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"Proclaiming the Lord Jesus Christ  in Our Time"

The most important task of the committed Christian is to proclaim the Lord Jesus and His Good News in such a way as to elicit a deep, personal commitment to Him and an acceptance of His message. For like St. Paul, as we heard a moment ago, "We must preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord ..." (II Cor. 4:5). This is the work of evangelization, which always aims at conversion.

There are many reasons why the work of evangelization is so urgent today. Perhaps the most important is that we live in a world dominated by secular and material values. Many people no longer perceive their lives as having a dimension of transcendence. As a result, more and more people have shown signs of apathy and indifference, alienation and hostility—even to the point of no longer practicing their religion and falling away altogether from the faith.

At the same time, many other people, even though they go to church less often and sometimes challenge religious authority, retain a religious orientation. Surveys show that they yearn for a closer relationship with God and that they pray frequently.

Fortunately, there are also many people who are truly committed to the Lord. They are totally dedicated people, very much involved in the life of the Church, who give a marvelous witness to God’s love and mercy in their daily lives. These good people, who often go unnoticed, are more aware than ever to the need to make the Lord known to those who have turned away from Him and those who are searching for Him; to show in a concrete and credible way that the Christian faith is as relevant as it ever was; that, without faith in the Lord, even the greatest of human accomplishments will bring little of lasting value.

Committed Christians have come to the realization that, in the face of this great need for evangelization, they cannot simply sit back and do nothing. While the grace of faith and conversion surely comes from God, we are the human instruments God uses to draw people closer to Himself.

How do we proclaim Jesus Christ and His good news? How do we do it in our time—in the environment in which we live—in a way that will be effective? This is a vital question for everyone, because the task of preaching Christ and His gospel is the responsibility of everyone who belongs to the community of faith we call the Church. I can assure you it is an important question for me. There are times when I wonder how much effect my ministry really has. As you know, I minister in Cincinnati. Now, the Archbishop of Cincinnati, no matter who he might be, has always had a high standing in the community. My name, for example, is on every invitation list for civic and community functions. People are very kind to me and they give me a respectful hearing. But are they really listening to what I am saying? Are their lives affected by it? Do they understand that the words I preach are not my own? Do they look beyond those words, beyond the sacred rites I perform, and see the Lord Jesus? I have the uneasy feeling that many do not. If so, ministry is less fruitful than it should be. So what do I do? And what do you, who are united with me in Christian faith, do?

The greatest need at this time, for each of us as individuals and for all of us as a community of faith, is to live out our faith in our daily lives. To put it another way, our lives must be so gospel-oriented that people will be convinced that we are believers. In late 1977, George Gallup found in a survey that, while America’s teen-agers are quite religious in certain ways, they are turned off by churches and organized religion. A comment typical of this age group was: "Churchgoers have high morals, but they’re not Christians—they’re spiritually shallow." Another comment was: "Religion should be an exciting experience—but you’d never know it in most churches you go to." Admittedly, this survey was of teen-agers. But such attitudes affect all age groups. I talk with and receive letters from many middle-aged and elderly people who tell me the same things. There is a tendency at times to write all this off by saying that such people do not have the faith or, in the case of younger people, that they are immature. But this response is not adequate.

Books of the New Testament like the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles tell us a great deal about the early Christians, those who lived at a time when personal witnesses to Jesus and His ministry were still alive. The most evident phenomenon is the radical change that took place in their lives after they converted to the Lord and were baptized. And it was that change—in the way they incarnated in their day-to-day lives the teaching of Jesus—more than what they said, that impressed their neighbors. "See how those Christians love one another." This became the distinctive mark of the early faith community. This is what caused others to sit up and take notice and ultimately join the community themselves.

We should not really be surprised. One of the most beautiful and revealing utterances of the Lord is His final discourse to the apostles, found in chapters 14-17 of John’s Gospel. Jesus clearly states that love is at the very heart of the Christian life. The reason is that love is at the very heart of God’s life. As a matter of fact, John, in his first epistle, states quite simply that "God is love" (1 Jn. 4:8). In the gospel discourse Jesus speaks of the love that unites Him and His Father. It is because of this love that Jesus is totally submissive to His Father’s will. It was this love which prompted Jesus to say in the garden of Gethsemane, when His impending passion and death for us caused Him to experience sorrow and distress: "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Still let it be done as You would have it, not as I" (Matt. 26:39).

To be faithful to our call as Christians, we must reflect in our own lives that divine love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit of which we have been the beneficiaries. And we do that by living lives totally in accord with God’s will as revealed by Jesus and handed on to us by His Church. Listen again to the words of Jesus: "As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Live on in My love. You will live in My love if you keep My commandments, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and live in His love. All this I tell you that My joy may be yours and your joy may be complete. This is My commandment: love one another as I have loved you" (Jn. 15:9-12).

What does such love demand of us in more specific terms? Many things. Paul spelled it out well for the Corinthians when he said, "Love is patient; love is kind. Love is not jealous, it does not put on airs, it is not snobbish. Love is never rude, it is not self-seeking. It is not prone to anger; neither does it brood over injuries. Love does not rejoice in what is wrong, but rejoices with the truth. There is no limit to love’s forbearance, to its trust, its hope, its power to endure" (1 Cor. 13:4-7).

Let us apply those criteria to ourselves. Are we truly patient with our family, our friends, the people with whom we work, our neighbors? Do we make a special effort to say a kind word to them, to show them through some appropriate gesture or in some other way that we care, especially if they are older, or lonely, or ill or incapacitated?

What about people whose skin is not the color of our own? Do we really acknowledge their human dignity? Do we truly accept them as equals, or do we hold back in some way? As citizens, do we use our influence, especially our vote, to elect officials committed to justice and to support legislation that responds to the legitimate needs and aspirations of others, especially the poor and oppressed? Are we sufficiently committed—in our families, in our communities, in our churches—to focusing our attention on the well-being of others and placing the common good before our own? Or are we too self-seeking?

Do we look for the truth through study, prayerful reflection, and openness to God’s word? Or do we tenaciously hold on to our own ideas and whims, giving them a status—sometimes almost an infallibility—which they do not deserve? Instead of seeking truth and giving people the benefit of the doubt, are we quick to spread rumors which reach us? Do our religious acts really represent interior goodness on our part, or have they become a facade hiding attitudes unworthy of us as followers of the Lord?

Beyond all this, are we willing to show a great concern and compassion for others—not only by particular acts on their behalf, but by being present to them? Often, people’s wants and needs are much less complex than we might imagine. They know we cannot solve all their problems or answer all their questions. Often they already know the answer: they may even know there is no immediate solution to their problem. More than anything else, they look to us for our presence as loving, caring, and forgiving people. They want help in coping with their pain and frustration. They look for understanding; they want a sensitive and consoling response to their hurt feelings. They are looking for someone who will pray with them, someone whose presence will remind them that no matter what their difficulties, God really does love them and care for them; someone whose presence will give them the assurance that they will never be abandoned. Are we willing to be present to our friends in this way, even when doing so demands patience and effort on our part?

Admittedly, these are hard questions, but they must be asked if we are to come to grips with our personal standing in the sight of God and determine whether our conversion to the Lord has been real. As I intimated earlier, the answers to these questions will ultimately determine whether or not our evangelizing efforts will be fruitful.

I am convinced that living the Christian life in all its integrity demands complete surrender to the Lord. If we truly believe in God and if we believe that Jesus is, then we must adore Him. We adore or worship in many ways: through the public prayer and rites of the Church and our own private prayer, through various gestures that symbolize our dependence on God. But in the final analysis external actions will have meaning only if inwardly we surrender ourselves completely to the Lord. Adoration is one’s personal response to God’s love. Ideally, therefore, it is the highest and most intense act of which we are capable. To adore is to abandon ourselves completely into the loving hands of God: "Lord, do with me what you will." It is easy to say that we have surrendered ourselves in this way; most of us assert this every day in our public acts of worship and in our private prayer. But true surrender—in terms of our daily lives, in terms of our thinking and acting, and in terms of our priorities—is much more difficult. We are human beings, and, despite our best intentions and efforts, we frequently hold back; we lack the courage to be different, to suffer ridicule or persecution, for Christ’s sake; we hold on desperately to false hopes. The effort to abandon ourselves to the Lord—to adore Him in the most perfect way possible—is a lifelong task. It demands our constant attention if we are to be truly converted to the Lord, and if we are to be credible witnesses to His goodness and love.

As a pastor who has a great love for you and whose only concern is the spiritual well-being of all people, I urge you personally always to remain close to the Lord. Without fear or hesitation let us, together, surrender ourselves completely to Him. Every day may we converse with Him through prayer. Let us share with Him our innermost thoughts, our hopes and aspirations, our anxieties and frustrations, our successes and failures, our weaknesses and sins. May we never hold anything back, because nothing should be off-limits. Let there be no part of our lives that we reserve exclusively for ourselves; let us open up all to Him.

We must not let our prayer become a monologue. We must also listen to the Lord as He speaks to us through the scriptures, through the Church’s preaching and teaching, through our worship as a community of faith, through the lives of those who are close to us, through the signs of the times. We must make time every day to pray. This time is a very sacred moment when nothing should interfere with our conversation with Jesus. But prayer does not end with those sacred, privileged moments. The entire day must become a time of prayer, in the sense that it must be spent entirely in the presence of the Lord. At all times, in our moments of joy and sadness, work and recreation, we should be aware of the Lord’s presence in our lives.

We are like children who play in the presence of their parents. Children become very engrossed in what they are doing when they play, and frequently they may not think of their parents at all. But instinctively they know that they are there, always loving them and always ready to help and protect them. All they need do is reach out and their parents’ loving hands are always there to grasp theirs. So it is with us who, regardless of age or background or sophistication, are quite literally God’s children.

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord! May you never forget your call to proclaim the Lord Jesus and His gospel to all people. May your personal interests, no matter how legitimate, never become obstacles to your witness. Rather, in all that you do, at work and at home and at play, reflect the goodness, the love and mercy, the understanding and compassion of the Lord Himself.

I am personally encouraged that we have spent these moments together. This in itself is a sign that you love Jesus very much and want everyone else to know and love Him. I appreciate deeply this opportunity to share with you some personal reflections on how, together with me and with all Christians, each of us should go about the task of proclaiming Jesus Christ and His Good News.

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