EVANGELII GAUDIUM - page 206

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raised, then our preaching is in vain
”
(
1 Cor
15:14).
The Gospel tells us that when the first disciples
went forth to preach, “the Lord worked with
them and confirmed the message” (
Mk
16:20).
The same thing happens today. We are invited to
discover this, to experience it. Christ, risen and
glorified, is the wellspring of our hope, and he
will not deprive us of the help we need to car-
ry out the mission which he has entrusted to us.
276. Christ’s resurrection is not an event of the
past; it contains a vital power which has permeat-
ed this world. Where all seems to be dead, signs
of the resurrection suddenly spring up. It is an
irresistible force. Often it seems that God does
not exist: all around us we see persistent injustice,
evil, indifference and cruelty. But it is also true
that in the midst of darkness something new al-
ways springs to life and sooner or later produces
fruit. On razed land life breaks through, stub-
bornly yet invincibly. However dark things are,
goodness always re-emerges and spreads. Each
day in our world beauty is born anew, it rises
transformed through the storms of history. Val-
ues always tend to reappear under new guises,
and human beings have arisen time after time
from situations that seemed doomed. Such is the
power of the resurrection, and all who evange-
lize are instruments of that power.
277. At the same time, new difficulties are con-
stantly surfacing: experiences of failure and the
human weaknesses which bring so much pain.
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