Day 25
To Teach the Art of Living
“Life” indicates the sum total of all the goods that people desire, and at the same time what makes them possible, obtainable and lasting. . . . Jesus came to provide the ultimate answer to the yearning for life and for the infinite which his Heavenly Father had poured into our hearts when he created us. . . . “I came that they might have life” (John 10:10). But what life? Jesus’ intention was clear: the very life of God, which surpasses all the possible aspirations of the human heart.
— St. John Paul II, Message for the VIII World Youth Day37
Evangelization involves spreading the good news of Jesus Christ and finding ways for his grace and truth to touch, penetrate, and transform human hearts, communities, and cultures. The new evangelization strives to do that with new ardor, methods, and expressions.
That’s a lot of words and a lot of concepts. What does it all really boil down to? Pope Benedict XVI, before he became pope, summarized it with a beautiful, powerful phrase:
How does one learn the art of living? Which is the path toward happiness? To evangelize means: to show this path — to teach the art of living.
The Lost Art of Living
The art of living is exactly what was lost by original sin. The human family was created in a condition where our first parents lived in a fruitful and dynamic harmony with the rest of creation, harmony with each other, and harmony with God. That harmony was God’s plan for us, and it gave zest and meaning to life.
The great adventure of human existence originally took place in that spiritual arena, when “the Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it” (Gen. 1:28), blessed Adam and Eve, and said to them: “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 2:15). The happiness we were created to experience was already present from the moment the Lord set the human family on that path. It was a dynamic happiness, meant to grow to fulfillment through loving obedience to God’s plan.
Original sin, our first parents’ rebellion against God’s plan instigated by the deceptions of the devil, shattered that original harmony. Human life became tangled up in confusion and oppressed by misery, as the Catechism explains in paragraph 40.
Every aspect and sector of human experience suffered the consequences of original sin — and the expanding stain of sin that even today continues to spread out from that epicenter of evil. The human heart still yearns for its original harmony and purpose, but this fallen world frustrates it at every turn. Because of original sin, the original art of living degenerated into a struggle merely to survive and a desperate search for lost meaning.
Recovering the Lost Art of Living
As dire as this situation is, God refused to abandon us. The coming of Jesus, prepared for through God’s patient accompaniment and education of the people of Israel, marked the culmination of his plan to restore and even enhance his original design for the human family. To cite Pope Benedict XVI once again:
At the beginning of his public life Jesus says: I have come to evangelize the poor (cf. Luke 4:18); this means: I have the response to your fundamental question; I will show you the path of life, the path toward happiness — rather: I am that path.
Jesus came to show us how to live and to give us the grace — the divine strength, the forgiveness, the hope, the desire — to live that way. Everything he says and does reveals and enables that fullness of life.
The essence of evangelization, then, is not complicated. It is as simple as introducing someone to a friend — Jesus. As Jesus’s followers and messengers, we don’t have all the answers and all the solutions. We too are simply learning the art of living, and that apprenticeship ends only when we die and enter the heavenly kingdom. However much or however little of that art we have learned, though, we can still find ways to share it with others. And when they too meet the Lord, he will take over as their Master, and we will take our proper place as his assistants.
The Benefits of Learning the Art of Living
Simply discovering that the answers to our hearts’ deepest questions and longings really do exist begins to spark joy and hope. Simply knowing that there truly is an art of living, a way of living that brings lasting fulfillment, begins to relieve the tense oppression of existential angst and scatter the darkness. Evangelization starts with the announcement that there is an answer, a purpose, and a path, and its name is Jesus. Evangelization moves forward by fostering a deeper and deeper knowledge, love, and following of Jesus. As that increases, the angst and darkness continue to diminish, sin and evil start to lose their grip, and the art of living — along with its resulting experience of joy, hope, and fulfillment — advances.
That’s why we say that evangelizing means to teach the art of living, and that’s why it is so important.
The deepest poverty is the inability of joy, the tediousness of a life considered absurd and contradictory. This poverty is widespread today, in very different forms in the materially rich as well as the poor countries. The inability of joy presupposes and produces the inability to love, produces jealousy, avarice — all defects that devastate the life of individuals and of the world. This is why we are in need of a new evangelization — if the art of living remains an unknown, nothing else works. But this art is not the object of a science — this art can only be communicated by [one] who has life — he who is the Gospel personified.
The remaining days will explore the different ways we can evangelize, and address some obstacles and helps along those ways. But we must never forget the heart of it all: simply saying to others, in whatever language they best understand, I would love for you to get to know a good friend of mine, who also happens to be the Savior of the world and the King of the universe — his name is Jesus . . .
Questions for Personal Reflection or Group Discussion
What idea in this reflection struck you most and why?
When did you first “meet Jesus”? What led to that moment and what was it like? Remember, savor, and thank God for that experience.
When have you introduced someone to Jesus, knowingly or unknowingly? What led to that moment, and what was it like? What can you learn from that experience?
The art of living — the art of being a Christian, knowing, loving, and following Jesus Christ — never really comes to an end. We grow in virtue gradually, with plenty of failures. We overcome our sinful habits and tendencies gradually, and sometimes it’s painful. Our emotional and spiritual wounds heal gradually under the gentle care of God’s grace, often not so quickly as we would like them to. Our understanding of Church teaching deepens gradually, with the aid of study, discussion, and meditation. . . . If we keep this reality in mind, it helps us avoid the frustration that comes from false expectations.
Today, how will you advance and help someone else advance in the art of living?
- I will ask a qualified person (mentor, priest, teacher) to help me better understand a particular Church teaching I have always struggled with.
- I will identify a recurring problem in my life and seek some fresh advice about how better to work on it.
- I will reach out to someone who is suffering and try to be a mirror of God’s love for that person.
- (Write your own resolution) I will
Concluding Prayer
It is truly right and just that we should always give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God.
For you do not cease to spur us on to possess a more abundant life and, being rich in mercy, you constantly offer pardon and call on sinners to trust in your forgiveness alone.
Never did you turn away from us, and, though time and again we have broken your covenant, you have bound the human family to yourself through Jesus your Son, our Redeemer, with a new bond of love so tight that it can never be undone. . . .
And so, filled with wonder, we extol the power of your love, and, proclaiming our joy at the salvation that comes from you, we join in the heavenly hymn of countless hosts, as without end we acclaim:
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts.
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
osanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
— Roman Missal, Preface for the Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation I
