I. Gratitude. My sincere thanks to
all of you for joining our mission to proclaim evangelism among the Chinese.
Now I will share with you some of the recent fruits of our efforts.
One long-term benefit, thanks to years of experience in Taiwan, is that some
are gradually becoming both "professional" and
"inculturated" lay evangelists. This will help greatly in training
future full-time lay and volunteer evangelists.
II. Further Reflections on
"One-brings-one" (1-0-1) Evangelism Approach
St. John tells us: "Love consists in this, not that we
first loved God, but that God first loved us." I believe one
fundamental condition for success is that the Catholic (who brings/invites)
must first love, with God's love, the non-Catholic (to be invited). Of
1-0-1 programs, loving with God's love goes through the following process: first,
renewing and deepening ones own relationship to God; then praying that God will
bless and help the non-Catholic (his health, his family, his work) and grant
him the gift of Faith.
Different 1-0-1 programs offer different opportunities for
loving non-Catholic with God's love. For parish-wide 1-0-1 programs
(whether systematic, semi-systematic or traditional) all the steps in the
process above are required. The strength of parish wide programs is that a
large number of parish members begin to pray for those they wish to invite (and
this prayer is a real, concrete way of loving them with God's love). But
parish wide programs have two limitations: there is often inadequate
instruction on how to pray for, serve, witness to and invite the non-Catholic;
there is only a short time between the beginning of prayer and the beginning of
catechumen course. As a result the Catholic does not begin to use the divine
means of prayer nor develop a supernatural motive (the love of God). As a
result the evangelizing effort remains too much on a merely human level.
Despite these limitations, because some Catholics do pray and are able to
invite non-Catholics (overcoming the cultural fear of hurting the relationship
by inviting) parish wide 1-0-1 programs do find same catechumens.
Another way of doing 1-0-1 is through a small prayer groups.
These have the advantage that Catholics have time to receive adequate
formation on the evangelism process and sufficient time (two to six months) to
begin to pray for three to five to be invited. The limitation is that the
number of Catholics involved is relatively small, 8-12. But some of these
evangelizing prayer groups are able to lead many to enter a catechumen course.
Finally, in the most successful evangelizing parishes, both Protestant
and Catholic, these small prayer communities have become self-replicating
evangelizing "cell communities" (I explained how they work in a
previous newsletter). The limitation for cell community method is that
only a very dynamic pastor, fully committed to evangelism, can make it work.
In conclusion, which type of 1-0-1 program is best?
They are all good but they all have limitations. Especially for
parish based 1-0-1 we have to understand how, within time limitations, to teach
Catholics how to first love through prayer and then invite non-Catholics.
