To know the hope to which God calls us

Abstract

As the Archdiocese of Boston continues to heal from the clergy sexual abuse crisis, it is engaged in a pastoral planning process designed to prepare parishes for the task of evangelization. According to the 2012 Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization, the goal of evangelization is to “create the possibility” for an encounter and relationship with Jesus. To create the possibility for people to encounter Jesus Christ in faith, the implementation of the New Evangelization in the Archdiocese of Boston at this point in its history must focus on two aspects: healing the inner life of the Church, its communio, through a process of conversion and reconciliation and engaging the Church in the missio given it by Jesus by becoming a church of the poor. This paper begins with a presentation of the New Evangelization as described in papal and other ecclesial documents highlighting several principal themes: the context and content of the New Evangelization, the Church and the poor, Christian witness, conversion, reconciliation, Christian hope, and apologetics. Following a brief overview of the North American context in which evangelization must take place, the third chapter focuses on conversion as a response in love to God’s invitation to live in the love of the triune God and on reconciliation as the healing of relationships through celebrations of reconciliation and through the work of the church community. The fourth chapter presents the challenge of becoming a Church of the poor by which the Church comes into closer relationship with Jesus who is present in the suffering poor. Finally, the hope to which God calls us is eternal life in the loving communion of the Father, Son, and Spirit in the Kingdom of God. Christian hope is the virtue that sustains us on our way to the fulfillment of God’s Kingdom while in the midst of its non-fulfillment.