You Will Be My Witnesses

LEADER’S SCHOOL – SEPTEMBER 10, 2010
Pastoral Letter of Archbishop Jose H. Gomez
on the Christian Mission to Evangelize and Proclaim Jesus Christ

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved. In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will in accord with his favor that he set forth in him as a plan for the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth. In him we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the one who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory, we who first hoped in Christ. In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised holy Spirit, which is the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God's possession, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:3-14)


We exist for the praise of God’s glory. This is the true purpose of our lives. How often do we think about this? We have many responsibilities in our families, in our work, in our neighborhoods and communities. But what we are truly here to do is to give praise to God. These things are meant to go hand-in-hand. We are meant to praise God throughout all the days of our lives, in the midst of all the things we do that fill our days… In another place St. Paul writes: “Through [Christ], let us continually offer sacrifice of praise to God.” (Heb. 13:15) Everything we do is meant to be a sacrifice, something that we offer to God, to thank him and praise him.

We praise God for the blessings he has bestowed upon us, for the gift of life, the gift of faith, and the promise of eternal life. We should praise him every time we pray. But we are also called to talk about God to our family, neighbors, friends, and co-workers. God wants us to tell others about Jesus Christ, in whom we see the face of our Father and experience his love and tender mercy in our lives.

This is the Mission that Jesus Christ gave to his Church. In the Acts of the Apostles, the last words that Jesus speaks to his disciples are these: You will be my witnesses… to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) Today more than ever, Christ needs witnesses. He needs disciples who know and love him to testify to the truth of his living presence among us. To testify to the Good News that this troubled world of ours has a Savior. (Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, You will be my witnesses, no. 2)

… To know Jesus Christ and his love causes us to want to share that knowledge and love with everyone we meet. To be reconciled with the Father and to know ourselves as his beloved children fills us with the desire to tell the whole world of the gift of his salvation. (Ibid, no. 4)
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, lay people are given the “duty … to work so that the divine message of salvation may be know and accepted by all men throughout the earth. This duty is all the more pressing when it is only through them that men can hear the Gospel and know Christ.” (CCC, no. 900)

The apostolic preaching did more than create individual converts to Christ. The encounter with Christ was always an encounter with his Church. The proclamation of Christ aimed to bring men and women into communion with Christ in his Church through the power of the Sacraments. (Ibid, no 7)

As lay believers possessed of a “priestly soul”, your primary mission is in the world, not inside the sanctuary of the church or inside a Church office. Your first duty remains to heed the commission every one of us receives at the end of every Mass – to go out into the world to love and serve our Lord. (Ibid no 11)

The task before us is not easy. The culture we are called to evangelize is in many ways more hostile to the Gospel than that faced by…America’s first evangelists… We are called to proclaim Christ in a “de-Christianized” culture, a culture in which powerful interests have been at work for some decades now, patiently erasing the influence and memory of our nation’s Christian heritage from our laws and public policies, from our arts and literature, from our schools and media, our language and customs, from our entire life. The result of this deliberate strategy of secularization is that more and more of our brothers and sisters today live without any awareness of their need for God. Even believers face the stark reality that in order to participate in the economic, political, and social life of our country, we are increasingly compelled to conduct ourselves as if God does not exist. (Ibid, no. 17)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS


1. How do the thoughts of Archbishop Gomez on the mission of the Church and specifically that of the laity fit into our own understanding in Cursillos? Please, discuss and explain in depth.






2. How do the challenges that Archbishop Gomez identifies above find concrete expression in your own life? Please, give and share specific examples of this. How were you able to face those challenges?