{"id":1164,"date":"2013-10-01T13:32:37","date_gmt":"2013-10-01T19:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/egregioustwaddle\/?p=1164"},"modified":"2016-05-02T10:55:31","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T16:55:31","slug":"you-can-lead-a-beggar-to-bread-pope-francis-on-evangelization-proselytism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/egregioustwaddle\/2013\/10\/you-can-lead-a-beggar-to-bread-pope-francis-on-evangelization-proselytism.html","title":{"rendered":"You Can Lead a Beggar to Bread: Pope Francis on Evangelization & Proselytism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Tuesday, and Pope Francis is smacking gobs again. We\u2019re still waiting for a better English translation of his latest published conversation<\/strong><\/a> with La Repubblica<\/em> founder Eugenio Scalfari , but it\u2019s safe to say there\u2019s a lot of seasickness aboard ye olde Barque of Peter this morning. Again.<\/p>\n

My gob has been so far pretty unsmackable, but a few pull quotes from this latest piece made me reach for the spiritual Dramamine. One, in particular, seemed to be a stunningly insensitive and snarky way to kick off October, the month in which the Church observes World Missions Sunday<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cProselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes no sense.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yowch. There\u2019s no way to misread that, or blame what appears to be a wholesale rejection of convert-making on a bad translation.<\/p>\n

So we\u2019ve all been murmuring on the Patheos backchannels, scratching our heads or tearing our hair out by the handfuls. And out of that Apostle-like \u201cWTF did he just say?\u201d reflection, a couple of things emerged. Jennifer Fitz gently reminded us that we don\u2019t<\/em> make converts\u2014the Holy Spirit does. The Great Commission does not task us with the forcible baptism of the multitudes. We are sent\u2014missioned<\/em>, all of us\u2014to preach the Good News of salvation and to welcome those who hear and long for it. Nothing we do is more important than this\u2014letting God\u2019s children come to him, and not impeding them from that encounter.<\/p>\n

Jennifer also reminded us that in denying that he was attempting to proselytize his atheist interlocutor, Francis was writing\u2014for global publication\u2014the best possible set of instructions for enabling that encounter. Think of the Atheist-Christian exchanges in the public forum, even here on Patheos. There is, in Francis\u2019s conversation with Scalfari, not a trace of the barbed defensiveness, the intellectual smugness, the dismissiveness, the bile we on both sides so often fall into. There are simply two men talking, laughing, about what means most to them, what they have in common, what they respect in each other, where they are unwilling to compromise but not to listen. No solemn nonsense here, folks. But lots and lots and lots of evangelization in action.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s something I tracked down that may shed light on the key parsing of those words, proselytism<\/em> and evangelization<\/em>. It seems that Orthodox Christianity, with which Pope Francis is enamored in a deeply fraternal way, makes a very clear distinction. Here\u2019s Orthodox writer Stephen Methodius Hayes<\/strong><\/a>, sounding very \u201cFranciscan\u201d:<\/p>\n

The difference between evangelism and proselytism is not the same as the difference between centripetal and centrifugal mission, though it can perhaps give a clue to it. . . .<\/span><\/p>\n

Evangelism, in the English use of the term, means telling or spreading good news. The four gospels of the New Testament tell the good news about Jesus Christ. When we, as Christians, tell others about what God has done in Jesus Christ, we are evangelising.<\/span><\/p>\n

Proselytism, on the other hand, means \u201cbringing people in\u201d, causing them to change their beliefs, their party, their opinions or their religion. In proselytism there is a strong element of telling people how bad or wrong their present beliefs are. Telling people that their beliefs are wicked or wrong does not appear as \u201cgood news \u201d to them. If we evangelise, we are not saying \u201cOur religion is better than your religion\u201d. We are not setting ourselves up as morally or spiritually superior beings, and trying to get people to leave their religion and join ours so that they can be superior like us. When we evangelise, we say, in effect, that God has done great things. Someone once described evangelism as \u201cOne beggar telling another beggar where to get bread.\u201d To a hungry beggar, that is good news. And a beggar telling another beggar such news can hardly boast about it, or claim to be superior because of it.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s a difference with<\/em> a distinction, and worth contemplating on this feast of the great missionary patroness St Therese of Lisieux. She dreamed of becoming a proselytizer, making converts in what was then French Indochina, now Vietnam. Yet she ended up doing all her missionary work from a Carmelite cell, dying at 24 of tuberculosis, leaving behind a sheaf of handwritten pages that might just as well have been \u201cI am a beggar, and I have found bread for you!\u201d<\/em> written a thousand times over. Therese has, it is safe to say, brought more people to a life-changing encounter with Jesus than any door-to-door proselytizer, and she gives Jesus all the credit.<\/p>\n

So I understand that gobsmacking and seasickness go on with this pope, but in the back of my head is always the thought of how many gobs Jesus smacked, how many people he made seasick, how many were confused by his words and walked away, how many cried blasphemy. But they all heard, and it was up to each of them to choose. When the Vicar of Christ on earth speaks puzzling words, even if we just overhear them, we can all be forgiven for doing this<\/strong><\/a> a little. Then, we must be about the business of bringing beggars like us to bread.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 It\u2019s Tuesday, and Pope Francis is smacking gobs again. We\u2019re still waiting for a better English translation of his latest published conversation with La Repubblica founder Eugenio Scalfari , but it\u2019s safe to say there\u2019s a lot of seasickness aboard ye olde Barque of Peter this morning. Again. My gob has been so far […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[284,104],"tags":[386,512,412,410,411],"class_list":["post-1164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pope-francis","category-saints-lives-and-legends","tag-la-repubblica","tag-pope-francis","tag-proselytism","tag-st-therese","tag-world-missions-sunday"],"yoast_head":"\nYou Can Lead a Beggar to Bread: Pope Francis on Evangelization & Proselytism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  It's Tuesday, and Pope Francis is smacking gobs again. 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