Pope Francis and The Joy of the Gospel
By Walter B. Shurden
Amazon gives it five stars! I think it may be the most important religious book of 2013, but I did not see it make any of the “Best Religious Books of 2013” lists.
It is The Joy of the Gospel: EVANGELII GAUDIUM, written by Pope Francis I. With this, his first Apostolic Exhortation delivered on November 24, 2013, Francis I, like John XXIII a half century before him, threw open the windows to let some fresh air into the Roman Catholic Church. Protestants and all religionists and non-religionists would profit from inhaling some of this invigorating air.
Shortly after being elected the 266th Pope, the former Jorge Mario Bergoglio jested with the Cardinals, “May God forgive you for what you have done.” If The Joy of the Gospel is a signpost of where he wants to take the Catholic Church, the Cardinals will need no forgiveness.
This warm, joyous, biblical, pastoral, relevant, prophetic, and, at times, personal statement has been egregiously mischaracterized by the public media and pundits such as Rush Limbaugh. This is not a document whose primary purpose is to assail Wall Street. However, with its comprehensive description of evangelization, it certainly does not give unregulated free market capitalism a pass. One certainly understands why it gives extreme conservatives theological and economic reflux. But contrary to what you may have heard or read regarding the document, you need to hear Francis clearly say that “this Exhortation is not a social document.”1 Surely he must have known that some would interpret it precisely as a “social” document, and he obviously did not care. He did not care because he deeply believes that the “social” is a vital part of Christian evangelization.
Francis’ intent could not be more clear or upfront: “In this Exhortation I wish to encourage the Christian faithful to embark upon a new chapter of evangelization marked by this joy [of the gospel], while pointing out new paths for the Church’s journey in years to come.”2 This “Exhortation” from this happy Pope is about the “joy of the gospel.” It is about the “joy of the gospel” that provides the motivation for evangelism, for missions, and for outreach to all people, especially to the poor. It is about the primacy and joy of grace that precedes what Francis calls evangelization. This is primarily a work of missiology. Do not listen to anyone who tells you differently.
The document has an introduction and five chapters. Chapter 1 of this missionary essay is entitled The Church’s Missionary Transformation, chapter 2 is Amid the Crisis of Communal Commitment, chapter 3, a chapter on preaching from one who is not an exceptional preacher, is The Proclamation of the Gospel, and Chapter 4 is The Social Dimension of Evangelization. Chapter 4 is the chapter that has drawn the most criticism, and one suspects that it is the only chapter that the most virulent critics have read, caring little for the central theological theme of Pope Francis. Chapter 5, containing a Pentecostal echo, is entitled “Spirit-Filled Evangelizers.”
To whom did Francis address this Exhortation? Part of the long and awkward title identifies his audience: To the Bishops, Clergy, Consecrated
Persons, and the Lay Faithful. Surely his primary target was the entire Church he leads. And while being cautious about reading non-Catholic biases into the words of Francis, I thought Francis had some rather specific Catholic targets in mind. One of those targets appeared to be those bishops and priests who would deny the Eucharist to politicians and leaders whose opinions on social issues, such as abortion, differed with their own. Francis said, “The Eucharist, although it is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak . . . Frequently, we act as arbiters of grace rather than its facilitators. But the Church is not a tollhouse; it is the house of the Father, where there is a place for everyone, with all their problems.”3
But I suspect that he had a much wider audience in mind than the Catholic Church alone. His genuine ecumenical embrace is reflected in paragraph 201 where he voices his “trust” in “all Christians” to accept his renewed call to “spiritual conversion, the intensity of the love of God and neighbor, zeal for justice and peace, [and] the Gospel meaning of the poor and of poverty.” While he certainly did not direct this Exhortation explicitly toward “followers of non-Christian religions,” Muslims, and all “non-Christians,”4 Francis doubtless will be pleased if these groups peek over his shoulder and sense his openness. Moreover, one cannot doubt that Francis would be especially pleased if heads of state and world governmental leaders would heed his words on the social dimensions of the gospel. Again, however, Francis is primarily issuing a wide-ranging spiritual call for Christians to evangelize, and this includes the transformation of structures as well as persons.
The primary theme: the joy of the Gospel: But what does Francis actually say in the document? He repeats many of the themes that the public media have picked up and spread abroad about him, especially his concern for the poor and the lowly. But here you learn that his concern for the poor, his motivation for lifting the lowly, comes deeply from his faith. Writing this essay as a pastoral theologian, not a social welfare worker, Francis has one overarching and general theme in this particular document. It is a theme that the media has not discerned. This theme, as stated above, is that IT IS JOY, THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL, THAT CREATES A MISSIONARY AND EVANGELIZING CHURCH. Where there is no joy, where spiritual ardor has evaporated, there is no reaching out by the church.5
Because “there are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter,”6 Francis invites all Christians, with some Baptist sounding language, “to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ or at least an openness to letting him encounter them.”7 When we encounter or have a renewed encounter with God’s love, “we are liberated from our narrowness and self-absorption.” And “here we find the source and inspiration of all our efforts at evangelization. For if we have received the love which restores meaning to our lives, how can we fail to share that love with others?”8
Again, because “the joy of the gospel” is the source of authentic fulfillment, “an evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral.”9 In the pages of his Exhortation Francis will not let go of the idea that the joy of evangelizing is coupled with our personal encounter with the Holy. “The joy of evangelizing always arises from grateful remembrance: it is a grace which we constantly need to implore. The apostles never forgot the moment when Jesus touched their hearts: `It was about four o’clock in the afternoon’ (Jn 1:39).”10
With a single sentence, Francis
unintentionally dismisses all the slick techniques and clever strategies in evangelism textbooks that have come from Christian publishers. He says, “ . . . anyone who has truly experienced God’s saving love does not need much time or lengthy training to go out and proclaim that love.”11 To be sure, this proclamation is not simply a word we speak. “An evangelizing community gets involved by word and deed in people’s daily lives; it bridges distances, it is willing to abase itself if necessary and it embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others. Evangelizers thus take on the `smell of the sheep.’”12
While the overarching theme is abundantly clear, one cannot help but notice recurring secondary themes. There are many subthemes one can identify. Here are four that caught my attention.
Inclusion, Not Exclusion: This Pope has open arms, and he wants a Church with open doors. Speaking of his invitation to “all Christians” to a renewed personal encounter with Christ Francis says “No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her `since no one is excluded from the joy of the Lord.’”13 Reflecting on the mission of the Church Francis says “. . . it is vitally important for the Church today to go forth and preach the Gospel to all: to all places on all occasions without hesitation reluctance or fear ” because “The joy of the Gospel is for all people: no one can be excluded.”14
While the positive theme of inclusivity is affirmed in many ways the more negative theme of exclusivity is soundly rejected throughout the document. I came away from my reading believing that Francis was strongly suggesting that the Church find room
for tenderness and openness to the most marginalized among us.
Decentralization and theological humility within the Catholic Church: Because he is conscious of “the need to promote a sound `decentralization” in the Church ” Francis does not believe that “the papal mag-isterium should be expected to offer a definitive or complete word on every question which affects the Church and the world.” “It is not advisable ” he says “for the Pope to take the place of local Bishops in the discernment of every issue which arises in their territory.”15 “Excessive centralization ” he repeats “rather than proving helpful complicates the Church’s life and her missionary outreach.”16
Along with decentralization Francis calls for the Church to rediscover some theological humility. He speaks often of the need for the church itself to be evangelized. “The Church is herself a missionary disciple; she needs to grow in her interpretation of the revealed word and in her understanding of truth.” The social sciences philosophy theology and pastoral practice “can enable the Church to grow.” He acknowledges that the call for theological growth and openness will cause consternation among some. He says “For those who long for a monolithic body of doctrine guarded by all and leaving no room for nuance this might appear as undesirable and leading to confusion.” And then he adds “But in fact such variety serves to bring out and develop different facets of the inexhaustible riches of the Gospel.”17
Obsession with Secondary Issues: In one of the most intriguing sections of his Exhortation Francis calls the Church back to “the heart of the Gospel.” When the Church puts “all things in a missionary key ” secondary aspects of the “Church’s moral teaching” must be kept “secondary.” Reaching back to the Second Vatican Council he argues that there exists a “hierarchy of truths ” varying in their relation to the foundation of the Christian faith. “This holds true ” he says “as much for the dogmas of
faith as for the whole corpus of the Church’s teaching including her moral teaching.”
Francis never identifies the “secondary” issues or the lesser truths within the hierarchy of truths. But a Protestant cannot but wonder surely Catholics as well that the Pope may be speaking of homosexuality abortion and other hot-button moral issues. Whatever specifics he has in mind he calls for the church to preach the gospel with “a fitting sense of proportion.” If a parish priest speaks within a year about temperance far more than justice or charity an imbalance results. “The same thing happens ” Francis said “when we speak more about law than about grace more about the Church than about Christ more about the Pope than about God’s word.”
So what is the heart of the Gospel? It is “the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ.” “Before all else the Gospel invites us to respond to the God of love who saves us to see God in others and to go forth from ourselves to seek the good of others.” All other virtues are in the service of our response to God’s love. If this invitation to God’s love “does not radiate forcefully and attractively the edifice of the Church’s moral teaching risks becoming a house of cards and this is our greatest risk. It would mean that it is not the Gospel which is being preached but certain doctrinal or moral points based on specific ideological options.”18
The poor: Francis chose his papal name with deliberation and intent. He himself has a “hierarchy” of ethical concerns and at the top of those concerns are the poor and the economically disenfranchised. “I want a Church which is poor and for the poor ” he exclaims.19
A privatized gospel truncates the gospel. While earlier in the statement Francis calls for a highly personal and joyous individual faith in chapter four he warns “that the Gospel is not merely about our personal relationship with God.”20 An authentic faith he contends is never comfortable or completely personal but is always involved in “a deep desire to change the world to transmit values to leave this earth somehow better than we found it.”21 Because the task of Christian evangelization demands the “integral promotion of each human being ” “it is no longer possible to claim that religion should be restricted to the private sphere and that it exists only to prepare souls for heaven.”22
Christian evangelization entails “working to eliminate the structural causes of poverty.”23 And this work on behalf of the poor is theologically rooted; it does not originate in culture sociology politics or philosophy. “It presumes the creation of a new mindset which thinks in terms of community and the priority of the life of all over the appropriation of goods by a few.”24 Drenching his concern for the poor in biblical
precedents Francis reminds that the key criterion of authentic ministry as suggested by the apostles to Paul was concern for the poor (Gal 2:10).
While theologically based solidarity with the poor for Pope Francis has significant economic implications. Society in general is sickened and weakened by poverty. Welfare projects are temporary fixes. “As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality no solution will be found for the world’s problems. Inequality is the root of social ills.”25
Some of the “secondary” themes within the “Exhortation” are unapologetically Catholic. After all this is a Catholic Pope writing. A concern for the unborn the centrality of the Eucharist a disdain for consumerism and individualism and the limited role of women are all here. Regarding the latter one senses a strong support for women. I got the impression–and it is only an impression—that if the Catholic environment were but a bit more open this Pope would push for far more freedom for women within the Church. One hopes that Francis himself will push on this issue.
While a Catholic document from a Catholic Pope this is a statement from which all Christians can receive inspiration and courage. Its ethical concerns among others will challenge all of us. Pray for long life for this Pope.
Walter B. Shurden is Minister at Large Mercer University
