Denver Catholic

2 SEPTEMBER 2021 | DENVER CATHOLIC H ow was St. Maximilian Kolbe able to lead his fellow prisoners in hymns as he starved to death in Auschwitz? What moved St. John Paul II to forgive the man who tried to assassinate him? Or how was St. Mother Teresa able to pick up poor people left to die in gutters and care for them? The answer is that each of these saints had an intense flame of love for Jesus burning in their hearts and an "apostolic mindset" which compelled them to undertake these works of charity for their neighbor. Over the last several issues of the Denver Catholic, I have written about the importance of understanding the Gospel anew to help us live as faithful Catho- lics in these times. In this column, I will look at what it means to have an apostolic mindset, which the Church needs to thrive when the sur- rounding culture is no longer Christian. As Pope Francis has stated, we are not living "in merely an era of change, but a change of era." While the challenges are different today than in the early apostolic times, the indifference and hostility that the culture directs toward people of faith and the Church is similar. And because of that, we need to ask God to help us think as the Apostles did. What is different between the way Catho- lics have viewed their faith and the place of the Church in society for the last several centuries and the way the early Church did? The book From Christendom to Apostolic Mission (FCAM) explains that in a "Christendom culture, the pri- mary need is maintenance" because the Gospel influences society's key institutions and nour- ishes the vision of where society is going. In apostolic circumstances, because "the Church is not the major influence of society's overarching vision, the need is not mainly for maintenance" but for "apostolic witness and the building of a distinctively Christian cultural vision and way of life" (FCAM, pgs. 20, 26). It is clear in the Acts of the Apostles and accounts of the early Church that witness and creating a uniquely Christian way of living were essential to what Peter, Paul and the other apos- tles were doing. Their preaching, teaching, heal- ing and lives of charity were evident to all, but what were the central convictions that powered these efforts? What, in other words, is an apos- tolic mindset? If we look at the first actions of St. Peter after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we see that he no longer was locked away for Thinking, believing and acting like the Apostles Adopting an Apostolic Mindset for 2021 and beyond BY ARCHBISHOP SAMUEL J. AQUILA Follow Archbishop Aquila on Social media: | ARCH B I S H O P ' S CO LU M N PENTECOST, JEAN II RESTOUT, 1732

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