Oct. 5, 2016

By Rachel Daly
Staff writer

Lake Placid - For those interested in an intellectually rich presentation on our moment in Church history and its implications on our life of faith, George Weigel’s breakout session was the one to attend.

In a densely packed presentation, punctuated here and there with unexpected jokes, Weigel made the case that we are living in an extraordinary moment in the Church’s life, one which demands that each of us take up anew the call of our baptism to be missionary disciples.

Explaining how we as a Church arrived at this moment - the moment in which Counter-Reformation Catholicism is giving way to a New Evangelization - Weigel gave particular attention to key actions in the pontificate of Pope John Paul II.

He pointed out that in his apostolic letter “Entering the New Millenium,” John Paul II gave us the image of “putting out into the deep” from the Gospel of Luke as a definitive image for the Church of the 21st century.

We must “leave the shallow water of institutional maintenance Catholicism,” Weigel interpreted, “transform all of those institutions into launch pads for mission, and become a church in which every member understands him- or herself as a missionary.

Catholics must take greater ownership of their baptism and of their baptismal call to ‘go and make disciples’

“Mission territory today is your kitchen table, your neighborhood, your business, your profession, your life as a consumer, your life as a citizen,” he said. “It’s all mission territory.”

What does this require of you and me?

To start, Weigel suggested, the Catholics of our time must be more thoroughly versed in “the symphony of Catholic truth.”

He secondly suggested that we must be a people of the Bible more so than we have been in the past. Thirdly, and with greatest emphasis, he pointed out that Catholics must take greater ownership of their baptism and of their baptismal call to “go and make disciples.”

“We are called to be converters of the culture,” he said. “We do that first and foremost by bringing people into friendship with Jesus Christ.”

“In this moment of Catholic history,” he concluded, “we’re all being summoned to that mountaintop in Galilee. We’re all being told by the Lord, ‘Go and make disciples of all nations.’ If [the] 70 million Catholics in the United States … actually had that experience, actually believed they were on the mountain hearing the Great Commission, we would transform our Church; we would transform our society.”

In a follow-up email interview, Weigel noted that he was struck by the unique challenges of living the New Evangelization in the North Country, but reflected, “I was also struck by the enthusiasm of the people who attended the event and their response to my challenge to ‘own’ their baptism by living as missionary disciples in a retail, person-to-person way.

“There seems to be a tacit acknowledgment that what I called ‘transmitting the faith by osmosis’ just isn't going to cut it in 21st century America,” he said.

“So I hope that these are all indicators that the people of the diocese recognize that mission and evangelization are everyone's responsibility,” Weigel said.