Why Proclaim?
Celebrating St. John the Evangelist - 27th December, 2016
1 Jn 1:1-4; Jn 20: 1a,2-8
Evangelisation has been a commission given to us by the Lord himself - through the disciples and apostles that Jesus had and handed over to us in time. The world today is beset with a terrible problem of religious violence - killing, persecutions, attacks and wars in the name of God! Is evangelisation needed today? Is it so important to proclaim one's God at the cost of life, peace and harmony? Don't you get that question very often in your heart? If you do so, you are one step closer to understanding what evangelisation means.
John today so simply puts it: I write this, that your joy may be complete! He would put the same words into Jesus' mouth(eg. Jn 15:11): I say these things, that your joy may be complete. We are called to share our experience with the world, so that the joy of the world, the joy of each person around us, the joy of the entire humanity be complete. Why proclaim: that the joy that God truly wills be complete! But that requires that those who proclaim, possess that joy and then share it! Called to proclaim, do I possess that joy? Having experienced that joy, do I feel the urge to share it? My joy becomes complete when I share it.