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Evangelization: Show and Tell
By Pope Paul VI
Above all the Gospel must be proclaimed by witness. Take a Christian or a handful of Christians who, in the midst of their
own community, show their capacity for understanding and acceptance, their sharing of life and destiny with other people,
… Let us suppose that…they radiate in an altogether simple and unaffected way their faith in values that go beyond
current values, and their hope in something that is not seen….
Through this wordless witness these Christians stir up irresistible questions in the hearts of those who see how they live:
Why are they like this? …What or who is it that inspires them? Why are they in our midst? Such a witness is already
a silent proclamation of the Good News and a very powerful and effective one. Here we have an initial act of evangelization….
Nevertheless this always remains insufficient, because even the finest witness will prove ineffective in the long run if it
is not explained, justified—what Peter called always having “your answer ready for people who ask you the reason
for the hope that you all have”—and made explicit by a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the Lord Jesus. The
Good News proclaimed by the witness of life sooner or later has to be proclaimed by the word of life. There is no true evangelization
if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not
proclaimed.
Pope Paul VI, Evangelization in the Modern World, December 8, 1975, 21, 22 at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_exhortations.
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