The feast of Christmas is truly a celebration of evangelization. The first evangelizers were the angels who said to the shepherds, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ the Lord." 1 Two thousand years later each of us is called to join with the angels in proclaiming to “all the people” that Jesus is indeed Lord.

Our role as angel-evangelizers was often cited by St. John Baptist de La Salle throughout his writings. However, he used a different word to illustrate that responsibility and opportunity. For me, the most memorable reference is from the Meditations for the Time of Retreat when he says, "It is your duty to act toward them as your Guardian Angels act toward you … Guardian angels are not satisfied with enlightening the minds of those under their guidance … They also inspire their charges and provide them with the means to do the good that is proper to them." 2 True evangelization means living our faith every day, in how we teach, in how we shape community, and in how we provide others with "the means" to do good.

Pope John Paul II during his apostolic visit to Poland in June, 1979 spoke of a “new evangelization.” Recently, in the call for a Synod which will study evangelization, the lineamenta says: " ‘new evangelization’ remains a relatively new expression and concept in ecclesial and pastoral circles … [It] is the courage to forge new paths in responding to the changing circumstances and conditions facing the Church in her call to proclaim and live the Gospel today." 3

For educators, there is a very important role within these "new paths" of evangelization. Our General Council in Rome, in a note to the Synod, said, "The school is an evangelizing community because it has received the Lord's call to be of service to the human community. Religious and lay persons who work in the world of education are convinced of having received, both in a personal way and through a community of believers, an explicit call from the Lord to take on an educational ministry... They offer to the entire Church the wealth of their various educational charisms." 4

During this Christmas season, all of us are invited to join with the angels in proclaiming to "all the people" that Jesus is "Prince of Peace." Our role as Catholic educators was articulated by Pope Benedict XVI: "If religious freedom is the path to peace, religious education is the highway which leads new generations to see others as their brothers and sisters, with whom they are called to journey and work together so that all will feel that they are living members of the one human family, from which no one is to be excluded." 5

I pray that God will continue to give each of us the grace to continue along our various paths of the evangelization of all the young, whether with students or in our families, so that they may experience lives of peace and justice, "living members of one human family from which no one is to be excluded." May this season be a constant reminder that, through God’s daily presence, we live out our true vocations as members of a single human family.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Br. Donald Johanson, FSC
Visitor, District of San Francisco

1 Luke 2: 10-11
2 Meditation 197.2, 198.2
3 SYNOD OF BISHOPS, XIII ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY, THE NEW EVANGELIZATION
FOR THE TRANSMISSION OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH, LINEAMENTA
4 A Note to the Synod from the General Council, Rome, 2011
5 Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace, Jan. 1, 2011