Gospel isn’t spread by the angry, Archbishop says on anniversary of Pope’s Evangelii Gaudium

Archbishop J. Michael Miller says the 10-year anniversary of Pope Francis’ first apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium is a chance to remember the document’s “great call to make sure that everything we do is filtered through the prism of the proclamation of the Gospel.”

 In an interview with The B.C. Catholic, Archbishop Miller said the Church must “embrace and bring forward the joy of the Gospel” in all it does.

Pope Francis drew attention to the 10-year anniversary of Evangelii Gaudium on Nov. 24 by noting, “The entire path of our redemption is marked by the poor. Everything.”

With one month until Christmas, the Pope recalled that Jesus was born in a stable, worked with his hands, and put the poor and dispossessed “at the centre of his heart.”

The Pope sent the message on Friday to participants in a symposium dedicated to his 2013 exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel). The symposium was organized by the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development.

Pope Francis said Evangelii Gaudium sought to make it clear that the Church’s evangelizing mission and our Christian life “cannot disregard the poor.”

The Holy Father said the Church must resist any attempt to relativize Jesus’ “clear, direct, simple and eloquent message … because our salvation is at stake here.”

Therefore, “the Pope cannot help but place the poor at the centre,” he said. “It is not politics, sociology, or ideology; it is simply and purely the requirement of the Gospel.”

He said the practical consequences of this “non-negotiable principle” must be borne out in every ecclesial institution and individual Christian.

“What no one can evade or excuse themselves from is the debt of love that every Christian – and, I dare say, every human being – owes to the poor,” he said.

Archbishop Miller said the preference for the poor is not just an encouragement to evangelize to the poor, but is an invitation for the poor to spread the joy of the Gospel themselves.” 

“The Gospel is truly good news, therefore we should be excited about sharing it with others,” the Archbishop said.

“Pope Francis’ focus is that the proclamation of the Gospel brings joy to the one who proclaims, but also to the one to whom it is being proclaimed.”

The Gospel “is not spread by people who are always upset, or angry, or disgruntled,” he said. “The Gospel is taught by being a joyful disciple. No one is interested in hearing from someone who is a sad sack.”

During his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday, the Pope quoted Evangelii Gaudium, stressing that Christians “have the duty to proclaim the Gospel without excluding anyone.” 

Rather than “seeming to impose new obligations, they should appear as people who wish to share their joy, who point to a horizon of beauty and who invite others to a delicious banquet,” the Pope said, quoting the exhortation.

“It is not by proselytizing that the Church grows, but ‘by attraction’,” he quoted further.

“Brothers, sisters, let us feel that we are at the service of the universal destination of the Gospel; and let us distinguish ourselves for our capacity to come out of ourselves, to overcome every limit,” the Pope said. 

“Christians meet on the parvis more than in the sacristy, and go ‘to the streets and lanes of the city’,” the Pope said. “They must be open and expansive, ‘extrovert’, and this character of theirs comes from Jesus, who makes his presence in the world a continuous journey, aimed at reaching out to everyone, even learning from some of his encounters.”

Pope Francis has led a series of nearly weekly reflections on “the passion for evangelization” since January at his Wednesday general audiences. He has shared the stories of saints whom he views as some of the best models for spreading the Gospel, including St. Paul, St. Francis Xavier, St. Therese of Lisieux, and St. Juan Diego.

Evangelii Gaudium was also referenced earlier this year in the publication of a joint Catholic-Orthodox statement. The document, released in June, said Pope Francis’ hope for a synodal Church promotes “a more effective synodality,” which could eventually bring the Catholic and Orthodox Churches closer together on the issue.

It quoted Pope Francis’ words in Evangelii Gaudium, that “in the dialogue with our Orthodox brothers and sisters, we Catholics have the opportunity to learn more about the meaning of episcopal collegiality and their experience of synodality.” The joint statement, on “Synodality and Primacy in the Second Millenium,” gives an overview of the history of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches from the Great Schism of 1054 to today.

Evangelii Gaudium was also used in October when Synod on Synodality delegates gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica to pray a Rosary for peace amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. 

Each decade of the Rosary was prayed in a different language and featured a biblical reading and brief meditation, which incorporated different texts from Pope Francis’ pontificate, including Gaudete et Exsultate, Evangelii Gaudium, Amoris Laetitia, and Laudato Si.’ 

Catholic News Agency with B.C. Catholic files

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