September 23 & 24, 2013
I am celebrating the special Mass for the New Evangelization this
morning. It is the first time I have
used this Mass that was added to the Roman Missal by the Vatican for this Year
of Faith. I thought it was appropriate
to use in this Mass with you, the Catholic school teachers and educators of our
diocese. You are my partners in the
great task of the new evangelization here in our diocese as you assist in
teaching our young people the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Evangelization is the fundamental mission of the Church. As we heard in the Gospel today, Jesus came
to bring good news to the poor. The poor
include not only the materially needy, but all in need of what makes life
meaningful and beautiful: faith in the
God who loves and saves us. The Good
News of Jesus Christ needs to be brought to the people of today, to a world
often filled with inner sadness and emptiness.
The faith we hold dear is the source of a lasting and unshakeable peace
and joy. Evangelization is the
communication in words and in life of a love that embraces us and infinitely
surpasses us. The joy of faith in Christ
is the only joy that can satisfy the insatiable hunger of the human heart.
Our Catholic schools should be communities of joy because they are
communities of faith. The life, death,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the supreme act of God’s love. The Church’s mission is to proclaim His
Gospel always and everywhere. We do so
in our Catholic schools. That’s why they
exist. And no matter the subject you
teach, you are all leaders and instruments in this evangelizing mission of our
schools. It’s why our Catholic schools
exist. We seek to communicate to our children
the love and the life we have received:
God’s love and life that brings meaning and joy, truth, goodness, and
beauty to their lives.
In many places in the world, including here in our country and our
diocese, in some families, the faith has grown old and stale. I’m sure you see this in some who send their
children to our schools, yet do not live or practice the faith. That’s why we need a new
evangelization. Christianity isn’t just
a piece of information. Catholicism
isn’t just an ethical system. It is a
Word addressed to every person personally.
This Word is life. It is a love
that abides. It is news so good and so
necessary that no human being who has encountered it can keep it to
himself. We need to revive in our
communities, our schools and parishes, zeal for the Gospel. This Word which is a Person, a Divine Person,
became flesh. We must encounter Him in
our own lives, in our prayer, in our hearts if we expect to be his witnesses
and teachers. When we encounter Him and
live in a true friendship with Him, this comes across in all we say and
do. We experience the joy of living in
Him and bearing witness to Him. We must
not think of the Gospel as only a book or a set of teachings. It is much more. It is the Word of God who became man to give
us the joy of sharing in God’s own communion of life and love. His life is communicated to us in the
Scriptures and in the sacraments. We are
not saved by a formula, but by a Person.
You who are teachers in our schools do not operate or work as solitary
individuals. You do so as members of
Christ’s Body, the Church – in communion with the Bishop, your pastor, and
principal. Though each of us must
receive the Word of God personally, in meditating on the Scriptures, in the
sacraments, and in prayer, we never do so as isolated individuals. We live within a fellowship or communion that
has its origin in Christ. The Church is
Christ’s Body and Bride. The Church as a
whole received the Holy Spirit’s gifts at Pentecost. When you teach and communicate the faith, it
is a communal action, an action of the Church, not an isolated
undertaking. We must therefore think,
feel, and teach with the Church.
In our first reading today, Saint Paul teaches us to “be renewed in the
spirit of (our) minds and put on the new self, created in God’s way in
righteousness and holiness of truth.”
He’s reminding us of our Baptism when we were changed from the old self
to the new self, when we put on Christ. In
the early Church baptisms, people would remove their clothes, receive baptism,
and then don a white garment that signified the new life of righteousness in
Christ. In Baptism, our old self and
slavery to sin was put off. The new self
we put on is the transformed life in Christ.
This was our re-creation in the likeness of God, when we put on
Christ. Saint Paul is reminding us of
this radical change that took place at our Baptism and is teaching us to live
by the inclinations of our new self, the true self that is united to Christ. This entails ongoing growth so we are truly
renewed in the spirit of our minds, in our innermost thoughts. This growth happens when we prayerfully read
the Scriptures, participate in the liturgy, and study the revealed truths of
our faith. These practices are important
for our growth as Christians, for our evangelizing work, and for your
fruitfulness as authentic teachers in our Catholic schools. That’s why we have this day – it is for
renewal. Now when we are living this new
self, it is reflected in our conduct.
Saint Paul writes about putting away falsehood and speaking the truth,
not holding on to anger, doing honest work, allowing no foul language to come
out of our mouths, etc. He writes about
removing all bitterness and malice and about being kind, compassionate, and
forgiving. Paul is teaching us right and
wrong behaviors just as we teach our students the same. Yet all this stems from the heart, living our
true identity, received at Baptism, the new self in Christ.
As I said earlier, you are my partners in the work of the new evangelization. Your vocation is so very important for the
lives of our children and young people.
For our evangelization to be effective, our witness is even more
important than our words. We aren’t just
to communicate information about God. We
are to communicate God, God who is in our midst and present in our lives. Our lives as Christ’s disciples, our living
in righteousness and holiness of truth, living the virtues and Beatitudes: these are the most important ways we teach
and hand on the Gospel. This is what
your students will remember long into the future. Jesus didn’t redeem the world with beautiful
words. He redeemed the world through
love – His suffering and His death. His
actions gave power to His words. May our
lives, our actions, give power to our teaching!