The Lord’s missionary mandate includes a call to growth in faith:
“Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Hence it is clear that the first proclamation also calls for ongoing formation and maturation. Evangelization aims at a process of growth which entails taking seriously each person and God’s plan for his or her life. All of us need to grow in Christ. Evangelization should stimulate a desire for growth, so that each of us can say wholeheartedly: ‘”It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
Along with the virtues, this means above all the new commandment, the first and the greatest of the commandments, and the one that best identifies us as Christ’s disciples: “This is my commandment , that you love one another as I have loved you.”