As I posted yesterday, I recently received my ordered copy of The New Evangelization and You: Be Not Afraid by Greg Willits. Over the last two evenings, I was able to do a quick read-through and develop some initial impressions.
The New Evangelization should be the priority of every Catholic. Each and every one of us should be seeking to evangelize our family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and even those you might bump into once in a blue moon. In short, it should be our goal for everyone to enter the Catholic Church and come to know Christ.
If this sounds overwhelming, that’s because it is. In fact, I would venture that one of the major reasons why more Catholics don’t seek to share their faith is because they don’t know where to start. Of course, the #1 reason is likely due to fear: fear of rejection by family and friends, fear of mocking and insults, fear of being seen as a Holy Roller and Jesus Freak. Second to that, only barely, is the feeling that Catholics don’t know the faith well enough to share.
Greg answers all these objections and more within this short book (149 pages, 5 of which are footnotes). His writing is very simple and easy to read, yet challenging and instructive. If you’ve heard Greg on Sirius radio or the podcasts he’s done with his wife, Jennifer, you know the sense of humor that comes naturally to him. That humor comes out in the book (even right at the beginning in the Introduction which includes a debate between him and his wife over reading the Introduction of books).
A major aspect of this book is to challenge and encourage Catholics to seriously think about their faith and discover ways to both learn about, live and share that faith. Those familiar with NewEvangelizers.com, a non-profit run by Greg and Jennifer dedicated to the New Evangelization, will recognize immediately the major theme in the book: Catholics need to “know the faith, live the faith, and share the faith.” Greg challenges Catholics to not think of evangelization as a three-step process: first I’m going to learn all I can about the faith, then I will use that knowledge to live the faith, finally, once those two are in the bag, I will share the faith. Instead, Greg states that all three need to be done at once. You can’t know the faith without living it. You can’t live the faith without sharing it. You can’t share the faith without knowing it. All three work together.
Obviously, reading the book over two evenings means that I gave it a very light reading, and Greg’s writing style works with that style of reading. This does not mean that the book does not go much deeper than that. In fact, it’s worth reading twice: once for the quick overview, then going slower and entering into a much deeper study and reflection on the material, especially on the series of questions given at the end of each chapter. There are also prayers at the end of each chapter which focus on various aspects of the New Evangelization, and ask God for the grace to grow in that aspect.
This isn’t just a theoretical work, but chalk full of practical suggestions and examples. Every chapter features a short article on a figure or group involved in the day-to-day work of the New Evangelzation. Those featured include Lisa Hendey, Jason Elizondo and Austin Catholic New Media, Sarah Reinhard and more — including a number I was not familiar with, but will make the effort to discover their work.
The most practical chapter would have to be Chapter 10, which is called “A Year of New Evangelizing”. This chapter contains a list of 52 ways we can know the faith, 52 ways we can live the faith and 52 ways we can share the faith. Some of them are simple: listen to Catholic radio, invite your priest over for dinner (which I whole-heartedly endorse), get a holy card of your favorite saint and pin or tape it up in your office or cubicle. Some are more difficult: study Theology of the Body, help out at a local homeless shelter, make a video about why you love being Catholic and share online. Each item on these lists are practical, concrete ways that every Catholic can “know the faith, live the faith, and share the faith.”
Greg reminds us that we are all called to evangelization. This is not just for the “professional Catholics” (priests, bishops, religious, and lay people who work for the Church), but each and every one of us received this commission to evangelize when we received the Sacrament of Baptism. As members of the Body of Christ, we are called and sent to show Christ to the world and lead others to Him.
If you’re looking for a simple instruction manual on how to “do” the New Evangelization, Greg has written it. Parishes and individuals should pick up this resource to read, study, and implement it in their communities and families. I know I plan on giving it a far deeper study and reflection.
This will be the next book I buy!