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Transcript

10/27/26 The Irish Gospel · Omnia Christus

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: I was thinking today with this gospel about the difference between evangelization
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: and proselytization.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a difference between those things.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe sometimes the way we use the words, we don't really make that distinction.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And there's probably people who use one and mean the other.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: But there is a fundamental difference.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was thinking we can look at the example of,
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: let's say, the evangelization of Ireland versus the proselytization of Saxony.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: For instance,
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Ireland,
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: when Saint Patrick came there,
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: He evangelized Ireland by putting the Christian faith at the heart of Irish culture.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: So he didn't destroy what he found in Irish culture,
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: but rather he showed how all that was beautiful and good in that culture,
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: in that religious tradition,
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: could be seen as pre-evangelization, as sort of these seeds of the gospel as...
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: St. Augustine likes to talk about.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: He talks about these seeds of the gospel that are in everything.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in every culture,
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: in every religion,
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: every religious tradition,
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: there are these seeds of truth,
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: seeds of the gospel,
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: because it's an ancient tradition of wisdom that speaks to the heart of
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: a certain people.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so evangelization comes in and shows how that culture,
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: those traditions,
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: those lights and insights Can actually be seen in light of the gospel,
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: can be seen as transparent to the truth of Jesus Christ.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the gospel can be put at the center of that and could sort of purify
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: that tradition and make it into something that's truly good and true and beautiful.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: So in Irish traditional spirituality,
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: there was a lot of kind of negativity in the sense of there was human sacrifice and
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: the gods were,
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: a lot of them were these kind of horrible characters that when the gods showed up,
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: warriors would die of fear and so forth.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so all of that was purified by Christianity,
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: but there was this deep religious intuition in Irish spirituality,
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: especially in sort of the Druidic Nature,
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: spirituality,
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: seeing how nature itself was transparent to the presence of God,
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: how there were these what they called thin places,
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: which were on the mountaintops or in the holy wells,
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: where they believed that you were close to the spirit world.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: You could, in a sense, almost pass across into that spirit world.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And Patrick took those places and he made them into shrines and chapels and places
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: of pilgrimage,
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: whereas before they'd been places of devotion in sort of the Druidic tradition.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what evangelization looks like.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's taking what's there and letting the gospel shine through that.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: I found actually this description of evangelization from a USCCB document
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: of all places,
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: which says evangelization happens when the word of Jesus speaks to people's hearts
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: and minds, needing no trickery or manipulation.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Evangelization can happen only when people accept the gospel freely as
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: the good news it is meant to be because of the power of the gospel message and
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: the accompanying grace of God.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Proselytization,
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: on the other hand,
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: is sort of the almost imposition of my faith at all costs onto someone else.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: It can be done with the best possible motives,
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: but we have to remember that the end does not justify the means.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's incredibly important.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's sort of the example of the evangelization of the Saxons carried out
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: under Charlemagne because the Saxons were such a sort of brutal and resistant people
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: that finally he sort of backed them into a corner and told them like,
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: baptism or death, pretty much.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was, you know, either you accept baptism or we'll kill you.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what they did.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how he evangelized them.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it's easier in a certain sense,
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: I guess, than St. Patrick's project requires much less creativity.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I think we in our own interactions with people can fall down on one side or the other.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: We can be so enthusiastic about our faith that we can think that,
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: well, the end justifies the means.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: So whatever I can do to kind of manipulate people or whatever into getting them
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: to come into faith, well, it's all justified, right?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, because heaven is eternal life and the Catholic faith is true.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know,
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: if I can do something to get someone into that,
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: well, it doesn't really matter what it is.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And But really,
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: it does matter,
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: especially if it's relationships,
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  SPEAKER_00: especially if I'm forming a relationship with someone because I want them
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: to be something, aka Catholic or a disciple or whatever.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: I can't use relationship for some other purpose because relationship is what is at
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: the heart of the gospel message.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Relationship is the gospel message.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Relationship is the life of the Trinity.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: I can't use that for something else, no matter how good that thing is.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And the fact is that true evangelization means entering into relationship with people.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: When I enter into authentic relationship with someone,
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: if I'm Christian, evangelization becomes a part of that.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: That relationship is of itself and by nature transparent to the gospel.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: When I truly enter into a culture to dialogue with it,
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: to reverence it,
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: to support it,
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  SPEAKER_00: Bringing my Christianity,
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: coming from my Christianity, I will evangelize without any doubt.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: The reason why I was thinking about these things is looking at this gospel today
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: and Christ says, what is the kingdom of God like?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: When we think about kingdom, we're kind of like, you know, Charlemagne, kingdom.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I want to establish this kingdom or dominate everyone, subject them.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: He says, the kingdom of God is like yeast.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what you guys know about yeast,
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: but yeast is actually a really small culture that you can't even see.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's microscopic.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the kingdom, which we're thinking like, oh, you know, rain, wool, domination.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's like yeast.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: We can't even see yeast.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, but wait a minute.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean the kingdom's like yeast?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the kingdom that I wanted to build, right?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted this kingdom of,
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to,
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: take over the means of production and You have a media empire
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: and my Catholic news channel.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And what do you mean the kingdom of God is like yeast?
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the kingdom of God is like yeast because it's this hidden,
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: quiet effort that's within each of us and that we're spreading into this culture and
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: that it's not even seen.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's not this massive media campaign.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's this quiet, still,
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: small movement of reaching out to those around me,
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: of building relationships,
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: of spreading the good news in as much as I can where I'm at.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And from that, the kingdom is built.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that little yeast that you put into the dough, all the dough rises.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: It expands.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: It becomes bread because of that yeast, that small, faithful yeast.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So the first thing is I need to be faithful in my own life.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: I need to become evangelized myself.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm evangelized myself and then I enter into relationship with others,
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: God who is present in me We'll enter into their lives and transform their lives
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: as well, every life that I touch.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ wants to come into us today in this Eucharist to enter into our lives,
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: to make our lives transparent to him.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Let us invite him in,
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  SPEAKER_00: receive him,
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  SPEAKER_00: make a home for him,
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  SPEAKER_00: So that when we come into contact with those around us,
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: when our lives touch their lives,
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  SPEAKER_00: it might truly be Christ that's shining through that.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Not myself,
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: not my own projects,
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: plans, structures, motives, methodologies, only authentic relationship with Christ.