Pope Francis in his morning homily in the Casa Santa Marta warned that there can be no such thing as armchair evangelization, because spreading the Good News happens in actual situations, with real people witnessing to real people.
Drawing from today’s readings, where the Holy Spirit instructs Philip to “Get up and head south …” the pope spoke of three keys to understand and accomplish evangelization: “Get up,” “draw near,” and “start with an actual situation.”
For the early Church, this “getting up” was spurred by persecution.
Just like the wind does with seeds from plants, it transports and sows them elsewhere, so also it happens here: they went elsewhere, with the seed of the Word, and they sowed the Word of God… From the wind of persecution, the disciples brought evangelization…. This is how the Lord evangelizes…. This is how the Lord wants us to evangelize.
Focusing on the Holy Spirit as the source of evangelization, he said:
And he [the Spirit] begins saying: “Get up and go.” Get up and go to that place. An “armchair” evangelization does not exist. “Get up and go.” It is always on the move. “Go.” Movement. Go to the place where you must declare the Word.
Finally, Francis said that evangelization is not about theories, but about actual reality.
Evangelization is not theoretical. Evangelization takes place person to person. The starting point is a situation, not a theory. [Philip] announces Jesus Christ, and the courage of the Spirit moves him to baptize [the eunuch]. Go beyond, go, go, until you feel that your work has been accomplished. This is how to evangelize.
And today we celebrate...