In January 1999, I had the privilege to be present in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, when the late Pope issued the document called The Church in America. This was intended to bring to the laity, religious and clergy of North, South, and Central America, as well as the countries of the Caribbean, the results of the Synod for America that was held in Rome two years earlier.

A generation ago this document would have been impossible. Then, as our priests or sisters who served in Honduras or the West Indies can tell you, the idea of one “America” stretching from the Arctic to Chile was just not a reality. Today however, globalization – both cultural and economic – have made our world a much smaller place, and what was unthinkable then is unremarkable now. Just look at the teenager. Whether they are in Iqualuit or Glace Bay or Los Angeles or Rio de Janeiro, they have their Chicago Bulls caps and their Levi jeans. They listen to Céline Dion and have all seen Madagascar. Ask any of them about the Simpsons and you will get instant recognition.

It is to that teenager, wherever he or she is, that John Paul’s document is addressed. And, of course, to all of us who are not young people, for the message is meant for every Catholic in the Americas. But here it is good to keep the teenager in mind, because as I described it a moment ago, the culture in which our teens must live today is one not much influenced by Christian belief. If it is at all, much is only on the surface: the teenager and the young adult like to wear crosses; they seem to have no trouble believing in the spiritual, or in love; their music videos are filled with religious symbols; they certainly celebrate St. Valentine’s Day and All Hallows Eve.

But when we think about it, the reality of young and old is not so different: our cities and towns are graced by church buildings; the great majority of our people affirm themselves as Christian; they want their births, marriages, and deaths to be blessed by the Church. Society is strong in saying we believe “in doing no harm to others.” We contribute generously when there is disaster. We too like religious symbols, and enjoy celebrating Christmas and Easter. We live in a country whose constitution declares us to be a nation “under God.” Yet we know from our own experience that some of that is tinsel: that the culture in which we live is perhaps seldom deeply touched by the reality of Jesus Christ.

The document about the Church in America is written for our age. It recognizes that the cultural realities of today, even if they are not opposed to Christianity, have not been shaped by it. It recognizes also that between Christian faith and modern culture there often runs a deep gulf, and that his gap must be bridged if the message of Christ is truly to be brought into our own real world.

And so this is a pastoral document. It deals with the pastoral realities that the Church and its people must face in our age. Indeed in a sense, it is a pastoral charter and vision as to how the Church in America can move forward into the third millennium.

It does this by bringing us back to basics. It reminds us that Church, sacraments, catechesis, prayer, and justice are about nothing else than a loving personal encounter with Jesus Christ. It recognizes that for the Christian, Jesus Christ alone is “the way and the truth and the life”. It acknowledges that it is Jesus alone who is the peace and reconciliation between the world and God, and that it is only “through with and in him” that any man or woman can be a full and complete human person.

It is that living Jesus Christ whom John Paul calls us to proclaim anew in our world and in our own time. He uses an expression he first used in the Dominican Republic in 1992, asking for a “new evangelization,” the word “evangelization” coming from the Greek word for the proclaiming of the Gospel.

The Pope is not talking about preaching some newly invented truths. He recognizes that the Gospel the Church received from Christ remains the same yesterday, today and forever. Yet it is always heard afresh in every age, and is constantly proclaimed to those who have not before heard it. This call to a “new evangelization” has to define today not only the task of the Church, but the task also of every Christian. How is Gospel in all its freshness proclaimed in our time? How does the life-giving message of Christ truly reach all the people of our day without exception?

John Paul explained that when he spoke of a “new evangelization,” he was speaking of one that is new in three ways: new in its enthusiasm, new in its methods, and new in its expression.

New in its enthusiasm we can easily understand. We can all accept that the flame of faith, and especially the fire of a desire to proclaim the Gospel anew to the entire world, needs constantly to be rekindled within us. We can recognize that when the Good News of Christ is not proclaimed with enthusiasm, it is not really proclaimed at all. We can recognize also that it is a call to be witnesses and not just teachers. While enthusiasm makes demands of us, we know that it is an essential part of our calling as Christians if we are to be the voice of Christ in our world today.

New in its Methods raises a different set of questions. What new methods can we use today to proclaim the Gospel? Can we not stick with the tried and true? To the last question the Pope’s answer was a clear NO. He invites us to look at a whole range of possibilities: the very structure and approaches of our parishes, the assessment of the real spiritual and temporal needs of those who form them, the encouragement of small groups that can truly be supportive in the faith, the functioning of our efforts not by “broadcasting” to all, but by “narrow-casting” to the particular needs of the various groups who make up our society.

In our own diocese, we are now engaged in examining such new methods. We are looking at new ways of catechesis of our children and youth, new ways of working with their parents, catechists, and youth ministers, new forms of sacramental preparation, new efforts to walk with the young, new approaches to help adults deepen their own faith.

New methods, however, must recognize that people’s lives in the Church and in the world are not lived in two separate compartments. Any new methods must look to a Gospel truly inculturated in our society. They cannot be guided by an “us and them” outlook toward the world, yet they must be well founded enough to offer a better and broader vision when culture and society advocate elements contrary to Christ’s teaching. In the end, too, they must seek to build bridges of dialogue with all those around us who promote human values that can be reconciled with the Gospel.

The late Holy Father made it clear also that a new evangelization must be new in its expression. He put this most strongly when he said that today the Gospel must be proclaimed in the language and culture of its hearers. To be heard, the Gospel must be spoken in language that can be understood. This is a call to us all not just to continue to speak to the world around us in “church talk,” no matter how comfortable this may be for us. It is a call also not to speak first of the institution, but to start always with the person of the living Christ, and to invite others into a loving relationship with him. Only when Jesus Christ is truly accepted with love in heart and mind, should we go on to the Church whose Body and Head he is, and to the way of life to which each of his followers is called.

This afternoon’s Gospel brings us into this reality of the new evangelization. Christ himself tells us that his whole purpose was “to bring good news to the poor … to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." As his disciples, our own task and calling today is no different.

We are much aware that today we hear this Gospel in a sacramental context, for we are gathered to bless and consecrate the oils we will use as signs and seals of our faith throughout the coming year. Yet we remain aware also of that important truth proclaimed by the Second Vatican Council: “that the preaching of the Word is required for the sacramental ministry itself, since the sacraments are sacraments of faith, drawing their origin and nourishment from the Word.”

Unless the word is first proclaimed – indeed, proclaimed so that it is heard and absorbed - then the sacraments will be lacking their foundation. When, on the contrary, the Word comes as Good News, as release, as freedom, as the announcement of God’s love for us -- when people know in their hearts that Jesus Christ has forever changed their lives and their world -- then they can celebrate the sacraments as the mighty deeds of a saving God in ways that will be for them a new and rich source of blessing.

Today our priests will recommit themselves to the task of proclaiming the Gospel. With them so does the whole Church, recognizing that the treasure we possess is even more precious than gold itself, that it cannot be buried or hidden away just to preserve it, but that it is entrusted to us by God to be given by us afresh to others. For that treasure is nothing less than Jesus Christ himself, whom the mighty words of the second reading call “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth, … him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and who made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.” These last words tell us of our dignity as Christians; they also remind us of the greatness our calling to proclaim Christ to our world. Amen.