Spiritual Growth and Evangelization in the Second Vatican Council

Spiritual growth includes becoming active in the mission of Christ and his Church. Evangelization is an important part of that mission. In fact, Jesus’ last command, “Go and preach the good news to all the earth” is called the “Great Commission.”

In the documents Ad Gentes and Inter Marifica, the Second Vatican Council makes it very clear that the mission of evangelization – bringing the Gospel to the entire world – is still very necessary in the modern world. The Council also makes it clear that evangelization is the mission of every Catholic, not just “missionaries” and not just the ordained.

Now, if this spikes a shock of fear down your spine, relax. When most people think of evangelization they think of standing on a street corner shouting out dire warnings about eternity or asking people, “If you died tonight, do you know that you’d go to heaven?” But that is not Catholic evangelization. Unfortunately, the documents of Vatican II do not tell us how to evangelize, only that doing so is a primary mission of the Church.

However, these documents to inspire us to

• See sharing the Gospel as a necessity of love. If you are going through the process of authentic spiritual growth, you will be growing in God’s love. And it is the nature of love to want to grow, spread, and give new life. So bringing other people back to God’s Family is a natural urge for those who are growing in God’ love.
• Communicate the Gospel to people in ways that the modern world will hear. This requires some creativity and a lot of connection to the culture’s needs, questions, and ways of communicating.
• Recognize the necessity of sharing the Gospel. Even though non-Catholics can be saved due to the greatness of God’s mercy, their salvation is made much more difficult without Christ’s grace. To fail to evangelize is to leave people to the wiles of a fallen world, where they will be tempted to worship creation rather than the Creator or to live as if God did not exist. A true, intimate relationship with God through grace is the antidote to the world of sin and ignorance.
• Live a Christian witness. Does your relationship with God make a difference? Does it really change the way you live? If it does, other people will notice and be attracted to the peace, wisdom and love through which you approach life. We are not called to put on a false face for others in order to be a witness. We are called to be always in the process of conversion. If we are truly cooperating with grace to change our lives, other people will naturally notice and our lives of conversion will be a witness to them.
• Live in a Christian (parish) community that supports each other in faith and nurtures people who are new to faith. This community should be dedicated to learning their faith, to prayer, and to service of the world.
• Be actively connected to the local Church – the diocese under the leadership of the bishop.
• Support official missionary work and work in your local missionary field. The New Evangelization calls each of us to evangelize the people around us. We don’t need to be called to faraway lands to spread the Gospel. We need to be spreading the Gospel with our very lives. We need to realize that even the people who sit in the pews with us at Mass may need to actually hear the Gospel afresh and see it being lived, or be in danger of living as if God didn’t exist even though they are going to Mass. People in our everyday lives need to know what a difference a lived relationship with God makes. They should see that difference in our lives. And we should be prepared to share the faith with them when they seek it out.

The Council stressed the importance of evangelization and living the Mission of Christ and the Church in the world. It also stressed the necessity of doing so in a way that communicates the truth in relevant ways to modern culture. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI continued the call of the Council and spurred us on to a “New Evangelization.” This is an invitation to each and every one of us to evangelize the world in our daily lives.