EVANGELII GAUDIUM - page 119

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150. Jesus was angered by those supposed
teachers who demanded much of others, teach-
ing God’s word but without being enlightened by
it: “They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay
them on the shoulders of others; but they them-
selves will not lift a finger to move them” (Mt
23:4). The apostle James exhorted: “Not many
of you should become teachers, my brethren,
for you know that we who teach shall be judged
with greater strictness” (Jas 3:1). Whoever wants
to preach must be the first to let the word of
God move him deeply and become incarnate in
his daily life. In this way preaching will consist
in that activity, so intense and fruitful, which is
“communicating to others what one has contem-
plated”.117 For all these reasons, before prepar-
ing what we will actually say when preaching, we
need to let ourselves be penetrated by that word
which will also penetrate others, for it is a living
and active word, like a sword “which pierces to
the division of soul and spirit, of joints and mar-
row, and discerns the thoughts and intentions of
the heart” (Heb 4:12). This has great pastoral im-
portance. Today too, people prefer to listen to
witnesses: they “thirst for authenticity” and “call
for evangelizers to speak of a God whom they
themselves know and are familiar with, as if they
were seeing him”.118
117 Saint Thomas Aquinas, S. Th. II-II, q. 188, a. 6.
118 Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi
(8 December 1975), 76: AAS 68 (1976), 68.