Evangelii Nuntiandi-Pope Paul VI-The Papal Library
Evangelii Nuntiandi Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Paul VIon Evangelization in the Modern World December 8, 1975 To the Episcopate, to the Clergy and to all the Faithful of the entire world. Venerable Brothers and dear Sons and Daughters: health and the apostolic blessing. 1. There is no doubt that the effort to proclaim the Gospel to the people of today, who are buoyed up by hope but at the same time often oppressed by fear and distress, is a service rendered to the Christian community and also to the whole of humanity. For this reason the duty of confirming the brethren-a duty which with the office of being the Successor of Peter(1) we have received from the Lord, and which is for us a daily preoccupation,(2) a program of life and action, and a fundamental commitment of our Pontificate-seems to us all the more noble and necessary when it is a matter of encouraging our brethren in their mission as evangelizers, in order that, in this time of uncertainty and confusion, they may accomplish this task with ever increasing love, zeal and joy. 2. This is precisely what we wish to do here, at the end of this Holy Year during which the Church, striving to proclaim the Gospel to all people,(3) has had the single aim of fulfilling her duty of being the messenger of the Good News of Jesus Christ-the Good News proclaimed through two fundamental commands: Put on the new self(4) and Be reconciled to God.(5) We wish to do so on this tenth anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council, the objectives of which are definitively summed up in this single one: to make the Church of the twentieth century ever better fitted for proclaiming the Gospel to the people of the twentieth century We wish to do so one year after the Third General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which as is well known, was devoted to evangelization; and we do so all the more willingly because it has been asked of us by the Synod Fathers themselves. In fact, at the end of that memorable Assembly, the Fathers decided to remit to the Pastor of the universal Church, with great trust and simplicity, the fruits of all their labors, stating that they awaited from him a fresh forward impulse, capable of creating within a Church still more firmly rooted in the undying power and strength of Pentecost a new period of evangelization.(6) 3. We have stressed the importance of this theme of evangelization on many occasions, well before the Synod took place. On June 22, 1973, we said to the Sacred College of Cardinals: The conditions of the society in which we live oblige all of us therefore to revise methods, to seek by every means to study how we can bring the Christian message to modern man. For it is only in the Christian message that modern man can find the answer to his questions and the energy for his commitment of human solidarity.(7) And we added that in order to give a valid answer to the demands of the Council which call for our attention, it is absolutely necessary for us to take into account a heritage of faith that the Church has the duty of preserving in its untouchable purity, and of presenting it to the people of our time, in a way that is as understandable and persuasive as possible. 4. This fidelity both to a message whose servants we are and to the people to whom we must transmit it living and intact is the central axis of evangelization. It poses three burning questions, which the 1974 Synod kept constantly in mind: -In our day, what has happened to that hidden energy of the Good News, which is able to have a powerful effect on man's conscience? -To what extent and in what way is that evangelical force capable of really transforming the people of this century? -What methods should be followed in order that the power of the Gospel may have its effect? Basically, these inquiries make explicit the fundamental question that the Church is asking herself today and which may be expressed in the following terms: after the Council and thanks to the Council, which was a time given her by God, at this turning-point of history, does the Church or does she not find herself better equipped to proclaim the Gospel and to put it into people's hearts with conviction, freedom of spirit and effectiveness? 5. We can all see the urgency of giving a loyal, humble and courageous answer to this question, and of acting accordingly. In our anxiety for all the Churches,(8) we would like to help our brethren and sons and daughters to reply to these inquiries. Our words come from the wealth of the Synod and are meant to be a meditation on evangelization. May they succeed in inviting the whole People of God assembled in the Church to make the same meditation; and may they give a fresh impulse to everyone, especially those who are assiduous in preaching and teaching,(9) so that each one of them may follow a straight course in the message of the truth,(10) and may work as a preacher of the Gospel and acquit himself perfectly of his ministry. Such an exhortation seems to us to be of capital importance, for the presentation of the Gospel message is not an optional contribution for the Church. It is the duty incumbent on her by the command of the Lord Jesus, so that people can believe and be saved. This message is indeed necessary. It is unique. It cannot be replaced. It does not permit either indifference, syncretism or accommodation. It is a question of people's salvation. It is the beauty of the Revelation that it represents. It brings with it a wisdom that is not of this world. It is able to stir up by itself faith- faith that rests on the power of God.(11) It is truth. It merits having the apostle consecrate to it all his time and all his energies, and to sacrifice for it, if necessary, his own life. 6. The witness that the Lord gives of Himself and that Saint Luke gathered together in his Gospel-I must proclaim the Good News of the kingdom of God(12)-without doubt has enormous consequences, for it sums up the whole mission of Jesus: That is what I was sent to do.(13) These words take on their full significance if one links them with the previous verses, in which Christ has just applied to Himself the words of the prophet Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor.(14) Going from town to town, preaching to the poorest-and frequently the most receptive-the joyful news of the fulfillment of the promises and of the Covenant offered by God is the mission for which Jesus declares that He is sent by the Father. And all the aspects of His mystery-the Incarnation itself, His miracles, His teaching, the gathering together of the disciples, the sending out of the Twelve, the cross and the resurrection, the permanence of His presence in the midst of His own-were components of His evangelizing activity. 7. During the Synod, the bishops very frequently referred to this truth: Jesus Himself, the Good News of God,(15) was the very first and the greatest evangelizer; He was so through and through: to perfection and to the point of the sacrifice of His earthly life. To evangelize: what meaning did this imperative have for Christ? It is certainly not easy to express in a complete synthesis the meaning, the content and the modes of evangelization as Jesus conceived it and put it into practice. In any case the attempt to make such a synthesis will never end. Let it suffice for us to recall a few essential aspects. 8. As an evangelizer, Christ first of all proclaims a kingdom, the kingdom of God; and this is so important that, by comparison, everything else becomes the rest, which is given in addition.(16) Only the kingdom therefore is absolute and it makes everything else relative. The Lord will delight in describing in many ways the happiness of belonging to this kingdom (a paradoxical happiness which is made up of things that the world rejects),(17) the demands of the kingdom and its Magna Charta,(18) the heralds of the kingdom,(19) its mysteries,(20) its children,(21) the vigilance and fidelity demanded of whoever awaits its definitive coming.(22) 9. As the kernel and center of His Good News, Christ proclaims salvation, this great gift of God which is liberation from everything that oppresses man but which is above all liberation from sin and the Evil One, in the joy of knowing God and being known by Him, of seeing Him, and of being given over to Him. All of this is begun during the life of Christ and definitively accomplished by His death and resurrection. But it must be patiently carried on during the course of history, in order to be realized fully on the day of the final coming of Christ, whose date is known to no one except the Father.(23) 10. This kingdom and this salvation, which are the key words of Jesus Christ's evangelization, are available to every human being as grace and mercy, and yet at the same time each individual must gain them by force-they belong to the violent, says the Lord,(24) through toil and suffering, through a life lived according to the Gospel, through abnegation and the cross, through the spirit of the beatitudes. But above all each individual gains them through a total interior renewal which the Gospel calls metanoia; it is a radical conversion, a profound change of mind and heart.(25) 11. Christ accomplished this proclamation of the kingdom of God through the untiring preaching of a word which, it will be said, has no equal elsewhere: Here is a teaching that is new, and with authority behind it.(26) And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips.(27) There has never been anybody who has spoken like him.(28) His words reveal the secret of God, His plan and His promise, and thereby change the heart of man and his destiny. 12. But Christ also carries out this proclamation by innumerable signs, which amaze the crowds and at the same time draw them to Him in order to see Him, listen to Him and allow themselves to be transformed by Him: the sick are cured, water is changed into wine, bread is multiplied, the dead come back to life. And among all these signs there is the one to which He attaches great importance: the humble and the poor are evangelized, become His disciples and gather together in His name in the great community of those who believe in Him. For this Jesus who declared, I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God(29) is the same Jesus of whom John the Evangelist said that He had come and was to die to gather together in unity the scattered children of God.(30) Thus He accomplishes His revelation, completing it and confirming it by the entire revelation that He makes of Himself, by words and deeds, by signs and miracles, and more especially by His death, by His resurrection and by the sending of the Spirit of Truth.(31) 13. Those who sincerely accept the Good News, through the power of this acceptance and of shared faith therefore gather together in Jesus' name in order to seek together the kingdom, build it up and live it. They make up a community which is in its turn evangelizing. The command to the Twelve to go out and proclaim the Good News is also valid for all Christians, though in a different way. It is precisely for this reason that Peter calls Christians a people set apart to sing the praises of God,(32) those marvelous things that each one was able to hear in his own language.(33) Moreover, the Good News of the kingdom which is c