Stepping Out Of One’s Comfort Zone And Proclaiming The Good News

Amarillo—For Isaac Cardenas Casillas of St. Joseph’s Church, it was an opportunity to present a viewpoint from the perspective of a young Catholic adult while demonstrating how his knowledge of evangelization has increased.
 
Casillas was one of many speakers who made presentations April 13-15 during the Region X Encuentro in San Antonio. More than 800 delegates representing 18 dioceses in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas participated in the three-day Encuentro.
Regional meetings are the latest phase of preparations for the U.S. Catholic Church's Fifth National Encuentro, or V Encuentro, set for Thursday, Sept. 20-Sunday, Sept. 23 in Grapevine. Previous national encuentros took place in 1972, 1977, 1985 and 2000.
 
Encuentro is a multiyear process to discern the needs, aspirations and Faith practices of the 29.7 million Hispanic and Latino Catholics in the United States. First came parish-level encuentros, then the diocesan gatherings and now the regional Encuentros.
 
“Before I started this process, I was completely unaware with how evangelization was done,” said Casillas. “I knew that the Church called on all of us to help bring the Word of God to others as missionary disciples. We are called to go out to the edges of our communities and seek out those who God calls us to seek out, except I didn’t believe that I had to do it.
 
“I never knew the importance of evangelizing, in other words, if I talk to 10 people, then they in turn  talk to 10 people, evangelizing grows exponentially.”
 
The delegates worked in about 80 small groups to talk about challenges, opportunities and successful practices in areas like evangelization and mission, Faith Formation and catechesis, youth, family ministry, immigration and theology.
 
Their recommendations will be presented before the national Encuentro in Grapevine.
 
According to the working document, Hispanic Catholics make up 6 million of the estimated 8.4 million Catholics living in the U.S. Church's episcopal Region X. Some dioceses in the region, like Beaumont and Fort Worth, Oklahoma City and Tulsa and Little Rock have seen their Hispanic population increase more than 100% between 2006 and 2016.
 
Casillas admitted to those in attendance in San Antonio that before participating in V Encuentro, he was ‘scared’ to get out of his comfort zone.

“I was scared to talk to others about God and His glory,” he said. “Before the Encuentro, I would not have had the courage to come up and talk to all of you. I had to be pushed to go out and evangelize. I found out that most of the time, you will end up talking less than the person who you went out to accompany.”
 
Casillas thought that what he was doing in his Faith journey was enough—because of V Encuentro, that realization has changed.
 
“The Encuentro process has taught me how important it is to accompany others as missionary disciples,” he said. “The mission of the Church is to preach the Good News to all, or to evangelize. As St. Paul reminds us, in order to hear the Good News, someone has to announce and preach it.
 
“But to preach the Good News doesn’t mean that we always have to be talking and shoving our thoughts and beliefs down the throats of others. No. It means accompanying others and listening to them, just as Jesus did on the Emmaus trail with his disciples.”
 
While Casillas said the V Encuentro has already begun to help him immensely, it will also be an important part of his future.

“I want to apply what I’ve learned to my professional career as a financial advisor,” he said. “As a financial planner I want to accompany those who are going through financial hardships. I want to provide people with attentive ears, an open heart and give them hope that whatever struggles that they are going through, that God has a plan for them, and all they have to do is keep fighting.
 
“Even for the Church, I want to provide free consultations to my future Church Community so that they can get the help they need, and by accompanying them through their hardships, they will come out stronger than when they came to me.
 
“I also want to use my experiences with the V Encuentro to help encourage the youth of the future to accompany and to evangelize with the zeal that Jesus’ apostles had.” 
 
Casillas admits that without the V Encuentro, his relationships with God and with his community would be so much different.

“I am eternally grateful for having been giving the opportunity to learn about evangelizing, and to learn about being a missionary disciple,” he said. “I am also grateful to have the opportunity to use everything that I have experienced and bring that with me for my future, and the future of others. 
 
“Finally, I want to encourage everyone to not be scared to do more, to not be complacent, or to think God has called the wrong person, because He hasn’t. I want to encourage everyone to go out, just like St. Paul and all of the other disciples, and preach the Good News to everyone, not just through your words, but through your attentive ears, and your open heart.”