You Will Be My Witnesses – Part II

LEADER’S SCHOOL – SEPTEMBER 17, 2010
Pastoral Letter of Archbishop Jose H. Gomez
on the Christian Mission to Evangelize and Proclaim Jesus Christ


To lead men and women to the God who speaks in the Bible, to the God who has shown his face to us in Jesus Christ! This must be our highest priority, too, my brothers and sisters. There can be nothing more urgent to our mission as the Church of [Los Angeles]. This must be the measure by which we judge everything we do. (Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, You will be my witnesses, no. 18)

1. We need “a new evangelization of culture”: This is a complex subject that requires diligent study and planning, especially by lay people in many fields of culture, to identify challenges and find new means to make the mystery of Christ’s salvation understood in our culture today… We must start where Christ started. As individuals and as a Church, our evangelization should always announce good news to the poor, recovering of sight to the blind, release to those in captivity, liberty to the oppressed, and the time of the Lord’s grace and favor. We must proclaim the Gospel as liberation, as the truth that sets men and women free from the bondage of sin and death.

2. In terms of evangelization, we need to understand that [the] new digital media have their own logic, their own values, and their own “psychology” [which have “anthropological implications”]. (Ibid, no. 23)

3. [Despite the dangers] I do see great possibilities in the new social networking technologies to promote conversation about God and to share our love for Christ. The popularity of these new forms of communication reflects an intense desire for immediacy and contact; for friendship, connections, and community. These are desires that can be fulfilled, ultimately, only by Christ, in the communion we find with him his Church. (Ibid, no. 24)

4. Christianity has always been spread by ordinary men and women, in ordinary and everyday circumstances… By our proclamation, by our words and the witness of our daily lives, the people we come in contact with should know that we are “with Jesus.” They should know that we are living for Jesus and with Jesus and that we want to share the joy of this way of life with everyone. (Ibid, no. 27)

5. [We live in an age of religious relativism; how do we witness to Jesus?] I have always admired the approach taken by Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta. She was able to share her faith in the most beautiful way in a culture where Christianity was a tiny minority. Mother Theresa would say: “I love all religions but I am in love with my own. Naturally I would like to give the treasure I have to you, but I cannot. I can only pray for you to receive it. (Ibid, no. 28)

a. What do we understand to be our culture? In what way is this what we mean by our environments?

b. In spite of all the technology we use to evangelize why is it still essential to continue evangelizing one person at a time?