Vincentian Contribution to the New Evangelization
EVANGELIZED, WE EVANGELIZE --- Vincentian Contribution to the New Evangelization
4th General Assembly of the International VMY --- Salamanca, July 25, 2015
By: Father Celestino Fernández, CM
Introduction
When we speak about “evangelization”, we almost always refer to the need to go to the “other shore” to share the Gospel with others (cf. Mk 4:35) and to the Gospel mandate to be witnesses of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth (cf. Mk 16:15; Acts 1:8). Ultimately, we associate evangelization with an outward proclamation directed at those who are outsiders.
However, there is another aspect of “evangelization”, which we have somewhat forgotten but which must take place before what was just mentioned. Otherwise, we run the risk of missing the point of the issue of evangelization. I am referring to internal evangelization, in other words, to the task of “evangelizing the evangelizers”, or to the affirmation that “in order to evangelize, we must first be evangelized.” Without this element, evangelization will not have a solid foundation nor be convincing.
In preparation for this 4th General Assembly, you perfectly captured these two aspects. This is because by saying “evangelized, we evangelize”, you imply two simultaneous and complementary dimensions. You commit to taking evangelization seriously in its totality and depth, without dichotomy or division.
This is what I hope to do with my modest reflection: help the members of a Vincentian association become aware of its mission within today’s overall project of the new evangelization and point to a set of points of emphasis, urgent needs, guidelines and paths in order implement the Gospel, as Saint Vincent de Paul would say. The theme of this General Assembly, “Evangelized, we Evangelize”, will be my frame of reference and motiving force.
EVANGELIZATION, THE RESPONSIBILITY OF ALL CHRISTIANS
On December 8, 1975, Pope Paul VI made public the best document to date on evangelization: the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi (Evangelization in the modern world). This document contains a foundational and fundamental ecclesiological principle: “Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize” '('Evangelii nuntiandi, nº 14).
This ecclesiological principle reminds us that there is no such thing as “Vincentian evangelization”, no more than Ignatian or Franciscan or Dominican evangelization. This is because evangelization is a priority, the universal ministry and mandate for the entire Church. Therefore, the vast field of evangelization belongs to all Christians and must be done by all Christians. It is the responsibility of the entire Church. It is not just one more responsibility among so many others. It is the fundamental responsibility and the reason for the existence of the Church. We have to emphasize the article “the”. We must thus affirm explicitly that evangelization has come to constitute an essential part of the heart of the Church.
A Vincentian association must bring its charism, its spirituality and its specific style to the Church’s responsibility of evangelization. The mission of the members of this association is to evangelize and to be evangelized out of their particular lived experience and within the domains proper to their distinct and specific Vincentian vocation. This is the context for your collaboration and your role in the universal evangelization of the Church.
SOME CLARIFICATIONS ABOUT THE NEW EVANGELIZATION
The title of this presentation mentions the “New Evangelization.” We have been accustomed to using this term in recent years, ever since Pope John Paul II, during a pastoral visit to Poland in 1979, spoke of a “new evangelization, new in its ardor, methods and expression.” Pope Benedict XVI, made the new evangelization the central theme of his papacy and established the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization. The last Synod of Bishops dealt with the New Evangelization. And, of course, Pope Francis considers the New Evangelization the guiding star of his pontificate. We can distinguish a time ‘before’ and ‘after’ his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium regarding this theme. All this to say that now, when speaking about evangelization, the adjective “new” is always used to describe it.
Whether we speak of “New Evangelization” or simply “evangelization”, what is really important is knowing the meaning, content and implications of the proclamation of the Gospel in the 21st century and its secularized, secular and postmodern society. The essential question is what we mean when we speak and write about “evangelization”.
New Evangelization means two things. Obviously, and first of all, it means that we must return again to evangelizing, since secularization is evolving as rampant de-Christianization. Gospel values such as love, fraternity, equality, and solidarity, etc., have in large measure given way to the pressure of new “secular” values such as progress, efficiency, success and consumerism. Although Christian values may still be heard on lips, they have not been in hearts for some time. They are not what motivates us each day, but that which we allow to move us only on special occasions that we can count on one hand.
However, the new evangelization also means, and most importantly, that we must evangelize anew, in a new way, with new methods, new objectives and new strategies, so as not to fall into the errors of the past. The new objective cannot be creating another Christianity but building up the kingdom of God. This has nothing to do with a world conquest, but rather a witnessing presence in the world. It is not a matter of baptizing a culture or a territory, but rather baptizing those who believe, that is, those who want to accept and share the message of Jesus of Nazareth.
Nor can we forget what Pope Francis forcefully repeats in all his speeches and, in particular, in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium: that evangelization (or new evangelization) should put the Church, the whole Church, in a “state of mission”, “going forth” and push it out to the “peripheries” of life, to the material, moral, geographical, existential, and spiritual peripheries; and that this evangelization must involve dialogue, healing, hope and joy (cf. Evangelii gaudium, 20, 25, 30, 46, 191). He himself said to the members of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization on October 14, 2013: “The Church is the home where the doors are always open, not only because everyone finds a welcome and is able to breathe in love and hope, but also because we can go out bearing this love and hope. The Holy Spirit urges us to go beyond our own narrow confines and He guides us to the outskirts of humanity.”
Therefore, having said all this, I’ll attempt to trace out some specifically Vincentian foundations or lines of action that draw us closer to what could be our authentic contribution today to the very necessary New Evangelization.
POINT OF DEPARTURE: THE SPECIFIC FRAMEWORK OF THE VINCENTIAN MISSION
A Vincentian association, if it wants to remain consistent with its identity, must start from a specifically Vincentian framework. Vincent de Paul himself provided us with it on December 6, 1658, in a conference to the priests of the Mission: Our mission is “to make God known to poor persons; to announce Jesus Christ to them; to tell them that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand and that it’s for persons who are poor” (CCD XII, p. 71).
Although this sentence was originally addressed to the members of the Congregation of the Mission, it constitutes the most authentic Vincentian tradition and is applicable to all the branches of the Vincentian Family and has been applied to them. In my opinion, this sentence is the best summary of what the Vincentian stamp on evangelization should be. It brings us back to the major repercussions of Paul VI’s Evangelii nuntiandi.
All our work for evangelization should be inspired by, directed by and articulated from this specific framework, and all our attitudes and dispositions should also converge toward this specific framework.
THE CORE: THE LIFE FORCE OF THE VINCENTIAN MISSION
This specific framework of the Vincentian mission presents us with the very core, that which gives substance and a life force to Vincentian evangelizers. Furthermore, this specific framework reveals to us that, without this life force, evangelization would remain mere altruistic strategizing or rabble-rousing talk. The three orientations on which the radical option made by Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac was based must be the core of our Vincentian evangelization:
The experience of the good God who is protector of persons who are poor:
At the end of the 1970s, the famous German theologian Karl Rahner said, “The Christian of the future will either be a mystic, that is, someone who has experienced God for real, or he will not be a Christian.” What at the time may have seemed a theological witticism has now become an undeniable truth. Without a deep experience of God, without a personal and all-consuming encounter with the God who loves us, forgives us, guides us, dwells in us and transforms us, evangelization remains hot air, propaganda or proselytism.
However, the God whom a Vincentian must experience, proclaim and reveal is the God “protector and defender of those who are poor and destitute.” This is the God revealed by Jesus Christ and whom Vincent de Paul knew and experienced (cf. CCD X, p. 411). He is the God of love and mercy. God is the first to opt for those who are poor. Therefore, the cause of persons living in poverty is God’s cause, and the concerns of those who are poor are God’s concerns.
It has been rightly said that the real and authentic mystic, someone who has had a real experience of God and an authentic encounter with Him, is the most revolutionary person. Saint Vincent de Paul insisted, “Give me a man of prayer, and he’ll be able to do anything” (CCD XI, p. 76).
The centrality of Christ, evangelizer and servant of persons who are poor:
Vincent de Paul especially singled out Christ’s characteristics as evangelizer and servant of persons who are poor: “You see, brothers, that the essential aim of Our Lord was to work for poor persons. When He went to others, it was only in passing” (CCD XI, p. 122). A Vincentian’s life of evangelization consists in “do[ing and continuing] what the Son of God did when He was on earth” (CCD IX, p. 14). A Vincentian’s vocation revolves around “living authentically the vocation of Jesus Christ,” evangelizer and servant of persons who are poor (cf. CCD XI, p. 121). A Vincentian makes the radical option for those who are poor because the cause of those who are poor is the cause of Christ, and the cause of Christ is the cause of persons who are poor.
In addition, members of a Vincentian association must fix their gaze on Chapter 4, verses 18-19 of Saint Luke’s Gospel (“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor...”). The key element of their Vincentian vocation and mission in the Church and in society is found here.
Passion for persons who are poor:
This is not just a concern for those who are poor or proximity to those who are poor, which is already a major step forward, but something more. It is a matter of living what Vincent de Paul expressed: “The poor, who do not know where to go or what to do, […] and who increase daily, are my burden and my sorrow” (Letter from Vincent de Paul to Fr. Alméras, October 8, 1649, CCD III, p. 492).
It means those who are poor are our overriding passion. Given such a passion, everything else becomes secondary. Impelled by this passion for those who are poor, Vincent de Paul went so far as to say: “We should sell ourselves to rescue our brothers and sisters from destitution” (CCD IX, 390).
FOUNDATIONAL POINT: AT THE ‘SCHOOL OF THE POOR’
When we say that we must pay attention to the second aspect of evangelization, to “being evangelized”, Vincentians know that, in accordance with their charism and spirituality, there is only one school at which to be evangelized, the school of persons who are poor, who are the “sacrament of Christ” and our “lords and masters”.
“They [poor persons] have much to teach us. Not only do they share in the sensus fidei, but in their difficulties they know the suffering Christ. We need to let ourselves be evangelized by them. The new evangelization is an invitation to acknowledge the saving power at work in their lives and to put them at the center of the Church’s pilgrim way. We are called to find Christ in them, to lend our voice to their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to speak for them and to embrace the mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them” (Pope Francis, Evangelii gaudium, 198).
Anyone might think that the previous paragraph is a quote from Vincent de Paul put into contemporary speech, but it is from Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. It is hardly surprising that a document on evangelization includes an emphatic, explicit and challenging mention of poor persons as those who evangelize us. In short, this is what Vincent de Paul stressed: that persons who are poor, besides being our lords and masters, are also our “teachers”. We can be certain that Vincent de Paul never said or wrote the exact words “poor persons evangelize us” or “we are evangelized by persons who are poor.” The theology, spirituality and ministry of his time could not conceive of this language. However, we can be no less certain that the best Vincentian interpretation assures us that Vincent de Paul said in his words the same thing that we say in our words today.
Therefore, the cries of poor persons, their basic needs, the rejection and neglect that they face are all clear signs of God’s will for Vincentians; they are tangible manifestations that God is urging us to fight on their behalf and to bring them the Good News of holistic salvation. At the “school of the poor”, Vincentians must learn a series of essential lessons in order to carry out their responsibility of evangelization. For example, Saint Vincent de Paul noted the following lessons that poor persons teach us: they teach us God’s will and our place in the Church and in society; draw us close to God; continuously send us to Jesus Christ; cry out to us in their suffering; invite us to live a more radical poverty; show us the sharp sting of their poverty; evangelize us through their patience and capacity for acceptance.
There is a memorable paragraph in a conference that Saint Vincent gave to the Priests of the Mission: “What I retain from my experience of [simple peasants] is the discernment I’ve always made that true religion - true religion, Messieurs, true religion - is found among the poor. God enriches them with a lively faith; they believe, they touch, they taste the words of life. You never see them in their illnesses, troubles, and food shortages get carried away with impatience, or murmur and complain; not at all - or rarely. They usually remain at peace during trials and tribulations. What’s the reason for that? It’s faith. And why? Because they’re simple, God gives them in abundance the graces He refuses the rich and wise of this world” (CCD XII, p. 142).
DESTINATION: SOME POINTS OF EMPHASIS FOR EVANGELIZATION BASED ON THE VINCENTIAN SPIRITUALITY AND CHARISM
Every process of evangelization must result in a message, a proclamation, a life commitment and a concrete manifestation of the joy of the Gospel. But the first thing we must ask ourselves, before getting to this concrete action, is if the Gospel that we proclaim is Good News for the poor and if we give credibility to this Gospel. It can sometimes happen that we proclaim empty messages that don’t interest anyone, or we cancel out and obscure these messages by our way of thinking and living that is counter to the Gospel and Vincentian values.
Then we have to ask ourselves another question: what Gospel (what Good News) are we Vincentians proclaiming or should proclaim in this time and place? It is not a matter of inventing something new. It is not about seeking originality or novelty. It is a matter of stressing certain aspects from yesterday, today and tomorrow that are at the core of our charism and spirituality and that are part of the Vincentian contribution to the new and traditional evangelization.
I am going to point out, as a sort of sample, some of these points of emphasis for Vincentian evangelization that a member of a Vincentian association such as yours should have clearly in mind.
The Gospel of the incarnation
A few years ago, the theologian Johannes B. Metz made popular a very graphic expression to get at the idea of the “Gospel of the incarnation”. He said, “A biblically-inspired experience of God is not mysticism with eyes closed, but rather mysticism with open eyes; it is not a perspective which only references oneself, but one which is broadened and deepened by the suffering of others.” Vincent de Paul turned to the pre-Pauline hymn found in the letter to the Philippians that exults the “kenosis” of Christ, that is to say, the way Christ emptied and humbled himself, taking the form of a slave (cf. Phil 2:5-11).
These are ways of saying that, in order to be evangelized and to evangelize, there is only one way, the one Jesus followed: taking flesh and pitching our tents on the underside of history and committing to those who are victims of the system. Without incarnation, inculturation and communion with others, evangelization is not possible. It would be no more than bureaucracy. Without taking flesh, the supposed evangelizer would get no further than being a good Church employee.
The Gospel of sensitivity
“The…effect of charity [is] we can’t see someone suffering without suffering along with him, or see someone cry without crying as well. This is an act of love, causing people to enter one another’s hearts and to feel what they feel, far from those persons who have no feeling for the anguish of the afflicted, or the suffering of poor persons… Quoi! To be a Christian and to see our brother suffering without weeping with him, without being sick with him! That’s to be lacking in charity; it’s being a caricature of a Christian; it’s inhuman; it’s to be worse than animals (CCD XII, p. 221-222).
These two paragraphs are part of a conference by Vincent de Paul to the priests and brothers of the Mission on charity. Among the many elements that make up the backbone of charity, he emphatically stresses sensitivity to the needs and sufferings of our brothers and sisters who are poor because the foundation is found in being sincerely sensitive to our suffering neighbor.
Without sensitivity, there is no openness and closeness to the poor. On the road that goes from Jerusalem to Jericho, and which defines our lives, lack of sensitivity turns us into exploitive robbers or into heartless priests and Levites. Without sensitivity, the cries of poor persons is drowned out and silenced amid lack of solidarity and selfishness. Without sensitivity, the cruel world of the poor remains in books and in news that does not touch us. Without sensitivity, there can be no discovery of Jesus Christ in the person of the poor because faith would remain a set of doctrine learned and recited by memory.
In summary, a Vincentian evangelizer should know that sensitivity leads to passion for those who are poor, affective and effective love of persons who are poor, and the struggle for justice on behalf of those who are forgotten and living on the margins. At the same time, he should also know that, in this automated and manipulative society, sensitivity is a more convincing witness for evangelization than great theological and spiritual discourses. As a matter of fact, I think, and everyday experience confirms this, that sensitivity towards persons who are poor is a fundamental support for the New Evangelization. All we need to do is look at the Gospels to see how Jesus’ works announcing the Kingdom of God were full of affectionate and special sensitivity to persons suffering from any sort of difficulty.
The Gospel of charity
I don’t think there is any group in the Church, whether it be a group of lay or consecrated persons, that isn’t convinced that charity is the responsibility and duty of all Christians, without exception, that it is the only true sign of a real Christian and that their fundamental identity and essential way of being among Christians and with the world is the service of charity. And, naturally, I don’t think any member of the Vincentian Family disregards something so basic and obvious.
Within the common denominator of the Gospel of charity, Vincentians should give new momentum, creative boldness and a renewed face to this Gospel of charity. Like Vincent de Paul, members of a Vincentian association must dare to rescue charity from being spiritualizing intimism, a false sense of peace and routine fulfillment of duty. They must transform charity into much more than a mere virtue, in the traditional sense of the word.
A very thought-provoking and meaningful scene in the film “Monsieur Vincent”, which combines history and fiction inspired by reality, can help us understand what it means to “give new momentum” to the Gospel of charity. This is in order to make the Gospel effective, supportive, liberating and the bearer of Good News. This will make it clear that charity is the foundation on which evangelization lies and the center around which it revolves and that the Gospel of charity is the most genuine and specific element of the Vincentian contribution to the New Evangelization.
In this film, Vincent de Paul is speaking with Chancellor Séguier, something like a Secretary of Justice or Home Secretary, who tells him that within a few days, there will not be a single poor person in the city of Paris. In response to Vincent de Paul’s joyful astonishment, Chancellor Séguier gives him the key to putting an end to poor persons: “Lock them all up.” Vincent de Paul angrily replies, “Charity, Chancellor, consists in helping those who are poor maintain their dignity as persons.” In a fit of rage, Chancellor Séguier cuts the conversation short: “Charity! Charity! This is of your own invention. In the past, it was no more than a virtue, and that was perfect. Noble women in their parishes were called to it, it was mentioned in sermons, causing tears and a coin pulled from their purse, and everyone had a peaceful conscience. You have been a visionary. You have moved heaven and earth. You have hassled us so much with your charity that you have thrown it in the hands of the government… Honestly, do you think that we need your charity? Before your crusade, poor people existed as well, and they didn’t trouble the sleep of decent persons…”
The Gospel of mercy
“How much I desire that the year to come will be steeped in mercy, so that we can go out to every man and woman, bringing the goodness and tenderness of God! May the balm of mercy reach everyone, both believers and those far away, as a sign that the Kingdom of God is already present in our midst!” (Misericordiae vultus, 5) Pope Francis says this to us in his magnificent Bull of Indication of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.
Vincent de Paul spoke in this way: “We have to try to stir our hearts to pity, make them sensitive to the sufferings and miseries of our neighbor, and ask God to give us the true spirit of mercy, which is the characteristic spirit of God; for, as the Church states, it is the distinctive feature of God to be merciful and to impart His Spirit. So let’s ask God, my dear confreres, to give us this spirit of compassion and mercy, to fill us with it, and to preserve it in us so that whoever sees a Missioner can say, ‘There’s a man full of mercy.’ Let’s reflect a little on how much we need mercy, since we have to practice it toward others and bring it to all sorts of places, and to suffer everything for its sake” (CCD XI, p. 308 [Abelly, Book 3, p. 118]).
It seems homilies, speeches and pastoral documents, etc. speak more about mercy recently as a result of how Pope Francis has made this attitude a sort of compass for his pontificate. However, in reality, the Gospel of mercy has always been - or should have been - in the forefront of evangelization. It even has been and continues to be a sort of test of “ecclesial verification”, in the sense already brought out by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Dives in misericordia (“God, who is rich in mercy”): “The Church lives an authentic life when she professes and proclaims mercy-the most stupendous attribute of the Creator and of the Redeemer” (Dives in misericodia, 13).
The Gospel of hope
In his speech closing the Second Vatican Council on December 7, 1965, Pope Paul VI summarized the letter and spirit of the Council in beautiful paragraph: “Instead of depressing diagnoses, encouraging remedies; instead of direful prognostics, messages of trust issued from the council to the present-day world.” He continues, giving the reason for this hopeful message: “The modern world's values were not only respected but honored, its efforts approved, its aspirations purified and blessed.”
If the New Evangelization does not announce or make known the Good and consoling News of hope and, on the contrary, issues condemnations, negative judgements and apocalyptic warnings, it can no longer be considered evangelization but rather fundamentalist indoctrination. If a so-called evangelizer relies primarily on laws, statutes, norms, aggressive and intolerant moralizing and outdated traditions and is unable to open new paths of life, dreams and hope, then he or she is pouring old wine into new wineskins and, as a result, is ruining the wine and the wineskins (cf. Mt 9:17).
Pope Francis, in chapter 5 of his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, speaks about how to be “spirit-filled evangelizers”. Among other things, he tells us, “It is true that in our dealings with the world, we are told to give reasons for our hope, but not as an enemy who critiques and condemns. We are told quite clearly: “do so with gentleness and reverence” (1 Pt 3:15)… Clearly Jesus does not want us to be grandees [nobility] who look down upon others, but men and women of the people. This is not an idea of the Pope, or one pastoral option among others; they are injunctions contained in the word of God which are so clear, direct and convincing that they need no interpretations which might diminish their power to challenge us… By so doing we will know the missionary joy of sharing life with God’s faithful people as we strive to light a fire in the heart of the world” (Evangelii Gaudium, 271).
Pope Francis’ voice resounds so strongly when, at the end of the so-often quoted article 86 of his Exhortation, he exclaims, “Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of hope!”
A BASIC QUESTION: EVANGELIZED IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO EVANGELIZE?
The theme that holds this 4th General Assembly of the International VMY together and give it unity is an issue that has been addressed for some time in theological and pastoral circles. It arose ever since unbelief, secularism, pluralism and multiculturalism have penetrated society. In a society that was homogenously Christian, there was no reason for doubt nor discussion: it was enough to be baptized and reverently receive the sacraments regularly.
A more radical movement says, “If you are not evangelized, do not evangelize; if you have not made a clear and decisive choice for Jesus Christ and His message, do not presume to evangelize; first, you must be evangelized.” Another movement, equally rigorous, warns, “In order to evangelize, you must go from a Gospel that is learned, known and understood in theory to a Gospel that is lived and deeply experienced.”
There is also a third position that is more in the center and that tones down the previous demands and, without in any way playing down the importance of the absolute necessity of “being evangelized”, suggests that the Christian, in order to be a Christian, has the duty and the mandate to evangelize, even if he or she is not perfect or is far from being totally converted. Furthermore, every evangelizer will mature and advance along his or her faith journey to the extent that he or she advances and becomes more involved in the responsibility of evangelization.
Certainly, the Message to the People of God from the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization, dated October 26, 2012, cautioned that evangelization is first of all directed at ourselves, and we must enter into this state of conversion (cf. Message to the People of God from the 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization, 5).
Pope Francis, in the second part of Chapter 2 of his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, approaches this question from another angle. He does not oppose being evangelized and evangelizing. With pastoral wisdom, realism and lucidity, the Pope professes a powerful call for the “conversion” of pastoral workers, of evangelizers. It is another way of calling attention to the need of evangelizers to strive to be evangelized.
Therefore, in this part entitled “temptations faced by pastoral workers”, the Pope enumerates a series of situations in current culture and specific to evangelizers that have a negative impact on their identity and mission. These are situations such as heightened individualism, a crisis of identity and a cooling of fervor, which lead to relativism and acting as if God did not exist and as if the poor did not exist either. Pope Francis strongly emphasizes the temptation called ‘acedia’ (a very Jesuit expression frequently mentioned in Ignatian spiritual exercises): it is a mixture of sadness, tedium, apathy, laziness, carelessness, indifference, mediocrity… He also naturally highlights the temptation to the “sterile pessimism of prophets of doom”. Pope Francis sums up all these temptations faced by pastoral workers with the expression “spiritual worldliness”, in other words, adapting to the criteria, opinions, mentalities and ways of acting of this word rather than following the criteria and values of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The basic question lies here and, to be sure, it will continue to be the object of debate. This means that it is a way of taking seriously evangelization and of trying to make evangelization - new evangelization and evangelization as it has always been - the central concern of Christians and, of course, of Vincentians. For this debate, I advise you don’t lose sight of what Paul VI said in this Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi, speaking about the “conversion” that true evangelization should produce: evangelization means causing interior change, transforming humanity from within, to evangelize man’s culture and cultures in a vital way, in depth and right to their very roots (cf. Evangelii nuntiandi, 18 and 20).
CONCLUSION: CONVICTION IN THE VOCATION OF EVANGELIZATION
If the Church exists in order to evangelize, a Vincentian association within the Church should also exist in order to evangelize. If the specific vocation of the Church and of the Vincentian Family is evangelization, the fundamental and essential vocation of an association belonging to the Church and to the Vincentian Family must also inevitably be evangelization.
However, these assertions, which no one could question, and everything that we have been considering, must be supported by a fundamental attitude: real, effective and practical conviction. Grand theories and beautiful documents do us no good if we do not have an existential conviction of our vocation to evangelize. When Paul harrowingly exclaimed in his first letter to the Christians in Corinth, “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16), he did so out of his deepest convictions. When Vincent de Paul threw himself into the evangelization of persons who are poor, he did so because he was genuinely convinced that evangelization was his vocation and that his human and Christian life would be judged on it.
It is from this conviction that we must show that, despite difficulties, evangelization is not a heavy burden or a cumbersome responsibility but rather a joyful vocation. Therefore, I would like to conclude with another rousing exclamation from Pope Francis: “Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of missionary enthusiasm!” (EG, 80)
