Editor's Report

Getting Ready for the ‘Joy’ the Pope Will Bring

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If you want to understand the framework for Pope Francis’ visit to Cuba and then the United States in September, I respectfully suggest you go back to the initial year of his pontificate, 2013, and take a look at his first apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”).

Because I’ve had some extra time on my hands the last few weeks while recuperating from surgery, I used the opportunity to read the entire document. It was time well spent because, more than any other writing I’m aware of, The Joy of the Gospel sets Pope Francis’ pontificate in context.

Formally delivered to the Church at a Mass concluding the Year of Faith, the slim volume was published in late November of that year. Following up on the October 2012 synod of bishops on the new evangelization, held at the beginning of the Year of Faith, the pope’s exhortation was very much his own, with some references to the synod sprinkled throughout.

I know what you are thinking: papal documents can be a little intimidating, and they are generally not widely read by the average Catholic, even though this one is addressed to Catholic bishops, clergy and religious, and lay faithful.

If you haven’t yet read The Joy of the Gospel, there are some reasons why I think it’s worth your time and prayerful consideration.

The first has naturally to do with the phenomenon that is Pope Francis. Since he burst upon the world stage with his election as Holy Father more than two years ago, he has captured its attention in a remarkable way. If you want to delve beyond the day’s headlines and find out exactly what the pontiff thinks about the Church’s worldwide evangelizing mission, The Joy of the Gospel is a good place to start.

Early on, Pope Francis movingly writes that an encounter with God’s love, which blossoms into friendship, sets us free from our own “narrowness and self-absorption.” Only God can enable us to attain “the fullest truth of our being,” when we allow Him to bring us beyond ourselves.

“Here we find the source and inspiration of all our efforts at evangelization,” the pope writes. “For if we have received the love which restores meaning to our lives, how can we fail to share that love with others?”

Another reason you’ll want to pick up The Joy of the Gospel is because the pope’s lessons about evangelization and mission go far beyond church walls. Month by month, we can see him traveling to bring Christ’s Gospel to the far ends of the globe, and engaging the cultures and people he encounters in a way that offers true hope. Just this past weekend he was in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina; in January he went to Sri Lanka and the Philippines; last May he visited Jordan, Israel and Palestinian territories; and the first summer of his pontificate he traveled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for World Youth Day.

In his exhortation, the Holy Father speaks of his dream of a “missionary option…a missionary impulse” that would “suitably” channel the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, time and schedules, language and structures “for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation.” Those are bold, dramatic words meant to challenge, reorder and in some cases upend the status quo.

If you only get a chance to read part of The Joy of the Gospel, I suggest that you make time for the final chapter titled Spirit-Filled Evangelizers. In it, the pope makes the point that being people of God, as we are, carries with it responsibility. “To be evangelizers of souls, we need to develop a spiritual taste for being close to people’s lives and to discover that this is itself a source of greater joy,” the pope writes. “Mission is at once a passion for Jesus and a passion for his people.”

Now is the time to prepare ourselves so that this visit can bear good fruit well beyond the few days the Holy Father is here.