Evangelization today

Communicating the Gospel in our media-saturated modern culture is a challenge . . .

Patrick Novecosky

There is something truly transformative about the Gospel. It’s the most liberating message ever proclaimed because it proposes true freedom, something the world — in all its created glory — is unable to give. Above all, the Gospel message resonates in the human heart. And why shouldn’t it? The Lord created us to long for union with Him!

Communicating the timeless truths of the Gospel, however, is never easy — especially in our media-saturated modern culture. No one understands this better than Pope Benedict XVI. In his Jan. 24 World Day of Communications address, he encourages priests to take advantage of the new media: “The spread of multimedia communications … might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web,” but priests are “challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources.”

The Holy Father wants priests and laity to use blogs, websites, YouTube and social networking sites like Facebook to spread the Gospel. Legatus has two websites, plus pages on Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. Similarly, Legates across the country are using cutting-edge technology to make Christ known and loved.  Click here for a related story.

Legates like Tom Peterson, founder of VirtueMedia and Catholics Come Home, are using television to welcome the faithful back to the only church founded by Jesus Christ. Others like Curtis Martin, founder of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, are sending missionaries out to secular universities with the Good News.

Some may dismiss their efforts as naïve because today’s average secular American is too sophisticated for the simplicity of the Gospel. Nothing could be further from the truth. Tens of thousands have come back to the Catholic Church through these ministries alone over the past two years. Hearts that have been fed secular, atheistic lies are longing for the truth they were created for.

And once the human heart opens to the life-giving truth of the Gospel, it flowers and blossoms. On Feb. 9, a few of those blossoms — Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist — appeared on Oprah. The Dominican sisters’ mother house in Michigan is overflowing with vocations, which we recently featured in a Legatus Magazine story.

The nuns told the talk show queen that there is great freedom in donning the veil and giving away their iPods, stereos, makeup and closets full of clothes. They find ultimate freedom in giving themselves fully and without reserve to Jesus Christ.

No matter what vocation the Lord calls us to, each of us is called to unity with the one Triune God. The ultimate freedom offered by Jesus Christ trumps even the fame and fortune of superstars like Oprah. With the creator of the universe in your corner, the possibilities are endless!

Patrick Novecosky is Legatus Magazine’s editor.