Jesus communicated God to us by his works, by his signs and miracles, by his death and glorious resurrection and finally by sending us the Holy Spirit. All men and women are created in the image and likeness of him who was sent and are likewise sent out after the example of him who calls them out of darkness (cf. 1 Pt. 2:8ff)
The call to evangelize arises from the fact that God has called us, saved us in Christ and sent us in the power of the Holy Spirit.
However, if a living communion is to be established among God’s scattered children, there is the need to implant in the hearts of all the uniting words of the Gospel and to impel them by the power of the Spirit to listen to the Church through the work of evangelization so that all may encounter Jesus who is ‘the way, the truth and the life’ (Jn. 14:6). This work can be done only through the power of the Holy Spirit who leads the Christians to proclaim Christ and bear witness to the truth of the Gospel.
According to Pope Paul VI, it must be said that the Holy Spirit is the Principal Agent of Evangelization: it is He who impels each individual to proclaim the Gospel, and it is he who …causes the word of salvation to be accepted and understood… he alone stirs up the new creation… it is He who causes people to discern the signs of the times. (4)
There is a close link between the sending of the Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit in the work of redemption and evangelization. There is also established close link between the mission of the Holy Spirit and the Son in the redemption. The mission of the Son, in a certain sense finds its ‘fulfillment’ in the redemption. The mission of the Holy Spirit ‘draws from’ the redemption. The redemption of the world is totally carried out by the Son as the Anointed one, who was born through the power of the Holy Spirit and acted in the power of the Holy Spirit, offering himself finally in sacrifice in the wood of the cross. (Lk. 1:26-36; Lk. 3:21-22; Lk. 4:1-2; Lk. 4:14 – 18). The work of Redemption is constantly carried out in human hearts and minds in history by the Holy Spirit who is the ‘other Counsellor’
The Spirit is also at work in the Church. The time of the Church began at the moment when the promises and predictions that so explicitly referred to the Counsellor, the Spirit of truth, began to be fulfilled in complete power and clarity upon the Apostles (Acts 2:1 – 41; Acts 15:6-12) thus, determining the birth of the Church. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, the early disciples felt capable of fulfilling the mission entrusted to them. They felt full of strength. It is precisely the empowerment of the followers to spread the Good News that the Holy Spirit worked in them and this he does continually in the Church through the successors of the Apostles. We therefore need the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the onerous task of evangelization. Accordingly, Pope Paul VI notes:
This is our desire and we urge all the heralds of the Gospel, whatever be their order or rank, to pray unceasingly to the divine spirit with faith and ardour and to submit themselves prudently to his guidance as the principal author of their plans of their initiatives and their work in the field of evangelization. (EN. 8)
