Meeting Jesus And Following Him by Francis Cardinal Arinze

Author:Francis Cardinal Arinze [Arinze, Francis Cardinal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9781586174231
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 2010-02-25T06:00:00+00:00

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THE PRIEST EVANGELIZING WITH ZEAL

The priest who meets Jesus and follows him is intensely interested and involved in the evangelizing work of the Church. It could not be otherwise.

1. The Church Is Missionary by Her Very Nature

The pilgrim Church on earth is by her very nature missionary because she takes her origin from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit. It is God who, out of his completely gratuitous mercy, calls us to communicate in life and glory with him.1 In Christ we are called to become the new people of God. Having accomplished the work of our redemption by his life and especially by the paschal mystery of his suffering, death, and Resurrection, Jesus sends his Church to bring the Gospel to the whole world. On the Apostles gathered with the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, he sends the Holy Spirit.

Jesus gives his Church a universal mandate: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

2. Religious Statistics

The priest or bishop cannot remain indifferent in the face of the fact that in the world today Catholics constitute only 17.4 percent of all humanity. All other Christians comprise about 15.6 percent. That means that all who believe in Christ make up one-third of the world’s population. And that figure includes Christians who do not remember when they last set foot in a church building!

Muslims make up 19.2 percent, Hindus 13 percent, and Buddhists 7 percent. Then there are people of a great many other religions: Jews, followers of traditional natural religions, Sikhs, Jainists, Shintoists, and others. And there are millions of persons without a clear religion, or even those who by ideology deny the existence of God.2

For all these people Jesus died on the Cross.

Within the Church, there is preoccupation because many Catholics do not come to Sunday Mass or the sacrament of Penance often; entire populations are becoming gradually dechristianized and have need of reevangelization; religious ignorance is growing; and in some cultures the number of vocations to the priesthood and the religious life is diminishing. On the positive side, the number of Catholics in Africa is on the increase. The growth is to the tune of 6,708 percent between the years 1900 and 2000, when the figure passed from 1.9 million to 130 million.3

There is also the great challenge of the division between Christians and the urgency of ecumenism.

3. Zeal for Evangelization

The priest or bishop cannot remain unmoved in the face of the above facts. He should have the fire of desire to bring Christ to others so that they may have life in abundance and not remain hungry or thirsty (cf. Jn 6:35). Zeal is this burning desire, accompanied by action, so that all may know the one true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent (cf. Jn 17:3). As we have already noted in our reflections, Jesus is the one and only Savior for all humanity.

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