Just a few days after the Sunday of Pentecost, which marks the birthday of our Church, the our thoughts run to the first days of the Church of Christ on planet Earth.
Simple, unlettered people, without education or diplomas, with their only references being the “graduation ceremony” of the Holy Spirit, in regards to who Christ is really and what exactly was his task here on earth, the spread out over the entire known civilised world so that they could communicate the great truth that God became man and that he waits for man to become god by grace.
This is what made them “university” graduates, not only did they comprehend the truth but they had the experiential knowledge of the Life. It was this experience that they wanted to share with everyone, creating the conditions for its successful propogation, in other words, creating the Church! They laid the foundations so that this great faith can remain in the hearts of man to the end of the ages.
They created the Church which has as its goal the sanctification of every person to every corner of the earth, and to every age and generation, offering to each person the real experience of the Holy Spirit.
The responsibility, then, of the Evangelization of the world and of all people for all time, is the responsibility of the entire Church through the work of Ierapostole (Sacred Mission).
The charisms of God’s grace are shared out with the individual members of Christ’s body; however, the Church contains all of those graces through the totality of its people.
All Christians are entitled to the joy of that is felt in heaven when one person comes to know God, when one person acquires a life of Sanctity, Holiness.
The joy of Holiness is the product of the offering of each and every member of the body of Christ, his or her offering of time, talents, resources, caring concern and prayer. Far beyond the capacity of oneself alone!
The greatest enemy of the Evangelization of the nations, is the resistance of the “chosen”, those who, in other words, nearsightedly think that their personal perfection is enough for them, those who don’t understand that we aren’t “enough” until we have included our neighbour, and each neighbour, that very “neighbour” whom Christ has determined is the key to our entrance into Paradise!
This concept, the real meaning of the “other”, of our neighbour, is the key to the life in Christ.
If we miss this we may have beautiful churches, beautiful ecclesiastical arts, wonderful organization, able administration, a well-tended and attractive grounds, everything just right, but Christ isn’t alive in us. Not without the understanding of the other, the neighbour, and paradise remains hermetically sealed.
Our age has divinised man—but mostly made God in our own image.
The Church without Evangelism is a church without purpose. And Church without purpose is a lie, a falsehood, it’s a mere human institution, without the Holy Spirit and without God.
The Church shows us how to fix this. It invites us to transcend our self, to find the “other”. When we love our neighbour as our own self, we receive God.