Responding to MARY in the work of EVANGELISATION and FAMILY RENEWAL - part A

Below is an excerpt published and copyrighted by Frank Padilla of RESTORATION MOVEMENT FOR FAMILY AND LIFE MINISTRIES, INC. based in Mandaluyong City, Philippines. It is so well written, that it's well worth sharing! I have recently posted 4 blogposts leading up to this... please check them out so that you fully understand what this, and the next few posts are talking about :)

OUR RESPONSE

We have seen that evangelisation, family and Mary are all intimately linked together. Evangelisation is our basic mission in life as disciples of Jesus. Family is the basic unit of society and is key to the work of evangelisation. Mary is co-Mediatrix and co-Redemptrix with Jesus, is the Star of [the New] Evangelisation, and is our powerful intercessor for our challenging work on earth.

How do we respond to this?

EVANGELISATION

"See, upon the mountains there advances the bearer of good news, announcing peace!" (Na 2:1)

We see that evangelisation proceeds from the salvation already won be Jesus on the cross. Salvation is God's work, It is divine work. It is achieved simply by God's grace and not by our human efforts.
But at the same time, in God's mysterious way, God uses human instruments to accomplish His divine purposes. Jesus accomplished everything on the cross, but then left the very precious gift of salvation in our hands. God has left it up to us to proclaim Christ and the salvation won on the cross. Thus Jesus issued his Great Commission to the disciples, and consequently to all of us.

This is a great mystery, that sinful human beings can do the divine work of a holy God. But this is precisely what God ordained. Paul said, "in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of the body, which is the church" (Col 1:24). Was JEsus' sacrifice laching? By no means! What God is doing is giving us the privilege of participating in the redemptive work of Christ.
We have already seen that one's experience of salvation depends on the process of evangelisation. People are sent, they preach the good news, others hear what is preached, by God's grace they believe in the gospel message, they then call upon the name of the Lord, and they appropriate for themselves the salvation won by Jesus for them on the cross (Rom 10:13-15).

Evangelisation is crucial work, entrusted by God to us.

The work of evangelisers is so crucial and so important that it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" (Rom 10:15). The full quote from the prophet Isaiah is as follows: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the fee of him who brings glad tidings, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, and saying to Zion, 'Your God is King!'" (Is 52:7). The gospel is glad tidings; it is good news. It brings salvation; it brings peace. It proclaims and establishes the lordship and kingship of Jesus over us.

Evangelisation is what connects people to salvation; it is what connects humanity to God. "This faith comes from what is heart, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ." (Rom 10:17).
We have seen that evangelisation brings us automatically unto spiritual warfare. This is because evangelisation is the very work of God and so is rabidly opposed by Satan. Satan will attack us with everything he has got. Thus we are instructed by Paul to put on the armour of God (Eph 6:11). Part of the armour is to have our "feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace." (Eph 6:15). Proclamation of the gospel throws us into spiritual warfare, but it is the proclamation of the gospel that protects us with the armour of God.

Our response to God's call is to proclaim the gospel. We must realise how important this work is. It is literally about life or death for people, about darkness or light for their lives, about hell or heaven for all eternity. It is about the great privilege given us by God to take hold of and be entrusted with the gift of salvation, to become His instruments for passing this salvation on to the world.

Paul realised this. "If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it!" (1 Cor 9:16). We have an obligation to fulfill. We have been "entrusted with a stewardship" (1 Cor 9:17). God has made Himself dependent upon us. If after all these we still do not take the work of evangelisation seriously, then indeed woe ought to be upon us.

Evangelisation is God's work. Therefore we can expect that God will do everything to ensure that it proceeds according to His plan. However, since God has depended on us, and we very often are not that perfectly attuned to God's will, we can be the obstacles to the work. So we have to really strive to do our part.

First, our empowerment comes from the Holy Spirit. Thus we need to be baptised in the Holy Spirit. When the disciples received the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost, Peter preached a sermon and three thousand persons were converted (Acts 2:31). Then the Church grew rapidly, as "day after day the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number." (Acts 16:5).
The promise of the Father is that "you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8). Baptism in the Spirit is empowerment for worldwide mission, which is the commission given by Jesus to his disciples.

Part of the baptism in the Spirit is growing as witnesses. What we proclaim is supported by what people see in us. We witness to the reality of Jesus present in our lives. And since the empowerment comes from the Holy Spirit, we become true witnesses as we ourselves grow in holiness. Peter said, "as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, 'Be holy because I am holy.'" (1 Pet 1:15-16).
We were created in the image and likeness of God. We are to once again reflect that image. As witnesses, people need to see Christ in us.

God went to great lengths to bring salvation to the world. The Father gave His very own Son as a sacrifice for our sins. Thus has God made a way to restore us to Himself. Unfortunately, many still have not heard the gospel. For those who have, many still do not accept his good news. As Paul said, "But not everyone has heeded the good news; for Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed what was heard from us?" (Rom 10:16).

It is our task, bu the grace of God, to work and live such that we become credible witnesses, so that people will believe what they hear from us. We must not become the very obstacles to the effective proclamation of the gospel. God's word has power, God's grace is sufficient, and God has already prepared the harvest. If only we would become a holy people bursting with zeal for the gospel, then we will experience God's hand upon us, and see the evangelisation of the world.