Wakefulness - A Call to the New Evangelization

This is not about gaming the future,
but de-gaming it.

It is about waking everyman and everywoman,
to reintroducing will and courage to walk alone,
or with others of like mind,
into a future, where the herd instinct
created by mind-less following
of the interwoven paths of secular humanism
and technology are warped and woofed
into a seamless net that entraps them forever.

And forever will seem even longer than eternal for them.

This is about throwing off the bonds of false freedom,
loosing the bonds of the prisoners,
unbinding those in chains forged by the inactivity
of their own mental processes of observation, analysis,
and independent action on behalf of the good.

This is about re-introducing the proper use
of discrimination
-- discrimination between good and evil
-- exaggerated individualism and personal autonomy
-- having no limits, vs. recognizing the freedom that comes
only with making moral choices.

This is about waking humanity,
both within the church and without
from its waking somnambulism
engendered by external direction
by public media
by secular thought patterns
by a generalized conspiracy of consensus
that God is either irrelevant or undefined or makes no demands of us.

This is about a new wind of the Spirit blowing on all lands
a new incarnation that demands our cooperation,
our prayer, our offering the fullness of ourselves
to the New Evangelization.

This is about Jesus Christ, Lord of the nations
the kingdom of compassion for the poor, the exaltation of the lowly,
the freedom that brings joy to all, removing the stain of guilt
introduced by the original rebellion and reintroduced
by those who have sought to throw off the reign of God
in our lives and societies.

It's about healing the sick, healing the nations, serving the needs
of the lowliest and least, while not neglecting either our own
or all of us represented by the forgotten concept of seeking
the common good

This is a mission worthy of our best; worthy of calling forth our better selves
to the service of God and all men and women and children
- even of our fellow creatures and of creation itself

And it has been entrusted to us in "interesting times"

No one else can do it, but we can all do it

Every effort counts
-- in direct mission work
-- in helping the immigrant and the stranger, the unborn and the elderly
-- in taming technology to serve rather than enslave
-- in making laws and governing in a way that respects human dignity and freedom
of conscience
-- in how we perform the highest and the lowest tasks to the glory of the One,
the only One who gives our lives meaning.

No work of art; no act of kindness; no glass of water offered in his name; no work of
excellence, no matter how small, from emptying of bedpans to construction of
cathedrals is wasted or done in vain.

The privilege of this service of the Name has been given us
and we must not shirk or turn aside or fail,
whether our part be large or small.

Jesus our Lord is light of the world and redeemer of the nations
or he is a vaporous fraud.

If he is the first and not the second,
he is deserving of nothing less
than our best.

This is the new awakening
this is the first morning of a new era
this is the dawning of the day
this is the flowering
of the Kingdom of God on earth

Come join the collaboration that will overcome
the Kingdom of this world,
not with bullets and bombs,
but with kindness, and truth, and love

This is your call, come on; throw in your lot with the good guys;
proclaim the Good News of the Resurrection

Jesus has overcome the kingdoms of this world
and the powers of darkness.
We must proclaim and live, what has already been accomplished
but not yet come to fruition.

Now is the time
Now is the moment
Now has love come
to rule the hearts and minds
of all who will follow him.

Jeff Hensley is the editor of the North Texas Catholic in the Diocese of Fort Worth, editor of and a contributor to Word to Life, a Scripture commentary on the Sunday readings distributed by Catholic News Service, and has been married to his wife, Susan, for 43 years. They have a daughter Amy, who is 26.