By Vernon Khelawan

We are now in the middle of the Lenten period and maybe it’s time to sit back and reflect on the pledges we made on Ash Wednesday.
How are we doing? Are we able to keep those pledges? Did we attend fully the parish retreats, and if we did, what messages (lessons) did we get from them?

Denial and penance are what we are required to do, moreso during the season of Lent. But there is something else. As Catholics we are supposed to evangelise, and in so doing reach out to people by every means possible bringing to them the “Good News”.
In today’s world this is not an easy task, but do it we must, because in some inexplicable way that is our mission here on earth. Lent therefore, presents extraordinary opportunities for so doing.
Natalie Jacob of the Catholic Youth Commission, writing in the CAMSEL article in this weekend’s Sunday Guardian puts it very candidly.
She wrote, “It is our mission, our responsibility to evangelise the media, the economy, politics, science and even the Church community itself. We must present the Gospel in a way that makes sense and gives hope to modern men and women.”
Evangelisation, therefore, is an awesome responsibility and if we were to heed Natalie’s words, we will immediately see that much work needs to be done in this area of our Church; the dire need for encouraging old and young to embark on a mission of evangelisation has to be realised. Lent then may be a good time to make that resolve to do some evangelisation in whatever way you feel you are best equipped to do so.
Too many Catholics still believe that evangelisation is the reserved domain for a special group(s). But if it is carefully considered, many of the things you do in your daily life are in some way related to evangelisation. We are now being called upon to recognise this and to make those actions more meaningful.
You would be surprised that the many simple acts you perform on any given day relate directly to evangelisation. Give it some thought and try it, you’ll like it.