This is truly the prophet who was to come..... No one has ever spoken like this1. The Lord speaks with great simplicity of the most profound things, and does it in an attractive and suggestive way. His words were understood as well by a doctor of the law as by the fishermen of Galilee.
The word of Jesus is pleasing and timely. He often insisted on the same doctrine, but he looked for the most appropriate comparisons for those who heard him: the grain of wheat that must die to bear fruit, the joy of finding some lost coins, the discovery of a hidden treasure.... And with images and parables he showed in an unsurpassable way the sovereignty of God the Creator and, at the same time, his condition of Father, who deals lovingly with each of his children. No one proclaimed the fundamental truth of man, his freedom and his supernatural dignity, by the grace of divine filiation.
The crowds sought him out to hear him, and it was often necessary to send them away. Christ has words of eternal life and has left us the task of transmitting them to all generations until the end of time.
Today too, people are thirsty for the words of Jesus, the only words that can give peace to souls, the only words that teach the way to Heaven. And all Christians share in this mission of making Christ known. "All the faithful, from the Pope to the last baptized, share in the same vocation, the same faith, the same Spirit, the same grace.... All participate actively and co-responsibly - within the necessary plurality of ministries - in the one mission of Christ and of the Church ".
The urgency of making known the doctrine of Christ is great, because ignorance is a powerful enemy of God in the world and is "the cause and root of all the evils that poison peoples "4. This urgency is even greater in the countries of the West, as Pope John Paul II has repeatedly pointed out: "We find ourselves in a Europe in which the temptation to atheism and skepticism is growing ever stronger; in which a painful moral uncertainty is taking root, with the disintegration of the family and the degeneration of morals; in which a dangerous conflict of ideas and movements dominates".
Every Christian must be a witness of good doctrine, a witness - not only by example but also by word - to the Gospel message. And we should take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself - knowing how to provoke, with prudence, these occasions - with our relatives, friends, professional colleagues, neighbors; with those we meet, even for a short time, on the occasion of a trip, a congress, shopping, sales....
For those who wish to walk the path to holiness, their life cannot be like a great avenue of missed opportunities, because the Lord wants our words to echo his teachings in order to move hearts. "It is true that God respects human freedom, and that there may be people who do not want to turn their eyes to the light of the Lord. But much more powerful, abundant and generous is the grace that Jesus Christ wants to pour out on earth, making use - now as before and as always - of the collaboration of the apostles whom He Himself has chosen to carry His light everywhere".