metanoia, or a complete turning around from the direction which we are facing. . . . Conversion is an experience in no way related to the upsurge of the subconscious into consciousness; it is a gift of God, an invasion of a new Power, the inner penetration of our spirit by the Spirit and the turning over of a whole personality to Christ.”

 He traversed the world and had many fabulous, and some quite funny, personal encounters sharing Christ. Always warmly direct, he once was confronted by a young woman whose opening challenge was, “I am an atheist. What are you going to do about it?” He simply answered, “I’ll bet you a dime you cannot give me three good arguments for atheism; if you do, I will find three answers in a book that was written seven hundred years ago.” Well she couldn’t come up with three arguments and he spent the next year instructing her in the faith until she came to Christ.

 A more humorous and less successful encounter took place with some boys he met in Philadelphia. He asked the boys for directions to Town Hall. When the boys asked him what he was going to do there he explained that he was going to give a lecture.

 “On what?” they asked.

 “Boys, I’m going to talk on Heaven and how to get there. Would you like to come and find out how?”

 The boys replied incredulously, “You don’t even know the way to Town Hall.”

 Most of us will never be a Bishop Sheen, or a John Paul II, or a St. Ignatius, but we can still be, and we must be, evangelical Catholics. The world is a dark and dangerous place spiritually. On one hand, worldwide crises like terrorism, abortion, and the potential of nuclear proliferation capture people’s attention and raise their concerns. On the more personal level, lack of meaning and values in people’s lives are resulting in an increase of hedonism, drug addition, and materialism, which is destroying lives and society. Now more than ever before, the imperative to believe the Gospel, live the Gospel, and share the Gospel should grip our lives and give us purpose. “For it is only in the Christian message that modern man can find the answers to his questions.”

 The real oxymoron is the “non-evangelical Catholic,” since, “The presentation of the Gospel message is not an optional contribution for the Church [you and me]. It is the duty incumbent on her [us] by the command of the Lord Jesus, so that people can believe and be saved. This message is necessary. It is unique. It cannot be replaced. It does not permit either indifference, syncretism or accommodation. It is a question of people’s salvation.” The Catholic who is not evangelical about sharing his faith lives in contradiction to his baptismal vows and to his weekly reception and profession of Christ.Being an evangelical Catholic doesn’t necessarily involve going to foreign lands, or starting great movements. It simply involves representing Jesus with a smile, a word of encouragement, and talking about his message of hope in a joyful, loving, and warmly direct way. When we are faithful to do and be a person like this who reaches out to others, spanning the gulf of indifference and uncaring, we do in fact become an evangelical Catholic.

 Quote 1,3,4 come from Evangeiil Nuntiandi, Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Paul VI.

Quote 2  regarding Bishop Sheen are taken from, Treasures in Clay, by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.