Evangelizing Education in the Light of Inquiring Faith: A Gift to Give

Pope Francis reminds the faithful that in every activity of evangelization the primacy always belongs to God who has called us to cooperate with and who leads on by the power of the His Spirit (Evangelii Gaudium #10). Consequently, evangelizing education as the ACSCS’ contextual participation in the Church’s work of evangelization chiefly springs from God’s inspiration as a gift and a task. To date, the ACSCS provides for the functional definition of evangelizing education as that which evangelizes both the mind and heart of the learner through integral and Christian formation and/or that which evangelizes the teaching-learning process by showcasing the compatibility of faith and reason within the context of Christ-centered curriculum and instruction.

The task to cooperate with the new evangelization apparently exhorts the ACSCS to give or share such gift to the local communities where our member schools are firmly planted by Divine Providence. Indeed, fidelity both to the message whose servants we are and to the people to whom we must transmit it, living and intact, is the central axis of evangelization (Evangelii Nuntiandi #4). And in this day and age, we are equally enjoined to advance an evangelizing education that squarely reads the signs of the times aided by the light of reason and guided by the wisdom of the Magisterium (Inquiring Faith) for continued relevance and responsiveness.

The gift of evangelizing education in the light of inquiring faith that ACSCS freely receives is meant to be given and shared. Such gift shall be shared through Catholic education which believes that the baptized while they are gradually introduced the knowledge of the mystery of salvation, become ever more aware of the gift of Faith they have received…(Gravissimum Educationis, #2). The mandate to share the gift is propelled by the love of Christ urging us on (2 Corinthians 5:14) and by the deemed necessity to proclaim the good news (1 Corinthians 9:16). In so doing, the ACSCS member schools and stakeholders cannot just be passive recipients of the gift of evangelizing education but active givers and agents of evangelizing education as well.