Diocese of/de Pembroke

Evangelization is not an event, but a journey. It is not about instant results, but about faithful witness across the arc of time. In the delicate work of drawing souls toward the heart of God, we must learn to sew patiently: “patience is the needle, and love the thread.”

Jesus Himself shows us this path. In the Gospel according to Mark, Christ says, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how” (Mk 4:26–27). Evangelization resembles this divine mystery of growth: we sow the Word, but its blossoming happens in hidden places, over time, through grace. Patience is therefore not passivity but an act of trust. To evangelize is to imitate the patient mercy of God, “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4).

The Directory for Catechesis (2020) reaffirms this dynamic when it states: “Evangelization requires a gradual process. It is necessary to know how to wait, how to respect the rhythm of the other person, and how to remain present with constancy and affection.” (§38) In other words, evangelization unfolds not on our schedule, but on God’s. The seed of the Gospel may lie dormant in the soil of a human heart for years. The evangelizer, like a loving gardener, must water, nurture, and wait.

Pope Francis, in Evangelii Gaudium, captures this well: “Time is greater than space.” He writes, “This principle enables us to work slowly but surely, without being obsessed with immediate results. It helps us patiently to endure difficult and adverse situations, or inevitable changes in our plans.” (§223) Evangelization, in this light, is not the conquest of territory but the cultivation of fidelity. We are not engineers of conversion; we are companions on the road.

Yet while patience is the needle, it is love that threads it all together. Evangelization is ultimately an act of love. As St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “The love of Christ urges us on” (2 Cor 5:14). Evangelization is never manipulation, nor coercion, nor strategy—it is the overflow of love. Love listens. Love discerns. Love endures. It is this love that renders our patience credible and our witness luminous.

The saints lived this truth. St. Monica prayed for her son Augustine’s conversion for nearly twenty years. Her patience, woven with tears and bound by love, finally bore fruit in one of the greatest theologians in the Church. St. Francis Xavier, after tireless missionary labor, died without seeing the full fruit of his efforts in Asia. Yet his witness planted seeds that centuries later would yield a great harvest. Patience without love is resignation; love without patience is frustration. Together, they are the fabric of Christian mission.

The global human heart knows what the Gospel teaches: deep change comes slowly, and always through love. In evangelization, then, we are called to imitate Christ the Good Shepherd. He walks with His sheep. He waits for the lost. He calls by name. In the Emmaus story (Lk 24:13–35), Jesus walks patiently with the two disciples, listening to their sorrows before gently revealing Himself in the breaking of the bread. He does not rush. He accompanies. This is the pastoral model of evangelization.

In our own time, we may be tempted by efficiency and metrics. We may grow discouraged when people do not respond, when Masses remain empty, when catechesis yields little visible fruit. But we must remember: God is at work in hidden ways. Our task is not to force growth but to remain faithful. Evangelization is not the marketing of a religious product, but the revelation of a divine Person—Jesus Christ—whose gaze of love awakens freedom.

As St. John Henry Newman reminds us, “God has created me to do Him some definite service… I am a link in a chain.” We may not see the end of the chain. But by our fidelity—our patient stitching of love—we strengthen the whole.

Let us not forget the power of small, consistent gestures: a listening ear, a word of encouragement, a service rendered, a silent prayer, a life lived with integrity. These are the stitches of evangelization. And over time, they form a beautiful garment: the Church radiant with the love of Christ.

So we continue. We sow the Word. We wait with patience. We love without counting the cost. For evangelization, like the Incarnation itself, is God’s slow work among us.

Patience is the needle. Love is the thread. The soul of the world is mended one stitch at a time.