18 OCTOBER 2021 LUKE 10:1-9
MONDAY OF THE 29TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
HIERARCHIZED EVANGELIZATION
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go (Luke 10:1-9).
Mission of the seventy two reminds us of our call to be ‘apostles’ or ‘evangelizers’ of our time.
A general understanding of evangelization is to take the bible, put it under your armpit and go somewhere and preach to somebody. That is not a genuine understanding of being an evangelizer or process of evangelization.
There are different areas of life to be evangelized before I would go to evangelize the world!
1. Evangelization of Self: I should have an experience of Jesus and the power of Good news. Then only I will be able to give it to others.
2. Evangelization of Family: After I proclaim the gospel to myself, I must proclaim to my family. My family shall become a family of God. St. Luke the Evangelist whom the church commemorates today, was born into a pagan family. But he was so much influenced and inspired by the love and sharing reflected in the life of the early Christians he encountered. Love was the distinguishing mark of early Christians as once Jesus said to his disciples, ‘This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another’ (Jn. 13:35).
Parishioners generally look at parish priests not only as a shepherd but also as their evangelizer. If so, who would be effective evangelizers to a parish priest within the parish? Credible Christian families will be effective evangelizers to their parish priest, not by preaching, but there would be something like a magnet attracting the attention of those families namely the way they behaved, the way the parents brought up their children as children of God etc. Those families are evangelizing families in their own surroundings.
3. Evangelization of the Working Place: Your working place is one of the strategic arenas of evangelization. When coworkers or society men look at you as a person different, unique and special because you belong to Jesus or the way you think, speak and behave reflects Jesus you become an evangelist. If anyone in your office feels like asking you, ‘please pray for me’ you are blessed because someone has seen Jesus in you.
4. Evangelization of the World: In the hierarchy of areas of evangelization the last place to evangelize shall be the world. In 2019 September BBC News reported of the suicide of Jarrid Wilson, a US pastor and a member Harvest Christian Fellowship. So many similar cases are reported pastors alone or pastors with family members committing suicide or killing others. Although they were effective preachers in the face of some arguments or disagreements they killed themselves or others. These are definitely examples of evangelizers who tried to evangelize the world before they evangelized themselves or their families.
At the end God will not ask us what was the size of the house you built up on earth? Or how much was the size of your wealth? Or how great was the profession of your children?
But to be sure God will definitely ask some of the questions as follows. How many souls have you won for me? How many people have you invited to the reign of God? Did you bring up your children as Children of God? Did you as a messenger become a message? Amen.