Feast of Pentecost
Cycle C
May 23, 2021
Saint Mary Parish, Pylesville 8 and 9:30am
Good or Bad News
When I was a child, my parents would sometimes take us to downtown Baltimore, and I remember seeing some street preachers.
These preachers were trying to win people over to Jesus. They would shout out and threaten damnation if people didn’t convert.
This is my earliest recollection of what is called evangelization. We hear this word used a lot in recent years by Pope Francis.
The word comes directly from the Latin word that means gospel or good news. So, evangelization means that we bring the gospel or the good news of Jesus to others.
As I look back, I wasn’t hearing much good news from those street preachers. Frankly, it was scary and felt like bad news.
Good News: Naming Grace
Recently I came across an insightful approach for bringing the good news to people here in the twenty-first century.
One of our Catholic theologians says that evangelization is first about naming grace – naming grace. It is not really about bringing God to people, as though God were not already there.
Instead, when we evangelize, we name or point out how God is already present. Saint Paul and our Catholic Catechism speak of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Here the word Fruits means signs or effects of the Spirit’s presence. The idea is that our bringing the good news to others is first about naming the Fruits of the Holy Spirit where we see them.
I want just to read, with no explanation, these twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit. They are: Charity, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Generosity, Gentleness, Faithfulness, Modesty, Self-control, and Chastity.
So, when we see these Fruits of the Holy Spirit, we need to name them and point them out. That is the first step in evangelization, in bringing the good news to others.
The Spirit in Us
I see two important conclusions to this.
First, all or most of us here have received the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. We have received the Holy Spirit.
Because of that, the Fruits of the Holy Spirit may be evident in our lives. Qualities like Peace and Patience may be visible.
But it is also possible that the Fruits of the Spirit are not evident. Maybe things like Charity and Generosity are not visible in our lifestyle.
In this case, the Spirit is still within us but is not fully alive. So, evangelization or bringing the good news to us needs to stir into fuller life the presence of the Spirit.
The Spirit in Others
The second conclusion to all of this relates to those who are not baptized.
The truth is that we may and do see the Fruits of the Holy Spirit in these persons too. In persons of other faith traditions or of no faith tradition, the Fruits of the Spirit may be evident.
For example, qualities like Kindness and Goodness, or Faithfulness and Chastity may be visible in their lives. And when we see these Fruits in them, then we know that the Spirit is in these persons also.
Without the sacraments and without consciously accepting Christ, they have been touched by the Spirit. Psychologically or intellectually, some may not know of or accept the wonder of Jesus Christ.
But deep down, in their inner selves, they must have an openness to the love of God and the way of Christ. God has transformed them not through their mind, but through their heart.
They have the Spirit of God within them. This was the teaching of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.
Let me be clear: we still want to respectfully invite these persons to a oneness in God and a fullness of life in Christ. But, we definitely are not to take the condemning, bad news approach of the street preachers whom I saw as a kid.
Instead, we name the Fruits of the Spirit already with them. And only then do we graciously invite them to be part of our faith community.
Conclusion
That is the good news and how we are to bring the good news to others.
