Catholic Universe Bulletin

Let Us Love One Another
Bishop Richard G. Lennon

St. Patrick embodies what it means to evangelize
The Feast of Saint Patrick is celebrated before the next issue of the Catholic Universe Bulletin comes out. Since he is such a wonderful example for us today, especially being in the Diocese of Cleveland, I decided I would share a few thoughts with you about him.
As you may recall I wrote an article in this paper several weeks ago in which I mentioned three very important aspects of our Catholic Faith which I earnestly hope as a Diocese we will enthusiastically embrace. The second of those three points was based on Our Lord’s charge “Go, therefore, and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” This aspect of Catholic life is called Evangelization.
Very early on when I arrived in Cleveland I was introduced to Vibrant Parish Life. In Bishop Pilla’s Pastoral Letter on this subject he highlighted that we needed to be “vibrant” not only as persons, but also as parishes and as a diocese doing what God asks from us and expects us to embrace it. One of those things that I immediately thought of was Evangelization.
There are several reasons why I thought of this. The first is because it is what the Risen Lord asked of his followers as he prepared to ascend to his heavenly Father. Secondly, Jesus came to save all people, thus it stands to reason he would want all people to know him, love him and serve him in this world and to be with him in eternity. These words come right from the old Baltimore Catechism. And thirdly, God wants even believers to continue their own deepening of their relationship with him. Both Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II spoke about followers too needing evangelization to help them grow closer to God.
In light of these reasons, and I am sure there are many more good reasons for focusing on Evangelization, I have spoken about and written about it for these almost four years of serving as your Bishop. It is clearly a priority with Our Lord, and therefore I truly believe it has to be so with us.
This is where Saint Patrick fits in. He is one of those outstanding persons over the past two thousand years who embraced this call to be a disciple, to be an evangelizer in an extraordinary way. While we do not know as much about him as we would like to, what we do know confirms that he did not enjoy an easy life being about God’s business. In fact he was challenged greatly and endured hardship, but was ever about bringing God’s message to people and striving to bring people to God.
The same conviction and energy that compelled Patrick to the task that drove his life forward is what motivated the last John Paul II to speak about the New Evangelization, stressing that this was for all believers to do and to do in a very personal way. Thus, he called it the New Evangelization meaning that it involved believers, you and me, to be willing to share our faith by word and example to others, be they members of our families or neighbors, co-workers or friends. The Holy Father saw our faith as a great gift from God to us, which of course it is, and that our faith involved a commitment on our part to share it with others as generously and graciously as God did with us.
To witness the increasing number of Catholics who are distancing themselves from the Church today and to do nothing about it is unacceptable. Being members of the Church we need to respond to this situation by being committed to bring our vibrant Catholic life both individually and as faith communities into the open thereby helping members of the Household of Faith who are absent to want to return.
It is unacceptable today to know there are persons who do not know God and for us not to be committed to telling the story of our Catholic lives, and the gift and blessing we find in and through the Church being united with God.
As we come close to the Feast of Saint Patrick I suggest we all could profit from reflecting upon what it was he accomplished, bringing the Catholic Faith to Ireland, and what he would do today with the realities we now face.
I cannot believe he would do anything different now than then--he would be bringing God to people and people to God. This is what made him the inspirational person, bishop, disciple that he was. Can we afford to aim for anything less in our own lives?