EVANGELII GAUDIUM - page 123

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faithful need to hear. A preacher has to contem-
plate the word, but he also has to contemplate his
people. In this way he learns “of the aspirations,
of riches and limitations, of ways of praying, of
loving, of looking at life and the world, which
distinguish this or that human gathering,” while
paying attention “to actual people, to using their
language, their signs and symbols, to answering
the questions they ask”.120 He needs to be able
to link the message of a biblical text to a human
situation, to an experience which cries out for the
light of God’s word. This interest has nothing to
do with shrewdness or calculation; it is profound-
ly religious and pastoral. Fundamentally it is a
“spiritual sensitivity for reading God’s message
in events”,121 and this is much more than simply
finding something interesting to say. What we are
looking for is “what the Lord has to say in this or
that particular circumstance”.122 Preparation for
preaching thus becomes an exercise in evangeli-
cal discernment, wherein we strive to recognize
– in the light of the Spirit – “a call which God
causes to resound in the historical situation itself.
In this situation, and also through it, God calls
the believer”.123
155. In this effort we may need but think of
some ordinary human experience such as a joyful
120 Ibid. , 63: AAS 68 (1976), 53
121 Ibid. , 43: AAS 68 (1976), 33
122 Ibid.
123 J ohn P aul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation
Pastores Dabo Vobis (25 March 1992), 10: AAS 84 (1992), 672.