Pentecost 2000: 'Go, make disciples of all nations

By Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.

Some weeks this column is hard to write. Other times, it’s easy. This is an easy week, because I feel very strongly about my subject: evangelization. “Evangelization” is a big word for a simple but vital task: preaching Jesus Christ and teaching the Catholic faith to the world. It’s a job each of us owns. We can’t delegate it away. And that’s why I want to invite - and strongly encourage - each and every one of you to come to the “Pentecost 2000” celebration here at the John Paul II Center on the afternoon of Sunday, June 11.

For more than 20 years as Pope, John Paul II has urged Catholics around the world to recover their missionary zeal. The Gospel is a seed. It has to bear fruit or it dies. And so Christian faith isn’t just for the head. It’s for the heart and the hands as well.

In other words, we need to share it. We need to be on fire with Jesus Christ. We need to talk about our faith with others - and we need to show our faith by acting on it in our daily lives, and drawing others into the Church. Vatican II said that the Church, by her nature, is missionary. And her vocation isn’t just some disembodied corporate ideal - it means us, you and me, right now.

Therein lies the need for every Catholic to be engaged in missionary outreach. We do our best preaching, of course, by personal example. A married couple who live a witness of unselfish love become a beacon for their children and other couples. At the same time though, we need to be even more ambitious for Lord. We need to look outward. We need to cultivate an active zeal about spreading the Gospel in every environment of our daily lives.

In the United States, Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses routinely go from door to door in many neighborhoods, recruiting for their churches. Their tactics can sometimes be very frustrating. But I also admire the conviction these men and women show in spreading their perception of the truth, however mistaken. And I often ask myself: How would our Catholic families and singles compare in their own zeal for the Gospel?

No Catholic can afford to be lukewarm about the Church as this new century opens. No community is so traditionally “Christian” that it’s safe from the practical atheism which is at the heart of our age. Catholics must either live, model and personally spread their Catholic faith . . . or there will be no Catholic faith left to spread.

That’s the significance of Pentecost. The Church was born on Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit filled the Apostles with the fire to preach Jesus Christ to the whole world, whatever the cost. Today we need a new Pentecost, and today, you and I are the disciples to whom the Church turns.

“Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” In the Gospel of Matthew, this is the last command Christ gave us before returning to His Father (28:19). How well have we listened to Him? How well have we done? How can we begin again to be the missionaries Jesus asked us to be?

Please come to “Pentecost 2000” on June 11 - Pentecost Sunday. Come to deepen and to share your faith. Come to regain your missionary zeal. Come to celebrate, to support each other in the faith, and to give glory to Jesus Christ, our Lord. I’ll be there. I invite you to join me. I look forward to greeting you.

The archbishop will conclude his comments on the “Pentecost 2000” Jubilee gathering in the next issue of the Denver Catholic Register. For registration and other information about “Pentecost 2000: Go Make Disciples of All Nations,” contact Ms. Mar Muñoz, “Pentecost 2000” director, at 303.715.3235; or Ms. Lauretta Proulx, Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis, 303.715.3144.