This month marks the anniversary of our Go Make Disciples evangelizing initiative.
Last Pentecost, I wrote a pastoral letter outlining the mission of the Church as summed up in the Great Commission: Proclaim the Gospel and make disciples.
In our world of suffering, division, pain, and death, humanity needs to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ!
Only the Lord can rescue us from sin and mortality; only He can give us a life of hope, purpose, love, and joy.
Only in the Church, with the Scriptures and the sacraments, our moral teachings, and the witness of the saints, do we discover the fullness of God’s plan for us and His desire to be in communion with us.
A renewed effort
Go Make Disciples is not a project, a three-year plan, or another parish program.
It is a renewed effort to simply put into practice the fundamental work of the Church: To preach Jesus Christ crucified and risen, to form disciples, and to invite all people into a saving relationship with Him and His Church.
Go Make Disciples will continue for the rest of our lives, because our experience of God’s love, poured out in Christ, impels us to share our faith with everyone we meet.
Discipleship, given to us in Baptism, is both the work and the fruit of a lifetime of faith, hope, and charity.
You may not have heard much about Go Make Disciples yet, because Phase I has been more internal formation.
I asked every pastor in our diocese to choose an evangelizing team, composed of staff and parish leaders, and to simply spend a year praying together, sharing faith, and studying the kerygma and teachings of the Church.
Every parish also has a mentor, a layperson who is both a leader of Go Make Disciples within the community and also a point of contact with the diocese.
Our diocesan staff has prepared monthly newsletters for pastors and parish teams, which explore the fundamentals of Catholicism, with prayer, catechesis, artwork, and discussion questions centered around themes such as the Paschal Mystery, evangelization, prayer, mortification, the practice of Sunday, and the nature of beauty.
The two center pages of the Catholic Herald are typically dedicated to the same themes.
As faith leaders, we must drink deeply from the well of the Holy Spirit ourselves before reaching out to others.
We also cannot presume that just because someone works for the Church or serves on a pastoral council, they are evangelized and catechized.
Building relationships
Since Easter, I have led vicariate meetings throughout the diocese with all of our priests to hear how they are doing, how their parishioners are faring as we emerge from the pandemic, and how Phase I of Go Make Disciples is unfolding in the parishes. I am greatly encouraged by and grateful for what they told me!
Despite the COVID restrictions, every pastor and parish is participating in Phase I, often with immediate and astonishing fruit.
Keeping Sunday as Sabbath, deepening a prayer life, returning to Confession, learning more about the faith, strengthening relationships among each other are some of the gifts that have emerged within this experience.
The enthusiasm, creativity, and generosity of our priests have shone through these meetings.
Our priests are passionate about the faith, love their people, want to live the mission of Christ with joy and generosity, and are fully on board with Go Make Disciples.
I am very grateful for their leadership and service.
Last Saturday, I met with our diocesan staff of the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis and the parish mentors who also witnessed to the grace of the Holy Spirit moving within this process.
I was deeply moved by their accounts of how God is powerfully working within their parish staffs and evangelizing teams, drawing people to a deeper understanding and knowledge of Christ, a fuller participation in the sacraments, and a renewed enthusiasm for living the Gospel.
When we consistently pray to the Holy Spirit and act on the inspirations given, God does His work!
In my leadership meetings, I also asked for feedback regarding Phase II of Go Make Disciples.
If the Scriptural image of Phase I is Jesus with the 12 Apostles, as He formed them for mission during those three years they spent together, the image of Phase II is Jesus sending out the 72 to proclaim the Kingdom of God, heal the sick, and raise the dead.
Phase I is about the ongoing spiritual and catechetical formation of our leaders; Phase II expands that circle of discipleship to parishioners who are already zealous, prayerful, and ready to reach out to others with the life-changing power of the Gospel.
Phase II seeks to equip a group of parishioners with the competence and confidence to serve as a leaven within the parish, going to their brothers and sisters who are not fully engaged with the faith and the life of the community.
This effort converges well with our need to invite folks back to Mass as we emerge from the pandemic.
I ask for your prayers to the Holy Spirit, as we continue this essential and vital work of proclaiming the Good News to everyone, beginning with our leaders and committed lay faithful.
By virtue of Baptism, every single one of us is called on mission, to cultivate faith in the lives of others and to bring them to the Lord.
Imagine if every five years, every practicing Catholic brought one person back to or into the Church!
Such a dream is not impossible if we pray deeply and proclaim boldly the way the early Church did with such fervent joy and apostolic love.