University of Mary's 4th Annual St. Hildegard Lecture

Summary of Msgr. Thomas J. Richter’s simple vision of evangelization from “Evangelization without Complication”, St. Hildegard Lecture, Feb. 11, 2019, University of Mary. Seeing evangelization as flowing from a skill set complicates it and makes us resist it.  It is not essentially a skill set.  Being catechized, sacramentalized, but not evangelized oneself complicates evangelization and feeds the idea that it flows from a skill set.  Evangelization was a fruit of Pentecost.  Mother Teresa’s “Letter of Varanasi” expresses her concern that some in her order are what Msgr. Richter calls catechized, sacramentalized, but not evangelized.  She wrote: “Sisters, Brothers, and Fathers, …Jesus wants me to tell you again, especially in this Holy Week, how much love He has for each one of you—beyond all you can imagine. I worry some of you still have not really met Jesus—one to one—you and Jesus alone. We may spend time in chapel—but have you seen with the eyes of your soul how He looks at you with love? Do you really know the living Jesus—not from books but from being with Him in your heart? Have you heard the loving words He speaks to you? Ask for the grace, He is longing to give it. Until you can hear Jesus in the silence of your own heart, you will not be able to hear Him saying “I thirst” in the hearts of the poor. Never give up this daily intimate contact with Jesus as the real living person—not just the idea…Our soul needs that as much as the body needs to breathe the air. If not, prayer is dead—meditation is only thinking…” The unevangelized, in Msgr. Richter’s sense, do not have a lived relationship with the living Jesus. Genuine evangelization flows out of one’s lived relationship with the living Jesus. Evangelization is bringing Jesus and the Church, in simple and humble ways, to our relationships. Evangelization should naturally be integrated into whatever one does rather than being a separate activity. In order to accomplish this integration, one acts as one normally does but with a further intention to bring Jesus and His Church to our relationships with others. For example, to act with this further intention is to invite another over to socialize and have fun but with the further intention that they get to know Jesus in a new way. Msgr. Richter highlights two experiences of the believer in this state of being alone: first, “only thinking”, which he described as non-relational intellectual activity devoid of an I-Thou relationship, and second, lack of specificity in being aware of his or her lived experience of the living Jesus. Resistance to evangelization also comes from the idea that one needs to be strange or “weird” in order to evangelize. In fact, being “weird” undermines integrated evangelism. Msgr. Richter asserted that being “weird” is a moral reality. It’s a moral reality because it is a result of self-absorption. According to his understanding of St. Augustine, self-absorption is the fundamental movement of the spirit of evil which St. Augustine states is incurvatus est in se. Weirdness is distinct from quirkiness, which is part of one’s personality or behavior that is different or unique, but which can also be an endearing source of affection. In contrast, weirdness is a manifestation of self-absorption. In summary, just as being unevangelized causes one to be unable to relate with Jesus and thus unable to experience friendship with Him, so weirdness – the result of self-absorption – causes one to be unable to meaningfully relate with others and thus unable to connect and experience friendship with them.  In both cases, it is an experience of aloneness in the attempt to relate to others.