Catholicism, Culture, and Evangelization:

Reaching Out to Proclaim Christ to a Lost and Confused World

            Speaking to the people of the city of Athens, we read this account of St. Paul's preaching before the people:  "Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: "You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious.  For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, 'To an Unknown God.'  What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.  The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is He served by human hands because He needs anything.  Rather it is He who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.  He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us.  For 'In him we live and move and have our being,' as even some of your poets have said, 'For we too are his offspring.'" (Acts 17:22-28).  I find this to be a fascinating Biblical account where "Catholicism, Culture, and Evangelization" all meet in one.  What can we learn from it?

            It is important first to note that St. Paul was intimately mindful of and knowledgeable about the culture he found himself in.  From a careful investigation into the climate and aptitudes of the culture, he draws his conclusion, which then propels him into evangelization, into proclamation of the Good News which is the Gospel.  In St. Paul's time, in Athens, Greece, worship and veneration of the pantheon of the "gods" (what we would call Greek Mythology) was enjoying favor, as were the prevailing philosophies of the times.  The cult of the gods and goddesses was so prevalent that the people in Athens at that time wanted to make sure that they honored each of the gods/goddesses, and so even if there was a god that was unknown, the Athenians wanted to make sure that this unknown god was venerated properly so as to gain his/her favor and blessing.  St. Paul, having received the revelation of Jesus Christ, took the opportunity to proclaim to the people the true God, the maker of heaven and earth.  He thus revealed to the Athenians that their "religious instinct" in the worship of gods was good, but lacking correct focus and proper knowledge, insofar as their worship was not of the true and only God.  For the God that St. Paul proclaimed to them was the "unknown god" that they worshipped and venerated in ignorance, the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the true God, the one and only maker of heaven and earth.  St. Paul met the culture, interpreted it in light of the true faith, and proclaimed the truth, the good news, the Gospel to the people. 

            In our day and age, the situation is not so different.  There are plenty of altars in our culture: they are found in strip clubs, in bars and taverns, at the workplace, in nature, in the bedroom, on the internet, at the movies, in the supermarket, at the concert, and in a multiplicity of other different locations.  The altars of our "worship" pervade our culture.  But they are not the altars of the one true God; no, they are the altars of the "gods" of popular culture, for we have created our own "mythology" that defines our worship and gives voice to our prevailing philosophies.  For many, sex and sensual pleasure is their god; for others, alcohol and rebel-rousing; for still others, work-a-holism; for others, the best of food and drink; for others, internet pornography and masturbation or the online chat room where anonymity and fantasy reigns supreme; for others, the lives of celebrity "icons" of popular culture who are the trendsetters of fashion and taste; for still others, dark forces of spiritual "energy" that put them in the driver seat of life, subject to no one, themselves defining what is true and right.

            In such a setting as our culture today, a proclamation of truth is needed badly.  In his day, St. Peter, animated as he was by the Spirit of God and graced with the sure charism of truth by virtue of his unique office, proclaimed, concerning the crucified and risen Jesus, "There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is no other name in the whole world given to men by which we are to be saved."  (Acts 4:22).  The so-called "gods" of our popular culture are nothing.  Jesus Christ is everything, for He alone is Lord and Savior; He alone is the source of salvation for all of humanity; He alone is the God-Man, the Incarnate Word, the very essence and expression of God's image and likeness.  In our culture, we are all looking for God, so that we might show Him proper veneration and worship.  The problem is that we have gotten it very wrong.  We all have a "religious instinct" oriented toward the worship of a being higher than ourselves, but we are mistaken in the object of our religious veneration and worship.  Rather than honoring the true God, we have set up for ourselves a multiplicity of "gods" that we worship on a regular basis.  The "gods" of popular culture have become the center of our worship, and thus we have set up for ourselves an idol, a false "god," a reality altogether different from the true God, towards which we are all ordered by nature to worship and adore.

            We are the evangelizing Church, but we start by first being evangelized, by first receiving the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He alone is Savior, and that He has established His Church to be His Body, to be the sacrament of salvation for the whole world.  It is our task today to truly receive the good news that Jesus Christ came to save us; that He came as God to do what only God could do, to accomplish what was impossible for man alone, so that through Him, we all might have true and abundant life.  He seeks to accomplish within the hearts of all people true conversion away from the worship of false "gods," to the worship of the true God, the Most Holy Trinity, One God in three Divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  After we have received the good news, after we ourselves have been evangelized, it falls us to as Christians, as the bearers of Christ to the world, to proclaim Christ to the world, to further the mission started by Christ of proclaiming the presence of the kingdom, a reality that is "already, but not yet," a reality toward which we are all ordered by the will of God.  We must meet the culture, interpret it in the light of the true faith, and then proclaim the good news to the people.

            It is to us that Christ gives the great commission: "All authority has been given to Me, both in heaven and on earth; go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations.  Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you.  And know that I am with you always, until the end of the world."  (Matt. 28:18b-20).  Christ's continual presence with us makes our mission possible.  We go to proclaim Him to people, we go with His presence, in the power of His Name, the Name above all other names (cf. Phil. 2:9b), to win souls for the kingdom and for eternal salvation.  Have you heard the good news of Jesus Christ?  How have you responded?  Are you aware that as a Christian it is your responsibility to proclaim Christ?  How have you met or failed to meet this responsibility?  What will you do now to proclaim Christ, in word or in deed?  You have hereby been commissioned: go out and meet the culture; interpret it in the light of faith, and proclaim Christ to a lost a confused world!  Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam! 

~ Noah J.