In an interview with journalist Andrea Tornielli, he is asked if he believes that the goal of Evangelii gaudium is to "ignite the Church", and if he thinks Pope Francis will succeed in achieving this goal.

The prestigious Vaticanist answers in the affirmative, if one condition is met: "Only to the extent that every pastor, every priest, every religious man or woman, every believer allows himself to be questioned by the witness and the word of the Pope, avoiding the attitude - unfortunately widespread - of those who feel simply confirmed in what they are already doing and those who, for one reason or another, have the problem of pigeonholing the Pope in their own schemes" (Zenit, January 7, 2014).

These words can be taken as an invitation to read the entire papal document; and specifically now, what Francis calls, in the second chapter, "temptations" of the evangelizers (see nn. 76-101 of Evangelii gaudium). In these paragraphs - located in the second chapter entitled "In the Crisis of Community Commitment" - Francis returns to questions he faced in Rio de Janeiro, during his speeches to the Brazilian bishops and to committee coordinator of CELAM, respectively on July 27 and 28 of last year.

After thanking the partnership of so many people in the pastoral work of the Church, he calls attention to the lack of evangelizing fervor in those ecclesial environments that allow themselves to be carried away by individualism and a certain crisis of Christian identity. More dangerous than doctrinal relativism, says the Pope, is the spread of a practical relativism that consists in "acting as if God did not exist, deciding as if the poor did not exist, dreaming as if others did not exist, working as if those who have not received the advertisement did not exist" (n. 80).

Concretely, he denounces the selfish acedia (lukewarmness) of laity and priests who do not commit themselves to evangelization, or do so without adequate motivation or spirituality (cf. nn. 81-82). Thus we arrive, the Pope affirms, at the "gray pragmatism" of which J. Ratzinger spoke, or at what is here called the "psychology of the tomb" or of "museum mummies"; a "sterile pessimism," without joy or hope. Certainly, he warns, "the Christian triumph is always a cross that is at the same time a banner of victory" (n. 85). It is precisely for this reason that Christians are called to be "people-canaries" who give drink to others in the "deserts of meaning" of the contemporary world.

            The Pope's proposal is a resolute "yes to the new relationships generated by Jesus Christ", which are relationships of charity and fraternity. Francis invites us to go out of ourselves, to overcome mistrust, defensive attitudes and comfortable privacy, and to open ourselves to the realism of the social dimension of the Gospel. He notes that even in the religious sphere there is room for a comfortable isolation, a pseudo-spiritual consumerism and individualism, disincarnated and little committed to communion in solidarity and missionary fruitfulness (cf. nn. 87-89).

For this reason, he insists, first of all, on the need for "a committed relationship with God, staff , which at the same time commits us to others" (n. 91). We must "learn to encounter others" or, better still, "learn to discover Jesus in the face of others," even when we are unjustly attacked or ungrateful (cf. Ibid.).

Secondly, he underlines the "spiritual worldliness" or lack of Christian authenticity in some evangelizing approaches.

He denounces two deformations of the evangelizing zeal: "the fascination of gnosticism" or subjectivism (taking refuge in a supposedly superior knowledge or experience); the "self-referential and Promethean neo-pelagianism" (voluntarism that only trusts in one's own strength or in an authoritarian style that seeks security in mere doctrine or discipline).

In both cases," the Pope warns, "neither Jesus Christ nor others are of real interest. They are manifestations of an anthropocentric immanentism" (n. 94). And what remains in man, what encloses him in himself-even with excuses of ostentatious care for doctrine, for the liturgy or for certain social achievements (cf. n. 95)-cannot be open to evangelization. To those who have fallen into this lukewarmness or spiritual worldliness - which leads some Christians to war with other Christians "who stand in the way of their quest for power, prestige, pleasure or economic security" - the Pope advises humility and constancy, sacrifice and generosity, love of unity and true fraternity: "God save us from a worldly Church in spiritual or pastoral garb" (nn. 97 and 98).

Lessons of commitment to God and to others that call us to overcome both individualism and practical relativism. It is a matter, we have read, of "learning to discover Jesus in the face of others"; of knowing how to harmonize the aspects of knowledge, experience and will or asceticism, proper to Christian wisdom, in order to grow in what makes us greater and better: the relationship with God (based on prayer and the sacramental life) and, consequently, openness to others and their needs.

 We can all improve our attitudes: authentic piety leads us to live justice and charity as the substance of Christianity. We can also recognize our mistakes and overcome the temptation to close in on ourselves. The evangelizing commitment, a necessary consequence of the commitment staff with God, also necessarily has community, social and ecclesial manifestations.

They are lessons to be learned and taught. Lights and shadows that, therefore, can enrich, in the right measures and proportions, the picture of Education in faith.