Day 22 

The Church’s Deepest Identity

Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ’s sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious resurrection. 

— St. Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14

When you think of the Catholic Church, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? For many, the Catholic Church is primarily an organization. It has a hierarchical structure that moves from a local parish priest up to a local bishop and then all the way up to the pope, the head of the Church. And all the individuals who call themselves “Catholics” are members of that organization, similar to the way soldiers are members of an army, or college students are members of a fraternity or a sorority.

That is true, as far as it goes. The Catholic Church is an organization, with a structured hierarchy and a wide membership. Yet to think of the Church primarily in that way is like thinking of a human being only as a skeleton holding together different muscle groups and biological systems, not as a real person. The concept is too reductive. 

More Than Just an Organization

What does this organization do? Where does it come from? Where is it going? What is its purpose? And what characterizes the Church’s members? These questions point toward a more robust understanding of the Church’s identity — and therefore a more robust understanding of our own identity as Catholics. And at the core of everything is the Church’s mission to spread the gospel: “Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize. . . . ”

The word evangelization can be used in many different ways, but we need to distill it down to an essential meaning in order to achieve clarity in our search for understanding the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. Here is how the Catechism’s glossary defines evangelization: “the proclamation of Christ and his gospel (Greek: evangelion) by word and the testimony of life, in fulfillment of Christ’s command.”

The Greek word evangelion literally means “good news.” From it derive the English words evangelist, which means one who proclaims the good news, and evangelize, which means to proclaim or spread the good news, and other cognates like evangelism and evangelization. The English word gospel is a translation of those terms. Just as gospel in Old English comes from two words meaning “good story,” so the original Greek word comes from two words meaning “good announcement, or news.” Latin adopted the Greek word itself, Latinizing it into evangelium and sometimes translated it literally into bona anuntiatio. The same Greek root gives us our word angels, the spiritual beings who often serve as God’s “announcers” or messengers throughout the history of salvation.

In the early years of Christianity, the word evangelion referred primarily to all the Church’s activity of spreading and promoting the Christian faith and message (the content of the “good news”). And since all Christians were involved in that activity, all Christians were evangelizers. Eventually the four authors of the written accounts of Jesus’s life and ministry were referred to as Evangelists in a more technical sense, and their individual accounts were entitled Gospels (the Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John). 

Today these technical senses are the most well known, and unfortunately that reflects a general diminishment of the everyday Catholic’s understanding of the Church’s true mission. After all, if the four Evangelists have already written down the gospel definitively in the Gospels, then what’s all this talk about evangelization? It’s already happened, hasn’t it?

The Dynamism of Evangelization

Yes and no. This particular piece of good news is more than simple information, though it includes information. The Word of God — what God speaks to us and announces to us in Jesus — is actually alive. It takes root and grows, like a seed, bearing spiritual fruit and transforming human lives, communities, and cultures. The Book of Hebrews alludes to this:

Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

So the gospel, the good news about the salvation of sinners through God’s grace and mercy, refers to something that has indeed already happened (the coming of Jesus Christ and the accomplishment of his mission on earth). But it also refers to something that is ongoing: a multi-dimensional process of spreading this grace and mercy that will continue until the very end of history, when Jesus comes again to put an end to all evil and suffering. 

The Dimensions of Evangelization

The work of evangelization, then, the spreading of the gospel, involves three basic activities, and engaging in these activities constitutes the deepest identity of the Church. The Church’s organization is at the service of these activities, of this mission that announces and promotes the good news of Jesus Christ. Here are the three dimensions or “moments” of evangelization:

• Spreading the knowledge of Jesus Christ and his saving mission to those who have not yet heard about it. This is traditionally called the “mission ad gentes,” which is Latin for “to the peoples.” Many times, when we think of missionaries, we think of people who are primarily engaged in this work of spreading the gospel to those corners of the world that haven’t yet heard it even for the first time. Though a critical dimension of evangelization, this is not the only sector of missionary activity.
• Instructing and initiating into the life of the Church those who have heard and accepted the gospel but are not yet mature in their faith. The traditional term most often associated with this work is catechesis (another word with Greek roots — this time the Greek origin refers to “instruction by word of mouth”).
• Cultivation toward full spiritual maturity and fruitfulness of the seed of grace in the lives of those who have received it, such that it transforms individuals, families, communities, and entire cultures in harmony with God’s will for the human family. This is often referred to as the work of sanctification, or “making holy.” 

The Church’s mission is to evangelize, and evangelization involves all these dimensions, along with all their logical corollaries and implications: “The Church ‘exists in order to evangelize’; that is the carrying forth of the Good News to every sector of the human race so that by its strength it may enter into the hearts of men and renew the human race.”

This is what the twelve apostles and the rest of Christ’s first followers were sent out to do by the Lord; it is the Church’s reason for being. 

He [Jesus] said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15)

In fact, the word mission comes from the Latin word for “sent out” (missio), which in Greek is related to apostello, the same root that gives us apostle and apostolate. Mission, evangelization, spreading the gospel, apostolate — this lexicon begins to unveil the richness of the Church’s deepest identity — which, as we will see in the next meditation, also gives us a clue about our own deepest identity.

Questions for Personal Reflection or Group Discussion

What idea in this reflection struck you most and why?

When you think about the Catholic Church, what images or concepts come spontaneously to mind? Why? What do they tell you about your attitude toward the Church?

Try to explain in your own words the different nuances of these terms related to the Church’s deepest identity: mission, evangelization, apostolate, gospel.

The concept of evangelization is so rich that it can’t really be defined exhaustively with mathematical precision. The Vatican’s General Directory for Catechesis points out: “However, no such definition can be accepted for that complex, rich and dynamic reality which is called evangelization. There is the risk of impoverishing it or even of distorting it. . . . Evangelization must be viewed as the process by which the Church, moved by the Spirit, proclaims and spreads the gospel throughout the entire world”. 

Considering how rich and multi-dimensional this reality is, what will you do today to engage more intentionally in the Church’s work of evangelization?

• I will make a visit to the Eucharist and pray for missionaries who are struggling against taxing and dangerous difficulties.
• I will take five minutes to write a thank you note to God for all the evangelizers whose efforts went into my receiving the Catholic faith (try to list as many of those people as you can think of).
• I will get together with a friend and talk about how the Church in my area is continuing the work of evangelization. Then I will pray for the success of those efforts and brainstorm about how I can join in.
• (Write your own resolution) I will

Concluding Prayer

O God, in the covenant of your Christ you never cease to gather to yourself from all nations a people growing together in unity through the Spirit;

grant, we pray, that your Church, faithful to the mission entrusted to her, may continually go forward with the human family and always be the leaven and the soul of human society, to renew it in Christ and transform it into the family of God.

— Roman Missal, Collect for Mass for the Church, B