We have been hearing about the new evangelization for many decades now in the Catholic Church, so it shouldn’t not be entirely new for us. The new evangelization emphasizes the starting point as our own personal relationship with Jesus Christ, encouraging all of us Catholics to first deepen our own faith through prayer, the sacraments, and to live daily as disciples of Christ. Through our own faith as the foundation, we then share that faith message with others, including those who have left the Church and strayed from the faith, a true reality in our modern world today. Pope John Paul II called for the new evangelization to employ new methods of communication, new ways of expressing faith, and a renewed enthusiasm for sharing the Gospel with others.
Evangelization is a big challenge for us today. I cannot imagine the challenges and obstacles St Paul and his compassions faced in their task of evangelization, traveling all over the ancient Mediterranean world, with the message of Christ’s Good News.
In our readings from Acts during the Easter season, we’ve heard about those challenges. In today’s reading, Paul and Silas are stripped, beaten with rods, and thrown into prison. Rather than bemoan their situation, they lift it up to the Lord, singing hymns and praying for the other prisoners. Paul and his companions remain in prison after a great earthquake comes and provides a way for them to escape. Even the jailer in today’s readings was converted to the faith by the disciples’ example of faith.
We never know how God is going to touch our hearts. I see how so many of the men and women in our Catholic ministry in the prison are so very sincere in their practice of the faith.
As we reflect upon the message we hear in Acts today, may we ask God to use us as an instrument of his love and mercy in the way we live out the Gospel each day, just as God used Paul and his companions in the Early Church.
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