AMDG
Scott Hahn Speaks on Participating
in the New Evangelization
Hear the entire presentation by going to https://stpaulcenter.com/steubenville-conference/
Usually the main
speaker at the Steubenville Diocesan Men’s Day of Renewal gives a talk in the
morning and another in the afternoon.
However, Dr. Scott Hahn asked us to schedule him for both talks in the
morning because he had to catch a flight to Rome where he was slated to give a
lecture at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (PUST), also known as the Angelicum.
However, it turned out that our juggling the schedule was not
necessary. The day before his trip was
cancelled because Italy was being overwhelmed by the Covid-19 Pandemic. Thank God that he never did fly to Rome. Otherwise, Scott Hahn would have been
stranded there, unable to return since all flights to and from Rome were
cancelled. It would have been very
difficult for him to return. Nine
days later, March 16, the Catholic
Episcopate of Ohio suspended daily and Sunday Masses in all Catholic churches until
Pentecost Sunday, May 31 and the rest of the country did the same. Our annual diocesan Men’s Conference just missed
being cancelled by the pandemic in 2020; the 2021 conference is cancelled.
The theme of the
Conference was “The Challenge of Being Catholic”. Within this theme was the subject of Dr.
Hahn’s first talk, “Participating in the New Evangelization” which is a challenge
of faith……to share it and keep it ourselves.
He noted that sharing the faith keeps the faith. The dynamic and enthusiastic Scott Hahn likes
to use examples and stories that make his talks more vivid. Thus he summarized the Gospel account (Luke
24:13-35) of an apparent stranger joining two of Christ’s disciples on the seven
mile three hour walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus on the first Easter Sunday. Despondent over the Crucifixion, Cleophas and
his friend did not expect their master to rise from the dead, not realizing
that Christ and us too have to go through the darkness before the glory. They were discussing the events of the last
few days and the stranger explained it all to the two men in light of the
scripture foretelling these events.
These explanations helped them to understand the events and renewed
their zeal. After reaching their
destination, the three had a meal together.
The stranger “took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to
them.”…….really a mini Mass. At that
moment they finally recognized Jesus, who then vanished.
Thus Christ revealed Himself in the
Eucharist as He does today, showing the great importance of Holy Communion and
that He is with us in the Blessed Sacrament.
Excited that an apparent failure turned out to be a great victory, the
two disciples immediately returned with haste to Jerusalem to share their
experience with the 11 apostles and ultimately the world. The Holy Spirit inspired them to be
witnesses! That’s what evangelization is
all about!
Evangelization is essentially: “God loves you; you sinned; Christ
died; you believed and converted.” As a
wayward teen, Scott Hahn himself had to go through a conversion. At Nowa Houta, the Communist so called “model
city” for the workers that had no church at all, the Archbishop of Krakow Karol
Wojtyła was a witness to the faith when he said an outdoor Mass in the
Christmas cold to the consternation of the authorities. Later as Pope St. John Paul II, he reintroduced
the new evangelization at Port-au-Prince in Haiti. There he challenged us to re-evangelize the
de-christianized, the secularized…….especially Christian nations that have gone
secular…….France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, the United States,
etc. God chooses to use us while we rediscover
the faith amidst secularization, an ongoing conversion and renewal. We, the prodigals, are redeemed for divine
life in Heaven.
Dr. Hahn emphasized, as St. Paul VI did, that people don’t listen to
talkers and lecturers, but to witnesses. Thus we ourselves must undergo daily and
ongoing conversion and renewal. Take up
not only the rosary and the pocket Bible, but the cross. Hahn admitted that he himself, a theologian
needed a lifetime to learn and grow in the Faith. That includes weekly Confession as health
care to grow spiritually as St. Pope John Paul II did. The greatest legacy of Christ is the
Eucharist.
The third principle of evangelization is friendship. “I call you
friends” (John 15:15). Friendship with
God is the heart of the Gospel. We
receive the divine nature in the Eucharist, the moment of grace, a meal that nourishes
the soul. By evangelizing through
friendship with others, we can show that Christ is real. The ideal is to have joy in the Eucharist and
the Gospel. In friendship it is easier
to witness. As His instruments, Christ
does the most with the least…….even tax collectors, prostitutes, and us too. Christ gives us a joy that lasts, even
through suffering, especially redemptive suffering (offering up personal
crosses). “Show them the joy of the
Gospel with your joy”. Friendship brings
opportunities to share without being preachy.
The Eucharist. To understand Good Friday we must understand Holy
Thursday. Both are sacrifices; both are
gifts of mercy. If Holy Thursday is just
a meal, then Good Friday is just an execution.
On Holy Thursday the sacrifice is initiated by laying down His life; on
Good Friday the sacrifice is consummated by giving up his life……all one
sacrifice in mercy. Easter is the
manifestation of His glory as the King of Kings and makes the Eucharist His
glorified body.
We must recover the awe of the Eucharist,
which is food for the soul, part of the good news and the joy of the Gospel. On Holy Thursday Christ identified the
Eucharist as the New Testament, the blood of the New Covenant. The key is the Eucharist that turns prodigals
into saints. We need to renew our
amazement. We ourselves want our hearts
to burn, to be on fire and set fires in other people, to set the world on fire.
See Dr. Hahn’s book, “Evangelizing Catholics, a Mission
Manual For the New Evangelization”, “Reasons to Believe”, a
trilogy of his books on the Eucharist, and a book for high school students that
makes the Bible come alive for the young adults. Finally, Dr. Hahn asked for prayers so that
he could live out all that he said.
The Domestic Church: Strengthening Family Life
& Marriage
In his second talk Scott Hahn asserted that
marriage is not simply a contract, but something much bigger. Marriage is a covenant of mutual self-giving…”I
am yours and you are mine”. It’s
communion; it’s a bond that makes two into one. “What God has joined together,
let no one separate” (Mark 10:9). The sacrament of Matrimony was ordained by
God, whose name is invoked. Marriage
cannot be redefined as the real presence can’t be redefined.
God made man in His
own image and likeness…..Male and female he created them (Gen 1:26-27). He breathed into Adam the spirit of life,
i.e., the spirit of God (Genesis 2:7). “A
man shall leave his father and mother, and cling to his wife, and the two shall
become one flesh” (Gen 2:24). But the
pair allowed themselves to be seduced by the devil; they did not trust the word
of God; they blatantly disobeyed God’s sacred commandment and broke the
covenant, thus committing the first mortal sins in this world, losing paradise
and heaven until a redeemer would come.
Venial sin weakens the person; mortal sin snuffs out divine life in the
soul, spiritual death. Original sin
deprives divine life in the soul until we are reborn in Baptism. In mortal sin we repeat the sin of Adam and
Eve. God put up with Adam and Eve; he
puts up with us.
St.
Joseph is making a comeback. He saw the
great beauty in Mary and was the head of the Holy Family. They were consecrated to each other. We can make ourselves good citizens, but not
saints. Only the Holy Spirit can make us
holy, a requirement for Heaven. Christ
elevated marriage to make it a sacrament, a new law, a covenant.
Scott Hahn, a former
Presbyterian minister, entered the Church in 1986 after a great struggle. His wife Kimberly followed in 1990 after
being estranged and marriage counseling was necessary. He counseled the men: “Don’t weaponize your
apology as ‘I’m sorry you misunderstood me”.
His greatest cross is Kimberly and vice versa. Isn’t that true in our marriages? “The greatest gift you can give your kids is
to show respect, tenderness and affection to your wife”. Take time to date each other. God works in both husband and wife and helps
them to get over the bumps (graces of the sacrament of Matrimony).
“Marital love is life giving; two become
one and the product of that love is new life, a new human being. That baby is the incarnation of love. To make the sacred merely good and an object
of pleasure is to profane the sexual act”.
Matrimony is a holy sacrament.
God entrusts her to her husband.
We must try to become saints together at home as we are called to be and
God will help us. God is love and we are
called to love. God loves us more than
we love ourselves or our wife and children.
He loves the baby, but
his wife even more while seeing the face of God in his children and
grandchildren. “Lord, heal the broken
hearts. We entrust our children to you”. Dr. Hahn shared some research data with the
men. According to one survey, if the
child converts first, there is a 3.7% probability that the rest of the family
will follow. If the mother converts
first, it quadruples to 17%. If the
father is the first to opens his heart to the grace of conversion, the
likelihood increases to 93%. Parental
unity is crucial. Scott Hahn humbly
asked the men for prayers to put his message into practice and the same goes
for fathers in teaching their families.
In other words there is power in example and witness.
Penance Service
A men’s day of renewal is incomplete without confession. Deacon Chuck Schneider, our former Chair, conducted the service and gave a beautiful introduction. “We ask forgiveness for what we have done. We also ask forgiveness for what we did not do”. Since the heart is Christ’s home, we allow him to go into our living room. He wants to accompany us, but we go to certain places where we don’t want Christ to accompany us. In Confession the priest is “persona Christi” (the person of Christ).
Bishop Jeffrey Monforton presides at the
concelebrated Mass at the end of the day in the magnificent Basilica of St.
Mary of the Assumption in Marietta.
Bishop
Monforton’s Homily at Mass
There is a harmony of
moral truths and the heart of man, upon which the Natural Law is imprinted. The mystery of God is interconnected with
science. He created the universe for us
to glorify Him. Science and faith are
not mutually exclusive.
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