Father Jan Nowotnik, Director of Mission at the Bishops' Conference, offers this reflection on how we can support each other to grow in faith and share the joy of the Gospel on Evangelii Gaudium Sunday.
This reflection, by our Director of Mission, Fr Jan Nowotnik, was first published in Bible Alive.
A few years ago, the Bishops of England and Wales gave the day of prayer for home mission a new title, Evangelii Gaudium Sunday. This was to reflect the changing focus of evangelisation presented by Pope Francis in the Apostolic Exhortation of the same name. This 2013 letter is seen by many as the way in which the new Pope launched some of the important themes of his pontificate, but it found its basis as the summary document of the previous year’s Synod of Bishops on the theme of The New Evangelisation for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.
The threshold of a Jubilee year seems to me to be a good time to remind ourselves of what Pope Francis wrote about in Evangelii Gaudium – themes which still resonate in the life of the Church and have had their influence on our current synodal process. I feel sure that as we deepen our appreciation of Evangelii Gaudium we can find a good way of entering our Jubilee Year 2025 as “Pilgrims of Hope.”
At the very beginning of the letter Pope Francis sets out the trajectory when he states that ‘the joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness.’ He goes on to say that in this exhortation he hopes to ‘encourage the Christian faithful to embark upon a new chapter of evangelisation marked by this joy, while pointing out the new paths for the Church’s journey in years to come.’
It is very clear that Pope Francis is inviting us to know the joy that we can feel when we enter a personal relationship with the Lord. Our desire to learn more about Jesus as we encounter him in the Scriptures and through our prayers provides us with the opportunity to experience the true joy of the Gospel and what it means to be a disciple. Pope Francis encourages us to live out the joy of the Gospel not only in our prayer and when we are in Church, but also by the way that we are called to serve each other especially the most vulnerable and those who feel themselves on the periphery of society.
This way of reaching out to others has also been a way in which we have come to understand the synodal journey with its emphasis on walking with each other and learning how to share with each other the joys and challenges of being a disciple.
Cardinal Nichols in the introduction to the recent synodal synthesis for England and Wales summarised it by saying that “we are called to continue the mission of Christ, to be the living presence of Christ’s love, mercy and compassion in our world, proclaiming the truths about our humanity and our world as established by the Creator and fully expressed in Christ.” He tells us that we can only achieve this “through a profound communion of life in Christ and by a release of our gifts and talents given by the Lord to all the baptised for this very purpose.”
Essentially this is what it means to live out the joy of the Gospel, that our personal encounter with Jesus in personal prayer, in the sacraments and in our reading of the Scriptures helps us to discern the unique gift that we have received from the Lord and that we can put at his service and the service of the Church and of others. Having recognised our gifts and talents we can release them for service within the life of the Church, in this way building up the Body of Christ.
When we do this, we soon realise that we depend wholly on the Lord who shows us the true meaning of our lives and how to live in this world. The One we contemplate in prayer becomes the face of the other whom we serve in the world. The conversation of love in prayer helps us to put our gifts and talents at his service and so we become missionary disciples, or disciples of joy offering to each other the possibility of a profound relationship with the Lord. This sense of offering what we have received to others, is for me the real meaning of Evangelii Gaudium Sunday which sets us free from sorrow and shame to truly be hearers and sharers in the Lord’s saving mission to the world. In this way we proclaim to others what we already know to be true – that they are special in the eyes of the Lord.
On Evangelii Gaudium Sunday the bishops of England and Wales ask parishes to firstly pray for the work of evangelisation across our countries and to see ways in which Catholics within their parish settings may be more involved in this work. Much is already happening, and this may be through our catechesis programmes for the sacraments, or our courses which help those who are becoming Catholics to understand the teaching of the Church. Many are already involved in baptismal and marriage preparation and so this Sunday highlights the good work that goes on across our dioceses and parishes. It is also a moment for us to see if there is anything more that we could be doing to support each other to grow in a living faith.
The Bishops’ Conference also has a mission team which is based at their secretariat in Eccleston Square in London. This office supports the bishops in their work to promote evangelisation activities across England and Wales, recently the focus has been on implementing the ministry of Catechist for the dioceses of England and Wales. The team is also involved in projects promoting Christian Unity and Interreligious dialogue. Alongside this work of outreach, the mission team is also involved in providing prayer resources and catechetical advice. In the lead up to the Jubilee year, the team has been very busy helping the bishops to provide materials for the year of Jubilee. There is a collection taken in each parish which supports this work, and we are very grateful for the help which this gives us to continue our work.
At the heart of the work which the mission team engages in are the pathways offered to us by Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium creating the opportunities for all to find the space to encounter the Lord in personal prayer and to be confident in both proclaiming and living the faith. This work is the golden thread which runs through the national activities of the bishops and helps to point out these new pathways in the journey to come as Pope Francis said in 2013.
The invitation to know the Joy of the Gospel is open to all of us and my prayer is that as you read my reflection this month and the daily reflections that make up Bible Alive you will take up the call to be a pilgrim of hope and joyfully trust in what the Lord is offering to you day by day as you come to know him more deeply in your life of prayer and service.
