November 30, Saint Andrew, Apostle
To evangelize is to live
For, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. For the scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, enriching all who call upon him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring (the) good news!” But not everyone has heeded the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what was heard from us?” Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. Rom 10,9-17
The living beings, plants and animals, generate other living beings; the fountain discharges the water which it has received; the bodies transmit the heat which they have acquired; the universe is a wonderful dynamic equilibrium of planets which keep each other in an orderly motion; and the men love because they are loved by God and by other men. The creation contains a fundamental principle: it is not possible to keep only on our own, as an exclusive property, what we have received from others. This natural dynamism is furthermore significant with reference to the faith; “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”. But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring (the) good news!” ….” Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ”. As the living beings cannot not transmit the life and the fountain cannot discharge the water which it receives, equally it is impossible to receive the donation of the faith and to kept it only for our own. The testimony of the gospel, before being a mandate and a duty, is an unrestrained need which burst out from the inside, which marries with the necessity and the right that all “Jew and Greek“ have to know the faith of Jesus Christ, to reach the faith, to receive the answers which they are waiting for since long time and to be saved. To evangelize means to receive and continuously transmit the Holy Spirit and the message of the gospel, as the fountain receives and transmits the water; if it would not be in this way, the life, the faith, the love and the sharing of what we are and of what we have would disappear and the fountains would became smelling ponds. To announce the gospel means to live and to transmit the life. A Church which does not evangelize is not a Church and a christian who does not testify the gospel is a christian sadly retired.