February 3, 2014
This blog is the third in a three-part series on evangelization.
Of course we need to call all Catholics to the fullness of discipleship, expressed through their involvement with the Word of God (conversion and relationship), prayer (private and communal through Liturgy), community (connectedness with other disciples in faith and life), and service (reaching outward to those who are not being served, helping all live a fullness of life). We can never let up on this. Catholics need to be continually called to more explicit commitment to Christ, which includes a more open sharing with the world of the grace that comes from Jesus. Catholics need ongoing conversion as part of their being followers of Jesus.
But rather than setting up criterion and then judging each other according to those, can we just presume an ideal and acknowledge that, inevitably, we all fall short of that ideal, even the most committed and active disciple? And that, as part of a continuum of discipleship, all Catholics may be exercising a “more or less” involvement with their faith and faith community. Instead of, for example, thinking of our children who tend not to attend Church as much as the pre-1960 folks as if they were fallen-away cretins, maybe we could think of them as people to be invited to fuller discipleship given the variations of their lives and experiences. Cannot we not think of these people on a continuum with the more active? Can we demonize them a little less?
In this more inclusive model of evangelization and discipleship which I am trying to sketch, we don’t have “true” disciples and “not disciples,” but a church in which, at different times, we are producing fruit that may range from 5 percent to 95 percent, to use the Gospel’s metaphors. What we do as a Church is continuously call ourselves to produce more, whoever we are, as part of our baptism. What we see in each other are the seeds of discipleship, some of which have sprung into plants, and others still lie latent. What we acknowledge about all of us is our ongoing need for greater conversion, for reconciliation and Reconciliation, and the expression of God’s grace in more explicit ways in our lives.
Are there stages of discipleship? There certainly are phases of discipleship in all our lives as we look back on our faith lives. They may not necessarily follow those that Sherry Weddell outlines (trust, curiosity, openness, conversion, intentional discipleship) in any strict order. At varying times in our lives as disciples we’ve experienced deepening trust, or been drawn along by curiosity about one or another aspect of faith, or powerfully experienced Jesus’ presence, or, perhaps, have powerfully experienced something like God’s absence (e.g., our own “dark nights” of the soul), or have been clear in the direction of our vocations, or have been confused. Catholic mystics have taught us well about phases of discipleship. Our Paulist founder, Servant of God Isaac Hecker, experienced years of what seemed like internal confusion as part of his journey in faith – and came to see this as the work of the Spirit. The Spirit, Hecker would say, can work through all – and many different – phases of our spiritual lives.
Might a more-inclusive attitude like this end up enabling lax discipleship? Perhaps. But giving the impression that evangelization and discipleship is something almost “elitist” might do more than enable lax discipleship; it might lead people to dismiss Church, discipleship, and evangelization altogether. Everyone remarks about the growing number of young people who respond “none” to the question of their preferred faith. Part of this growth is surely a pushing back at churches that seemed to be pushing against them, as “American Grace” (Putnam and Campbell) show us.
Of course it’s too premature to generalize on the ministry of Pope Francis. But one thing is clear: he is not into exclusive or exclusivising notions of faith. “Open up the doors,” he says. Let’s get away from our small-minded approaches. He mentions the unmarried pregnant woman who comes to get her baby baptized – how, in place of some of our post Vatican II approaches, we should celebrate this woman and warmly welcome her and her child. He washes the feet of Muslim women. He prays with evangelical pastors. It’s as if Francis is pointing out a vast ocean of divine love and grace, and inviting us all to swim in it, and to let as many into that ocean as possible, however wet any one person is able to get.
In Evangelii Gaudium, his Apostolic Exhortation on Evangelization, Pope Francis sounds a very open note in #3, one that should get our full attention:
I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord.”
Something like this more inclusive approach might be a key ingredient to put into our thinking about, and doing, evangelization.