{"id":3511,"date":"2012-03-15T22:57:30","date_gmt":"2012-03-16T04:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/?p=3511"},"modified":"2012-03-15T22:58:42","modified_gmt":"2012-03-16T04:58:42","slug":"how-effective-evangelization-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/15\/how-effective-evangelization-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"How Effective Evangelization Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Does being Catholic bring you joy?<\/p>\n<p>Do you show it?<\/p>\n<p>St. Teresa of Avila would say of Catholics who took no joy in their faith,\u00a0\u201cLord, save us from sour-faced saints!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There is a tendency in the Catholic Church to emphasize the demands of Catholicism first.<\/p>\n<p>Children&#8217;s catechesis focuses primarily on learning about doctrine, definitions, and rules&#8211;the &#8220;what&#8221; of the Catholic Faith. However, for an evangelizing catechist, there might be a better way to begin.<\/p>\n<p>In the video below, Fr. Barron talks about that better way using the example of Cardinal Timothy Dolan.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>Evangelization should begin with joy<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bishop Barron on Effective Evangelization\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KfpdpvZPwrg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s Cardinal Dolan\u2019s great evangelization secret? Fr. Barron says, \u201cThe most effective way to evangelize is to share the contagious joy of being a friend of Jesus Christ.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cardinal Dolan shared this story in his introductory address on evangelization given during &#8220;The Day of Prayer and Reflection&#8221;\u00a0before his installation as cardinal:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWhen I became Archbishop of New York, a priest told me, \u201cYou better stop smiling when you walk the streets of Manhattan, or you\u2019ll be arrested!<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;A man dying of AIDS at the Gift of Peace Hospice, administered by the Missionaries of Charity in Cardinal Donald Wuerl\u2019s Archdiocese of Washington, asked for baptism. When the priest asked for an expression of faith, the dying man whispered, \u201cAll I know is that I\u2019m unhappy, and these sisters are very happy, even when I curse them and spit on them. Yesterday I finally asked them why they were so happy. They replied \u2018Jesus.\u2019 I want this Jesus so I can finally be happy.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>A genuine act of faith, right?<\/p>\n<p>The New Evangelization is accomplished with a smile, not a frown.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That\u2019s effective evangelization.<\/p>\n<h2>What comes first? Rules or relationship?<\/h2>\n<p>Evangelization begins as friendship and intimacy with the Lord.\u00a0That, in turn, leads to joy.<\/p>\n<p>And joy leads to the desire to share it. That\u2019s the right progression.<\/p>\n<p>Fr. Barron cites<em> The Summa Theologica<\/em>, St. Thomas Aquinas&#8217; systematic masterpiece on\u00a0explaining the Catholic Faith. Thomas\u00a0doesn\u2019t begin with rules or law, Barron says. \u00a0He begins with joy.<\/p>\n<p>The first thing Thomas asks is, what makes us happy? Our ultimate joy is found only in God, he answers.<\/p>\n<p>Then, in the second part of the <em>Summa<\/em>, he speaks about virtue, the habits that enable us to move towards that joy.<\/p>\n<p>And then, only after establishing these two things, does he talk about the laws that help establish the virtues and habits that produce joy.<\/p>\n<p>When you begin with rules and not relationship, you skew the whole process. It tends, Fr. Barron says,\u00a0&#8220;not to be evangelically compelling.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Evangelization takeaway<\/h2>\n<p>So why is this important?<\/p>\n<p>Largely in religious education today, we&#8217;re skipping the first two steps of this process. Our students are learning the rules before learning the relationship.<\/p>\n<p>They learn the truths of the Faith without ever knowing\u00a0the Truth of the Faith, Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p>We need to teach them the profound joys and benefits of being Catholic. We need to help them\u00a0understand the virtues and habits that make this possible. And then, when they&#8217;re interested, catechize them on\u00a0the &#8220;what&#8221; of Catholicism.<\/p>\n<p>If the New Evangelization is going to be new, we have to change the things that aren&#8217;t working. And, messing up this process for handing on the Faith is definitely not helping.<\/p>\n<p>In religion, you must begin with joy. Then, people will naturally ask how to get that joy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe evangelical strategy is, first the joy, then the ethics, says Fr. Barron. &#8220;When we get that right, we get a lot of things right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freedigitalphotos.net\/images\/view_photog.php?photogid=2664\" rel=\"nofollow\">Image: Stuart Miles \/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does being Catholic bring you joy? Do you show it? St. Teresa of Avila would say of Catholics who took no joy in their faith,\u00a0\u201cLord, save us from sour-faced saints!\u201d There is a tendency in the Catholic Church to emphasize the demands of Catholicism first. Children&#8217;s catechesis focuses primarily on learning about doctrine, definitions, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelization-2","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How Effective Evangelization Begins - Marc Cardaronella<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/15\/how-effective-evangelization-begins\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Effective Evangelization Begins - Marc Cardaronella\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Does being Catholic bring you joy? Do you show it? St. Teresa of Avila would say of Catholics who took no joy in their faith,\u00a0\u201cLord, save us from sour-faced saints!\u201d There is a tendency in the Catholic Church to emphasize the demands of Catholicism first. 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