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F e a t u r e A r t i c l e
The Task of the Evangelist
By Russell L. Ford
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This Rock
Volume 15, Number 3
 March 2004 
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One of the difficulties of being a writer and evangelist in prison is not having access to the necessary resources. Unlike in some Yankee prisons, here in Alabama we do not have state-employed prison chaplains who are cooperative in setting up good Catholic libraries, much less Internet access for research. Still, God has blessed this particular evangelist with a good memory for generalities absent of details, and it is from that memory we shall draw for this important subject.
There was once a saint who founded a religious order of priests in Europe. During one of the great European wars several hundred years ago, this saint and his priests followed the armies of their country in order to minister to those dying on the battlefields. It was a heroic and exhausting task, but the saint was ever mindful of the souls of his priests as well.
Once, when he stopped his priests from giving the last rites to dying soldiers to call them together to pray the breviary, one of the priests protested: "But Father, there are hundreds of men dying out there. We must go to them!" The saint’s reply was, "Leave them in the fields."
At first glance, this seems a harsh thing for a superior to say to his subordinate. After all, wasn’t it the duty of those priests to save the souls of the dying on the battlefield? Due consideration to the saint’s admonition, though, teaches us a vital lesson about our responsibilities to ourselves as evangelists. By telling his priests to "leave them in the fields," the saint was telling them they had to refuel their own spiritual life with prayer lest they lose their souls.
Many evangelists work tirelessly to reach out to souls, but perhaps they do so sometimes without taking proper time for their own. This is a trick from hell. Satan says, "Save them, despite the personal costs. It’s all up to you as God’s instrument." The result is that the evangelist dies spiritually.
Another problem for evangelists is an irrational fear of saying the wrong thing while evangelizing. "If I say the wrong thing," they say, "the soul I’m talking to will be lost forever!" Not so.
The point of "leave them in the fields" is that it is the responsibility of the dying to save themselves (cf. Acts 2:40), not the responsibility of the priest or, in this case, the evangelist. They had their entire life to correspond with grace, and it would be an exaggerated sense of responsibility to conclude that if they go to hell it is the priest’s fault.
All that an evangelist is called to make are ordinary, rational efforts. It is irrational for him to fear that he is always walking a tightrope, that what he may say and do or fail to say and do will lose souls; such thinking does not take into account the individual relationship that God has with each soul.
The evangelist must be God’s ready and generous instrument, but he cannot cause the salvation or damnation of anyone. Absent some conscious, grave abuse, the evangelist is innocent (as are the priests who left the dying soldiers in the fields). Therefore, our first responsibility is to our own souls. We will not flourish unless we pray, attend daily Mass, go to weekly confession, and partake in frequent eucharistic adoration.
We must become comfortable in our role as evangelists. Certainly we should follow the counsel of Ignatius of Loyola—"Work as if everything depends on you, pray as if everything depends on God"—but this counsel must be followed in harmony with an imperfect human nature. The effects of original sin are alive in our souls, so it is unreasonable to think we can be right all the time. The evangelist should do his best to learn his field well, but God never expects more from us than our conscientious best. If you make a mistake and can correct it, by all means do so. If you make a mistake and cannot correct it, learn to trust in the infinite providence of God. In other words, don’t worry about it; leave them in the fields. You have done your duty by doing the best you could at the time.
Another thing evangelists must not do is dwell on the difficulties that have plagued the Church since Vatican II. We hear about priests or nuns who promote heretical doctrines, weak or bad bishops who refuse to discipline them, liturgical abuses that seem sacrilegious, and a litany of other problems. It is true that these problems exist and are potentially harmful to the Church and her children, but joining those who complain about such problems is not the evangelist’s task.
My strategy is to educate myself as to the problems but otherwise to ignore them. If an inquirer or catechumen asks about a problem, I simply define the problem accurately, briefly explain why what is happening is wrong, reiterate the Church’s position and her divine authority, then drop the subject and move on. This should be the attitude of all evangelists, and for several good reasons.
First, dwelling on the problems in the modern Church may turn a prospective convert away. Most people naturally try to avoid conflict and confrontation. We do both the Church and the inquirer a grave disservice by dwelling on problems.
Second, dwelling the Church’s problems shows a lack of faith. Certainly we have the sacramental graces of confirmation to fight the difficulties the Church faces, but head wagging and complaining show that we are "of little faith." The Church is a living, breathing, divine organism; Christ is the soul who gives her life. Our complaining shows others that we either believe the Holy Spirit has lost control of the Church or that we never really believed he was in control in the first place. Such unintended attitudes are counterproductive to our work as evangelists.
Third, by focusing on the basics of evangelization instead of problems within the Church, we evangelists become a great force to overthrow the troublemakers in the Church. When we finally decide to evangelize instead of merely talking about it, we will swell the ranks of the laity and priesthood with unified orthodoxy until those of the heterodox bent have no choice but to either shut up and sit down or to be honest enough to leave and start their own religion. If we evangelists will work to put enough new, healthy blood in the Church, the diseased old blood will peter out altogether. When new converts, joined with the orthodox people already in the pews, become the majority and demand the orthodoxy we deserve, heterodoxy will slip into the shadows. We can retake our Church simply by obeying our Lord’s commission to evangelize all peoples.
Since bishops were mentioned earlier, allow me to comment on that august office for a moment. Yes, a few U.S. bishops seem to allow dissent to go unchecked. But the vast majority of our bishops are good men. When the orthodox outnumber the heterodox and the indifferent, our bishops will rise to the occasion to give us what we need, want, and deserve. This will happen when we do our job at evangelization.
Many of our bishops are battle-weary. Rather than our criticism, they need our support and prayers. When your bishop permits bad things or does something less than admirable himself, charitably ignore it. When he does a good thing, take a few minutes to sit down to write him a respectful letter of praise. Address him as Excellency (or Eminence for a cardinal). Make your bishop feel like a bishop, and chances are he will act like a bishop.
When something in your diocese is so wrong that you feel it would be a sin of omission not to fight, remember to fight with the sword of charity and the armor of respect. Keep in mind that your bishop is a direct successor of the apostles, and he should be treated as such. Also, keep in mind before you complain that you cannot see the whole picture your bishop sees; if you could, you may well act in the same manner as he is acting.
The task of the evangelist is to do just as the title implies: evangelize. Some of us are called evangelize, and that is all we do. But because you are not called to full-time evangelistic endeavor does not free you of the responsibility to evangelize. That responsibility belongs to all Catholics, insofar as they are able, and your efforts or lack thereof will be used in the divine balance at your particular judgment. Don’t be found lacking.
Russell L. Ford is an inmate in an Alabama prison. He is the author of The Missionary’s Catechism, available from Catholic Answers.
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