Following the Mission Mandate given by our Lord Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church has very powerfully carried out the world’s evangelization. The final command of our Lord reverberates in our ears: “therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Mt 28: 19-20) We preach through our thoughts, words and our deeds of our Lord Jesus Christ whom we have encountered and experienced. “All Christians” are invited “to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ” (EG 3).

To be an evangelizer, first we need to be evangelized. There are four conditions.

(1) Experience of salvation: Evangelizer is not a teacher rather he is a witness (Acts 1:21-22; Acts 4:20; Mk 5:20).

(2) Zeal for the Gospel and passion and desire to bring Jesus to everyone (Jn 2:17).

(3) Life’s consistency:  The evangelizer is not a propagandist rather he is the first to believe the message and the one who tries to live it (cf. 1 Cor11:1; Eph 4:1).

(4) Adaptability: To make the Gospel closer to the person so that it may be received with love, and to transmit the message in a more appropriate way to their context (Jn 1:14).

The Holy Spirit is moving the Church towards a New Evangelization and is the principal agent of Evangelization. The Magisterium is the voice of the Holy Spirit in the Church (cf. Vat II, DV 10).

To bring Christ to all mankind by announcing the Kerygma is the first method of Evangelization. The Kerygma is the first announcement of the Good News of Jesus, who is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith” (Rm 1:16). This is to be done with creativity in a new, beautiful, attractive way for the man of today. We shall not forget this: To evangelize is not the Church’s main task… it’s the one and only task!

Rev. Dr. Francis Elavuthinkal