True evangelisation is a response to ‘the burning spirit inside’, Archbishop Grzegorz Rhyś of Poland told Melbourne clergy recently, not to the ‘crisis surrounding us’. The most powerful evangelisation happens, he said, when we discover ‘Christ and his mission, and we try to participate in his going out, his going forth.’
Grzegorz Rhyś is Archbishop of Łódz, in central Poland, and has a particular focus on the new evangelisation. At this year’s Melbourne Clergy Conference, he offered by video some reflections on the nature of evangelisation and why the Church evangelises.
It can be tempting, he said, to simply ‘react’ to the world around us. ‘Much too often, we go out from our churches to react, either because we feel we are being accused or being opposed; something is being done in our society, in our neighbourhood, or in public life, and we think these things need reaction.’
The mission of Jesus was not a reactionary mission, however. When Jesus goes on mission, he goes ‘of his own initiative’ and following ‘his inner spirit’.
In Mark’s Gospel, the Archbishop said, when Jesus leaves Capernaum despite the crowds clamouring for his attention, he does so with these words:
‘Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came.’ And he went all through Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out devils (Mark 1:35–39).
Capernaum, Archbishop Rhyś said, was ‘the best place for Jesus.’ Indeed, to this day, it is referred to as the ‘City of Jesus’. Even so, Jesus goes forth from his own city, his own place of security. Jesus’ mission is not dictated by any ‘external propositions’ but by his own initiative.
This leads us to ‘the whole truth’:
The whole truth is that first he left his Father. He left his happiness in the life of the Trinity. This is what he says in the Gospel of St John. He left his Father’s house. Before he leaves Capernaum, first he leaves the happiness, the happy life, the inner life of the Trinity. It is difficult not to ask why.
Archbishop Rhyś shared that when he began work in Łódz for the new evangelisation, he would be asked by journalists about the crisis facing the Church and the declining number of communicants. They would ask him if this was why they were putting more effort into evangelisation.
According to Archbishop Rhyś, though, this perception is wrong. ‘We do not go out because we have crisis surrounding us. Crisis is not the reason to go out.’
‘If we have crisis which is growing and growing and growing, maybe the best thing is to stay at home, to survive. But we cannot stay at home, because the real reason to go out is not the crisis. The real reason is the burning spirit inside.’
Having discovered Christ and his mission, ‘We want to take part in his mission, inside his mission.’ And the reason we go out ‘is very simple’, he said. ‘The reason is mercy.’
Like the apostles who were dragged before the Sanhedrin and asked why they continued to preach Jesus of Nazareth, we can say: ‘By his own right hand God has now raised [Jesus] up to be leader and saviour, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins ... We are witnesses to all this, we and the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him’ (Acts 6:31–33).
Sometimes people get caught up in the struggle and the opposition. But while we should not be naive about opposition to the Church, ‘the true spirit of the Church going out, the outgoing Church, is the spirit of mercy.’ The spirituality of evangelisation should be the spirituality of the Good Samaritan, he said, going forth to heal despite being rejected by the world.
As a practical example, Archbishop Rhyś pointed to the Polish painter St Albert Chmielowski. He was the founder of the Albertine Brothers and Albertine Sisters, who served the homeless and destitute. The model he provided was this: give them bread, give them work, give them culture, then give them the Word. St Albert followed this model in the context of community.
In communities, he gave people dignity through food and work; afterwards he introduced them to the great beauty of culture, and then to the Gospel.
Even though the Gospel is always the answer, sometimes we preach it without anybody listening. This is why we need the witness of the Church—public acts of mercy, beauty and service—so that questions and curiosity are provoked in the people:
When witness is attractive, when it is really radical, it creates the questions. The people ask, ‘Why?’ This is the moment for kerygma [for sharing the Good News of Christ].
Archbishop Rhyś asked the question: Is our parish just an office and a structure, or is it truly a community? We must always ask ourselves, ‘Is she [the Church] a community?’ Only in the context of community will the Church become a truly authentic and truly radical witness.
