What exactly is the relationship between the Church’s liturgy and the New Evangelization? From one perspective, you might feel as if liturgy is an obstacle, something that’s a barrier to more effective proclamation–just think back to the level of concern surrounding a new translation of our Mass texts in Advent 2011.
On the other hand, sometimes people act as if one of the most important elements of the New Evangelization is to ensure that Mass is celebrated with a certain style of music, language, aesthetics, etc.
But for most of us, somewhere in the middle, it can be hard to make practical connections between these two big concepts–liturgy and evangelization–and so I was excited to get my hands on a new book by Timothy P. O’Malley, entitled Liturgy and the New Evangelization: Practicing the Art of Self-Giving Love (Liturgical Press, 2014).
O’Malley claims three central purposes. First, reminding us that the New Evangelization is not to be reduced to the discussion and implementation of pastoral practices. That it’s a call to a “transformation of all culture, of all human existence, spurred on by an counter with Christ himself” (p. 2).
For those of us actively engaged in evangelization, this may seem like a rather mundane point–clearly communicated in the Venerable Pope Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975) and many Church documents since then.
But, I can say from some recent experience of leading a discussion with a mix of paid parish lay ministers and interested faithful, that there is a surprising amount of confusion, curiosity, and ambiguity about what the New Evangelization is. Most did not know what made the new evangelization “new” and many had the sneaking feeling that it was some sort of trend, rather than at the heart of the Church’s identity. O’Malley’s work clearly and concisely makes this point, drawing from Church teachings of the past 50 years.
O’Malley’s second main observation is that despite all of the liturgical debate over the past few decades, formative liturgical prayer is a still “rather elusive reality” in our context, and we need a “liturgical education that is evangelical, transformative of history, culture, and each individual life” (p. 3-4).
Though many of us as evangelists are experiencing liturgical prayer as a wellspring of grace, a continuous renewal of God’s promises to us, and a place for intense encounter with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, those who are the audience of the New Evangelization–the baptized but not practicing, those who practice but have not encountered Jesus Christ personally, and those who have not heard or responded to the Gospel of salvation–are likely not experiencing liturgical prayer in this way!
A great need exists. There’s clearly a chasm between what we believe liturgy to be, and the actual experiences of most Catholics or seekers.
If you’re on the edge of your seat at this moment, hoping for lots of practical insight and suggestions, you’ll have to reign in your suspense, as O’Malley instead places the ball in our court, challenging us as evangelists to a renewal of our own imaginations as to the formative power of liturgical prayer (p. 5).
So, an invitation to imagine, ponder, and discern–what does it look like to call men and women to faith and conversion before they come to the liturgy, as the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (1963, para. 9) asks? And how does ongoing liturgical formation occur so that “liturgy may be able to produce its full effects” in the faithful? (SC, para. 11). Tough but necessary questions for each of us to consider.
O’Malley’s third and final purpose is to emphasize that liturgical prayer has a formative role for evangelizers like us, as it “inspires the Christian toward a mysticism of the ordinary, to an offering of the return gift of our very lives as an act of love” – and love is of course central to evangelization, as we must love others enough to risk rejection by sharing the Gospel with them, and love others in a way that reflects, ever so slightly, the saving love of Jesus Christ (p. 4).
Of his three main points, I think this third one has the most staying power. It reminds me of the instructions given in the Decree on Ecumenism, that a primary duty of Catholics “is to make a careful and honest appraisal of whatever needs to be done or renewed in the Catholic household itself, in order that its life may bear witness more clearly and faithfully to the teachings and institutions which have come to it from Christ through the Apostles” (para. 4).
Before we can invite others into the liturgical life of the Church, to experience the gift of the liturgy, we must first be renewed by the liturgy ourselves as evangelizers. We must be formed by the liturgy.
Now, this isn’t to say that we should hide behind our shortcomings as we practice the art of liturgical prayer! I’m not talking about making up excuses here–saying to oneself, “no, I’m not going to talk openly about Jesus because I need to be formed by the liturgy.”
But we need ongoing formation by, in, and through the liturgy. Not merely by learning rubrics or reading about certain rites, but through the school of experience, of throwing ourselves into the liturgical life of the Church and allowing that gradual formation to renew and penetrate everything we do as evangelists.
Copyright 2014, Colleen Vermeulen
Colleen Vermeulen
Colleen Reiss Vermeulen, M.Div., M.N.A., blogs, ministers in parish life and lay/deacon formation, and serves as a U.S. Army Reserve officer. She and her husband, Luke, have been married since 2011 and live in Ypsilanti, MI with their two young sons.
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