The Eucharist is the Message of Evangelization BY CINDY PASLAWSKI When Pope John Paul II initiated the New Evangelization, he had one thing in mid: Bring Christ to the world and the world to Christ. He knew the Church Christ founded contains the means of salvation and this was the message he wanted broadcast to all: Come to Him. And to be sure all nations truly got the message, the Holy Father has declared a Year of the Eucharist. This year of 2005 is dedicated to the loving mystery of Christ present and with us on our altars in the Holy Eucharist. Come to His Church, partake in His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, the Holy Father is saying. Let Him through the Holy Eucharist, transform us into the living witness of His great love that leaves no work of mercy undone. It is this teaching on the Eucharist that sets the Catholic Church apart. We believe He is there, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He loves us so much He is there on the altar - no sign or symbol or happy memory, but the living Christ Himself to be consumed by us so He can transform us and work through us in the world. This belief is the message to be evangelized, centuries old as it is. This faith accounted for the zeal of the missionaries to the New World, the Pacific Islands, the frozen Alaskan plains, and the filthy streets of Calcutta. This was the reason Isaac Jogues and Fr. Damien and Mother Teresa bore all hardships: they let Christ work through them to bring His love and salvation to those who needed it. Obviously, the only thing new about evangelization today is the means - cyberspace, television, and jet planes - and the fact that the message sounds new because it hasn't been promoted in congregations for many, many years. How should this call for evangelization be met in order to restore all things in Christ? "Go and teach all nations," Christ told the Apostles before He ascended, "baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And behold, I am with you even unto the consummation of the world." The Pope wrote, "The task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church….It is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize" (Evangelii nuntiandi, n. 14). Evangelize what? The end result for each person is not some feel-good-about-Jesus talk or social justice agenda or sense of community or knowing the journeys of our fellow Christians. The goal for all of us is union with God in heaven: salvation. The means to achieve this is through grace from prayer and good works, from knowing, loving, and serving God as the old Baltimore Catechism taught, as the Catholic Church has taught for centuries. Knowing, loving, and serving God is based on knowledge from which comes love and action. Certainly no one would marry a person without knowing about him or her. The same should apply in efforts to evangelize. Without basic knowledge, how can an ignorant person speak out regarding this Jesus? How would an ignorant person know whether or not he is being given Catholic faith during these organized small group discussions or someone's idea of what the Faith should be with a social justice spin that isn't in line with Church teaching. Ask Catholics for Kerry about that one. To evangelize, the ordinary Catholic people must first be reminded of their Faith. The best use of any parish-wide small gathering initiative should be spent on actively teaching the Catholic Faith to the parish. Then, once formed in the centuries-old truths of Christ's love and example of service, once fully in union with the Eucharistic Lord, no other agenda would be needed because the rest would fall into place. From knowing, one loves and serves to please the Beloved. Each would work in his or her own sphere of influence, bringing the love of God. There wouldn't need to be television programs about being touched by angels, because by active Christian service on the part of Catholics, many would be so touched. A lesson could be learned from Poland. In "Pope John Paul II: His Vision and His Hope for the Faithful in the United States" (Forum Focus, Spring, 1999), Laurene Conner wrote: "During the three years of his internment by the Communist government, Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, Primate of Poland, planned a 'nine year program of National Spiritual Renewal' to culminate in 1966 with the rededication of the Polish nation to Mary, Queen of Poland, on the occasion of the 'Millennium of Polish Christianity.' "This 'Great Novena' included a thorough recatechization on the truths of the Catholic Faith and a continuous pilgrimage, province by province, by the Cardinal Primate during the Millennium Year and the nine years between 1957 and 1966. During this pilgrimage, the revered image of the Mother of God, the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, would be taken to every parish in every diocese where vigils of prayer and reconsecration would be held." Nine years of instruction on the faith! And out of those instructions came the Solidarity Movement in Gdansk that started to chip away at the Soviet Empire. The people knew what the Church taught about the dignity of the human being and their rights to live in freedom to serve God. The rest is history. Who is to say it cannot be done again? The evangelization effort must come within the parish first, pew by pew then house to house. The faith, whole and entire must be preached. The priests must teach and preach. But first, they must believe. They must be shepherded in their faith by their leaders for this saving missionary work. They must believe that at every Mass they offer, they are holding God in their hands. They must let Christ use them, and He will so that their lives are an act of faith. Their faith must show forth in devotions and adoration and from these externals the people will learn. It worked in Ars. The rough and tumble townspeople saw the lights on in the church until late in the night and the humble John Mary Vianney would tell them he was praying for them. They saw his good works, his holiness. They changed. Such a change can happen here. But it can't happen without sound instruction. You can't teach what you don't know. There is truth in our Catholic faith and the means of salvation. This is what Holy Mass is all about. This is what needs to be taught and evangelized and preserved with a Catholic lifestyle. People have to want to be Catholic, not just say it on Sunday mornings if they make it church. And they won't ever have the chance to be Catholic unless they know what it is all about. Then things will change. Holiness won't be just another h word. It will be a state of life, with attendance at Mass, reception of the sacraments, and places which aid the poor and dying and sick won't be crying for volunteers. The works of mercy will be a living part of all of us, not just a list on the back page of a textbook from forty years ago. Personal holiness is attractive, Bishop James Timlin commented in his talk at the Providence Wanderer Forum last February (Forum Focus, Spring, 2004). Jim Bemis attests to that in his article, "The Good Example" above. That good example from a life fully in accord with the Eucharist and the Catholic Faith has always been the route to the greatest evangelization efforts and it can be again.