What a wonderful thing it is to hold The Rite of Election and Call To Continuing Conversion each year in dioceses across the country, including our own. What an awesome “altar call” we extend to thousands of people at these celebrations! Yes, Catholics have “altar calls”. We may not hold our “altar calls” at the end of a church service or at an evangelistic rally in a park — although we could do that too — but we do call men and women each year to the altar of the Lord. I am referring to the call we make to people of every race and tongue to complete a yearlong process of evangelization, conversion, and catechesis that will lead them to complete incorporation into the Catholic Church through the R.C.I.A. and the R.C.I.C., or Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and of Children, so that they may approach the altar of the Lord with us at the Easter Vigil. We invite men and women, children and youth, to commit their lives to Christ as Lord and to His Church as their mother and teacher; to develop a mature life of discipleship characterized by a living, explicit, and fruitful faith; and to commit themselves to approaching the altar of the Lord every week so that they may be fed at both “the table of the Word” and “the table of the Bread of the Lord”, the Eucharist.
Again this year, the R.C.I.A. and the R.C.I.C. have yielded a rich harvest for the Lord. What a joy to know that this year 1112 souls have turned their lives more fully to Christ as Lord. What a thrill to envision the lives they will soon be equipped to live. I’m sure their lives are quite fine now, give or take. But imagine how much better, meaningful, and blessed their lives will be as they come forth at the Easter Vigil and vow themselves to the Lord. God is giving Himself to them in a powerful way through the Sacraments — and that is no small thing. Like every baptized, confirmed, and “bread-from-heaven-fed” Catholic Christian who responds generously and faithfully to God’s generous gifts, these Catechumens and Candidates will have no reason to regret the choice they are making for Christ and His Church. I know, as certainly as I know there is a God, that as they each respond to the sacramental grace which they will receive that glorious day and throughout their lives, their lives will continue to change for the better.
And who are we to thank for this amazing grace? The Lord for sure, for as St. Paul says, it is God Himself who stirs in us the desire and the ability to be and do good. But the Church is also to be thanked: the People of God actively living their faith and joyfully inviting others to the fullness of Christ’s sanctifying grace; the Church present in the many parents and grandparents, children and siblings, spouses and friends, co-workers and fellow parishioners who made the call; who showed these Catechumens and Candidates the love and the goodness of God and invited them to consider Christ and His Church. Also to be thanked are the many who took it from there, and formed and supported these brothers and sisters of ours, including their godparents and sponsors, their R.C.I.A. and R.C.I.C. evangelists and catechists, and the priests and communities who welcomed them and are helping them delve into the mysteries of Faith and become one with Christ. For all that each “evangelist” did, we are to be thankful to God.
And now the work goes on! As Archbishop Gomez says in You Will Be My Witnesses: A Pastoral Letter to the People of God of San Antonio on the Christian Mission to Evangelize and Proclaim Jesus Christ, we are all called to be evangelizers. “You must be evangelists! No matter what job you perform in the Church, your mission is to tell people about the God who loves them. You must proclaim the God who has come to be our friend. The God who has come to save us from our sins and lead us to eternal life.” (No. 15) We are all called to evangelize. That includes cradle Catholics and newly baptized Catholics.
Pope John Paul II was right when he said years ago: “God is opening before the Church the horizons of a humanity more fully prepared for the sowing of the Gospel. I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the Church's energies to a new evangelization and to the mission ad gentes. No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples.” (Redemptoris missio, 3)
The moment has come… As Archbishop Gomez points out in his pastoral letter, leading men and women to Christ is our highest priority at this present time, universally and locally. He states: “Pope Benedict XVI has described our cultural moment — and the challenge we are confronted with — in these poignant terms: ‘The real problem at this moment of our history is that God is disappearing from the human horizon, and, with the dimming of the light which comes from God, humanity is losing its bearings, with increasingly evident destructive effects. Leading men and women to God, to the God who speaks in the Bible: this is the supreme and fundamental priority of the Church and of the Successor of Peter at the present time.’” Then Archbishop Gomez turns to us and says, in no uncertain terms, what our highest priority must be: “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 San Antonio. This must be the measure by which we judge everything we do.” (You Will Be My Witnesses, No. 18)
The need is great. The time is right. The resources are available. We can do this! We can evangelize! We can witness to others and invite others to know Christ in His Church and enjoy the fullness of His plan for mankind. The Catholic Church is growing worldwide. The numbers locally and across the United States are encouraging. But more can and must be done to reach the thousands of people in our country who have yet to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ and His Church.
I pray that each Catechumen and Candidate perseveres in the call to be and make disciples, as they deepen their conversion and grow in personal holiness. I pray that each one of us will respond fully to our call to continuing conversion and to loving outreach for sake of the many who are yet to come into the fold. I am committed to equipping Catholics to become “everyday evangelized evangelizers” and to help our parishes and schools and Catholic agencies “evangelized and evangelizing communities of faith.” Don’t hesitate to contact the archdiocesan Office for Evangelization for assistance. Together, we can evangelize the world — one evangelistic step at a time.