Pope John Paul II spoke often of the New Evangelization. Some have commented that they find the term too amorphous and difficult to pin down. Others have thought that he should have addressed it in a more definitive way. Yet a careful reading of his apostolic letter on the new millennium Novo Millennio Ineunte gives us enough of a description to guide us to a deeper and more fruitful living out of the life of Jesus Christ in the Church.

In chapter 3 of Novo Millennio Ineunte, the pope speaks about starting afresh with Christ in the 21st century. The Holy Father reminds us that there is only one Bible, only one revelation because there is only one Son of God, Jesus Christ, Who is the same yesterday, today and forever. It is Jesus Christ Who is always the subject of evangelization. It is Jesus Christ Who is always the message of evangelization. It is Jesus Christ Whose life and death is the proclamation that the Church makes her own and by which and through which the Church lives her life.

Therefore, the New Evangelization is not a new program, “for the program already exists, it is the plan found in the Gospel and in the living tradition.” The New Evangelization is first and foremost a renewed commitment to living Jesus Christ in the lives of each one of us who are members of the Church as the Body of Christ. It is a rediscovery of the centrality of Jesus in our own lives so that we can make our lives faithful witnesses of the centrality of Jesus Christ for all time. We live the life of Jesus Christ. We share in the life of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and, therefore, Jesus Christ Who has transformed history gives to us a share in His own task of redeeming the world. We now, with Him, are called to transform history into the heavenly Jerusalem. The New Evangelization is a call to a renewal in our own lives that will become the new impetus for us to proclaim Jesus Christ in ever more effective ways.

For Pope John Paul II, the jubilee year was the opportunity for us to reaffirm our common journey that we share as our Church. Now the task in the present days is to take that newness of life and have it lived out in a renewal of pastoral initiatives in our parishes and our diocese.

This is a “larger and more demanding challenge.” For what it really is, is a call from the Lord Himself to us not to lose heart. It is a call to us not to become tired along the way. It is a call to us to depend more and more on Jesus. Therefore, this is a call for us to take a look at our everyday pastoral activity and put it out into the deep. We must ask ourselves are we living the true spirit of Jesus Christ or are we letting our programs simply become another program or another activity or even worse just something that we have been doing and so we continue to do almost out of habit?

In Novo Millennio Ineunte, the Holy Father gives us certain characteristics of our lives without which we cannot renew pastoral life in our day. These are worth looking at again in his letter but let me just mention three of them here. First of all is holiness. For without holiness, we can do nothing that is effective in terms of the message of Jesus Christ. Second is prayer which must be the hallmark of the lives of each and every one of us. Third is the Sunday Eucharist. The Sunday Eucharist is not an option. It is the measure of whether or not one is living the life of Jesus Christ as a member of the Church. To excuse oneself from the Sunday Eucharist without a serious reason is to commit a mortal sin. The Sunday Eucharist is obligatory on every Catholic Christian. Without it we cannot know Jesus Christ and be living members of the Body of Christ. With it we have the way to be nourished in this pilgrimage of the New Evangelization that would be ever more effective the more we participate in it.

Along with the Sacrament of Reconciliation and listening to and proclaiming the Word of God, we have all the characteristic marks of how a Catholic Christian lives his or her own life. They are the wellsprings from which we can draw the graces we need for the New Evangelization.

If we do that, then all of us become caught up in a renewal of the spirituality of communion. It is in this sense of our being one Church here on Long Island that we are united to one another in the bond of the Holy Spirit. That we constitute one body here on Long Island must be at the heart of the way we approach and live our Catholic faith. We are not 133 disparate parishes. We are not individuals each one us singly looking for his or her own salvation. We are the one Body of Christ and we belong to Him and to one another. In this Church, everyone has a role because we all share in the mission of Jesus Christ. In this Church, we all have responsibilities for we all have been given to drink from the cup of salvation and to be nourished by the Body of Christ. In this Church, we all are called to live our lives in accordance with the specifics of our own vocations.

With that kind of background, I wish in my column this week to call the attention of one and all to the World Day for Consecrated Life which will be celebrated this coming Sunday, February 3. The men and women religious who live, pray and work in our diocese compose an extraordinarily rich and diverse group of consecrated persons who fulfill an irreplaceable and essential role in the life of this Church. Their commitment to Jesus Christ by vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and by living the community life of each one’s particular congregation are a singular way that this Church is enriched. There is no substitute for religious life. It is necessary for the very breath of the spirit to be able to achieve its proper ends here on Long Island. We owe to the men and women religious of our diocese a great debt of gratitude because they have given themselves totally to Jesus Christ. They have been and continue to be effective instruments calling the attention of one and all to the Kingdom of God which begins in the Church but which is fully ours only in the life to come. What I am saying is a great deal more than simply appreciation of those wonderful men and women who have touched our lives as we were growing up. What I am saying is much more than nostalgia for “the sister who taught me in the second grade.” Everyone should be grateful to the sisters and the brothers and the religious priests who have touched their lives in one way or another. But what I am speaking of is much more than gratitude. What I am speaking of is the recognition of the intrinsic importance of religious life for the good of the Church and the necessity we have not only to celebrate that but to call our brothers and sisters in religious life to become ever more credible witnesses to us of who they are and what they have committed themselves to become.

Their vocations are not individualistic vocations. They are the commitment of free disciples of Jesus Christ to living together a deeper witness of Jesus Christ for the sake of the Kingdom and for our spiritual fulfillment and for the Church’s good.

We as the Church here on Long Island can turn to religious and receive from them a kind of support that would build up the local Church, a kind of witness that helps the local Church, a kind of love in the spirituality of communion that heals and gives nourishment to the local Church. This spirituality of communion is enriched by religious life here on Long Island. Pray for them as they pray for us and pray for vocations to religious life that future generations will experience how consecrated life enriches us all.