Feast of Pentecost
Cycle C
May 28, 2023 – 5pm, 8:30 and 11am
Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton
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 convert people to Jesus. They would shout out and denounce everyone’s sinfulness and threaten damnation if people didn’t listen.
This is my earliest recollection of what is called evangelization. By the way, Pope Francis talks about evangelization in his message for today’s Feast of Pentecost.
The word evangelization comes directly from the Latin word that means gospel or good news. So, evangelization means that we bring the gospel or good news of Jesus to the world around us.
As I look back, I wasn’t hearing much good news from those street preachers. They were scary, and it felt like bad news.
Naming Grace
I have come across another, and I think much better approach for bringing the good news to people here in the twenty-first century.
Some of our theologians hold that evangelization is first about naming grace – naming grace.It is not about bringing God to people, as if God were not already there.
Instead, when we evangelize, we first name or point out how God is already present. This is what Saint Paul is getting at in our second reading when he says that there are lots of differences among us but the same God at work.
So, we are to look at life with the eyes of faith and help each other see life as touched by God. We are to look at the human and the everyday and name the grace that is already there.
Examples of Naming Grace
For example, a child is born. We are happy for the parents, and we stand with them in awe of this new life from God.
Or our teens and young adults spend a week at a work camp in Appalachia helping to repair a family’s home. And we affirm them and see God working in their giving of themselves in that way.
Or our nurses and doctors work long hours to care for the sick in our hospitals and urgent care centers. And we thank them and see the healing action of God working through them.
Or we see a couple celebrating their fiftieth or first anniversary of marriage. And we celebrate with them and see the enduring love of God in them.
So, we affirm and celebrate those who are at the center of these experiences. We name the grace, the grace of God.
And we name this grace as acting in and through others regardless of where they are with faith. That, I believe, must be the first step of evangelization in this century and culture.
Naming Jesus
And then, after naming the grace, we can proceed to the next step: naming Jesus and extending an invitation to follow his way.
Notice, in both steps, we are positive. We are not like the street preachers I remember as a child and some preachers I hear and hear about today whom I find to be very negative.
We are not condemning or labeling others as in mortal sin. We are not threatening others with damnation and manipulating them with fear.
Instead, we are positive, first naming the grace that is already present and then naming Jesus. And we name the way of Jesus in a way that is appropriate – often just by the example of our lives or maybe by inviting someone to a Sunset Social or Holy Grounds here at the parish or maybe by sharing with another a booklet that we have found inspiring.
Notice: that’s what the first disciples do in our first reading today. They speak, they communicate in ways that others could listen to and receive.
And notice: there can be no force or coercion or guilt trip here. There is simply and powerfully a naming of Jesus with an appropriate kind of invitation.
This, I am so convinced, is the way to evangelize today – the way to proclaim the good news in our century and culture. Name the grace that is already there and then name Jesus with an appropriate kind of invitation.
That is how the first Pentecost happened and succeeded. And that’s how it can happen again today.
