Thoughts on the recent Doctrinal Note: “Some Aspects of Evangelization”

A few days ago the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued the Doctrinal Note on Some Aspects of Evangelization. The Holy Father approved this Doctrinal Note on October 6. The official English text of the Doctrinal Note is HERE.

May I suggest that the Doctrinal Note is a most useful source of direction for Catholics who are called, through their baptism, to evangelize the world—often a place much in need of evangelization. It there is any doubt about this claim, the CDF begins the Doctrinal Note by reminding us of the Johannine command to the Apostles: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). But this duty of being sent is not just that of the Apostles and their successors; as the CDF reminds us, it is the duty of everyone to evangelize so that every person may hear the Good News and fulfill personal destiny, which ends in union with God.

The particular challenge to those of us disciples who are involved with the law—as developers and promoters of Catholic legal theory; as teachers; as practitioners; as citizens of two cities—is succinctly captured by this passage in the Doctrinal Note:

Therefore, human freedom is both a resource and a challenge offered to man by God who has created him: an offer directed to the human person’s capacity to know and to love what is good and true. Nothing puts in play human freedom like the search for the good and the true, by inviting it to a kind of commitment which involves fundamental aspects of life. (N. 4)

Lawyers and law teachers often speak about and advocate on behalf of human freedom. This passage just quoted provides valuable insight into the duties of those disciples entrusted with the duty of teaching about authentic human freedom. As the Doctrinal Note further states, it is not an interference with the freedom of others to propose to them the truth which God has revealed and which the Church teaches on the matters that intersect every person’s life. The text, moreover, notes that personalism and individualism, when they remain the source of “truth” for one as the famous dictum from Planned Parenthood v. Casey suggests, misdirect the person from coming to know and embrace the truth about human existence. As the Doctrinal Note states:

Spiritual individualism, on the other hand, isolates a person, hindering him from opening in trust to others—so as both to receive and to bestow the abundant goods which nourish his freedom—and jeopardizes the right to manifest one’s own convictions and opinions in society. (N. 5)

The benefits of evangelization, furthermore, assist all who are encountered by its activity in the world. Evangelization not only enriches the evangelized but also those who do the evangelizing. (N. 6). Indeed, “it is also an enrichment for… the entire Church.” As the Doctrinal Note indicates, the primary motivation for evangelization is “the love of Christ” whom we celebrate during this holy season of Advent and Christmas. (N. 8)  He is the one who came to save not just some but all. So, it is our duty to evangelize, to teach in His name without fear or intimidation by others so that all may come to know Him. In this regard, is it not possible to eschew the safe greeting of “happy holidays!” and substitute the following: “may Christ’s peace and the blessings of this season be with you”? As the Doctrinal Note points out:

The Christian spirit has always been animated by a passion to lead all humanity to Christ in the Church. The incorporation of new members into the Church is not the expansion of a power-group, but rather entrance into the network of friendship with Christ which connects heaven and earth, different continents and ages. It is entrance into the gift of communion with Christ, which is “new life” enlivened by charity and the commitment to justice. The Church is the instrument, “the seed and the beginning” of the Kingdom of God; she is not a political utopia. She is already the presence of God in history and she carries in herself the true future, the definitive future in which God will be “all in all”; she is a necessary presence, because only God can bring authentic peace and justice to the world. The Kingdom of God is not—as some maintain today—a generic reality above all religious experiences and traditions, to which they tend as a universal and indistinct communion of all those who seek God, but it is, before all else, a person with a name and a face: Jesus of Nazareth, the image of the unseen God. Therefore, every free movement of the human heart towards God and towards his kingdom cannot but by its very nature lead to Christ and be oriented towards entrance into his Church, the efficacious sign of that Kingdom. (N. 9)

The Doctrinal Note continues by challenging the disciple, who is called to evangelized, not to be paralyzed by inaction prompted by the kind of respect fro religious freedom of the other that makes the disciple “indifferent towards truth and goodness. Indeed, love impels the followers of Christ to proclaim to all the truth which saves.” (N. 10) Evangelization is not simply achieved by public proclamation of the Gospel nor only through works that have public significance; evangelization to which we are called also necessitates personal witness to whomever we meet, which is, as the Doctrinal Note reminds us, a most effective means of spreading the Gospel. (N. 11) This may be easier said than done, but may we take consolation knowing that the Holy Spirit is ever present to fortify us in this calling should we be humble enough to ask God for assistance. To all my friends at MOJ and its readers, I wish you and your loved ones Christ’s peace, and may the blessings of this holy season be with you!   RJA sj