Evangelization as Encounter

Out of St. Comboni's own profound turning with the Heart of Christ, the Good Shepherd of all humanity, he perceived that the hour had come for Africa, who he saw as the poorest and most abandoned of his time. Living the same communion with Jesus and still "keeping our eyes fixed on Him" we perceive how Christ manifests himself as the same Shepherd of the whole humanity by mysteriously sending his Spirit into action in the religious traditions of all our fellow human beings. Thus, the world is revealed to us as "a world that belongs to Christ".  

We are called to the fascinating task of discovering the ways in which the Spirit of Christ has been at work inspiring the religious tradition of the concrete people we are sent to evangelize. Our own personal and communitarian faith in Jesus gains new horizons and new depth by discovering the same mystery of Christ at work in ways previously unknown to us. From our own new faith-synthesis we share with the brothers and sisters of that particular religious tradition, our faith in Jesus and how we see him at work in all the aspects of their lives. The same Spirit of Jesus at work in their midst provides our preaching and our witness with the power and the light that will guide some of them to faith in Jesus as the one mediator through whom God shares his life with humanity and guides us to ultimate fulfilment through communion in his divine mystery.

Our preaching no longer aims at destroying and substituting "wrong religions", nor is it simply using some elements of local traditional culture and religious belief and practice as strategies to convince them to accept Christianity. We share our faith in a respectful dialogue, sure that the one Jesus who fills our existence with the life-giving presence of God has been mysteriously but wonderfully at work in the religious experience of the people we live with.