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Conversion and the Kingdom of God The New Evangelisation
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Thereby, to convert means: not to live as all the others
live, not do what all do, not feel justified in dubious, ambiguous,
evil actions just because others do the same; to begin to see one's
life through the eyes of God; "Conversion is humility in entrusting oneself to the love of the Other" All of this does not imply moralism; reducing Christianity to morality loses sight of the essence of Christ's message: the gift of a new friendship, the gift of communion with Jesus and thereby with God. Whoever converts to Christ does not mean to create his own moral autarchy for himself, does not intend to build his own goodness through his own strengths. "Conversion" (metanoia) means exactly the opposite; to come out of self-sufficiency to discover and accept our indigence - the indigence of others and of the Other, His forgiveness, His friendship. Unconverted life is self-justification (I am not worse than the others): conversion is humility in entrusting oneself to the love of the Other, a love that becomes the measure and the criteria of my own life. "We cannot evangelise with words alone" Here we must also bear in mind the social aspect of conversion. Certainly conversion is above all a very personal act, it is personalization. I separate myself from the formula "To live as all others" ( do not feel justified any more by the fact that everyone does what I do) and I find my own person in front of God, my own personal responsibility. But true personalization is always also a new and more profound socialisation. The "I" opens itself once again to the "you", in all its depths, and thus a new "We" is bom. If the lifestyle spread throughout the world implies the danger of de-personalization, of not living one's own life but the life of all the others, in conversion a new "We", of the common path of God, must be achieved. In proclaiming conversion we must also offer a community
of life, a common space for the new style of life. We cannot evangelise
with words alone; the Gospel creates life, creates communities of progress;
a merely individual conversion has no consistency. "The Kingdom of God" In the appeal to conversion the proclamation of the Living God is implicit - as its fundamental condition. Theocentrism is fundamental in the message of Jesus and must also be at the heart of the new evangelisation. The key word of the proclamation of Jesus is: the Kingdom of God. But the Kingdom of God is not a thing, a social or political structure, an Utopia. The Kingdom of God is God. Kingdom of God means: God exists. God is alive. God is present and acts in the world, in our - in my life. God is not a faraway "ultimate cause", God is not the "great architect" of deism, who created the machine of the world and is no longer part of it - on the contrary: God is the most present and decisive reality in each and every act of my life, in each and every moment of history. In his conference when leaving the University of Munster,
the theologian J. B. Metz said some unexpected things for him. In the
past Metz taught us anthropocentrism - the true occurrence of Christianity
was the anthropological turning point, "Christians also often live as if God did not exist" Here too we must keep the practical aspect in mind. God
cannot be made known with words alone. One does not really know a person
if one knows about this person second hand. To proclaim God is to introduce
someone to a relationship with God; "Liturgy is not the invention of the celebrating priest" Speaking about God and speaking with God must always
go together. The proclamation of God is the guide to communion with
God in fraternal communion, founded and vivified by Christ. This is
why the liturgy (the sacraments) are not a secondary theme next to the
preaching of the living God, but the realisation of our relationship
with God. While on this subject, may I be allowed to make a general
observation on the liturgical question. Our way of celebrating the liturgy
is very often too rationalistic. The liturgy becomes teaching, whose
criteria is: making ourselves understood - often the consequence of
this is making the mystery a banality, the prevalence of our words,
the repetition of phrases that might seem more accessible and more pleasant
for the people. But this is not only a theological error but also a
psychological and pastoral one. The wave of esoterism, the spreading
of Asian techniques of relaxation and self-emptying demonstrate that
something is lacking in our liturgies. It is in our world of today that
we are in need of silence, of the super-individual mystery, of beauty.
The liturgy is not an invention of the celebrating priest or of a group
of specialists; the liturgy (the "rite") came about via an
organic process throughout the centuries, it bears with it the fruit
of the experience of faith of all the generations. Even if the participants
do not perhaps understand each single word, they perceive the profound
meaning, the presence of the mystery, which transcends all words. The
celebrant is not the centre of the liturgical action; the celebrant
is not in front of the people in his own name - he does not speak by
himself or for himself, but "in persona Christi". The personal
abilities of the celebrant do not count, only his faith counts, by which
Christ becomes transparent. (Final part next issue)
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As
for the content of new evangelisation, first of all we must keep in
mind the inseparability of the Old and the New Testaments. The fundamental
content of the Old Testament is summarised in the message by John the
Baptist - convert! There is no access to Jesus without the Baptist;
there is no possibility of reaching Jesus without answering the call
of the precursor, rather; Jesus took up the message of John in the synthesis
of His own preaching: "metanoia". The Greek word for converting
means: to rethink - to question one's own and common way of living;
to allow God to enter into the criteria of one's life; to not merely
judge according to the current opinions.