“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before humans, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven” … from the Gospel, 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time (A)
At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus gathered the disciples together and gave them what is often called “the great commission,” to go into the whole world and make disciples of all the nations”. Our Gospel today uses slightly different words, but the message is the same. And it is not just Matthew who reports this. The words are similar in Mark (16:15-16) and in Luke (24:46-49).
Jesus makes it clear that the church does not exist for its own sake.
It has a mission, a purpose. It must not let the world forget Jesus Christ.
It must continue to make him known and to proclaim his teachings everywhere until time is no more.
The first Christians took this mission very seriously. But I am not sure that, in this day and age, we Catholics can say the same.
Why is it that Catholics are more ready to talk about church issues and church controversies
or about moral values (especially the ones we disagree with), but not about our personal relationship with Christ or about how we recognize God’s action in our lives? Why do Catholics tend not to share their faith?
Perhaps it is influenced by our own encounters with “in-your-face” evangelisation. You know, the people who want to hit you over the head with the bible and convince you of how wrong you are as a Catholic, and how right they are in their interpretation of scripture. The approach tends to turn people off.
I suspect that a bigger reason is that we have grown up where the concept of “live and let live” seems to be the only socially acceptable approach ….. and hence it has become socially ungracious and theologically unacceptable to “talk religion” around the office or at the park watching the kids play. And anyway, isn’t one’s religion a private matter?
But the Gospel will not let us off so easily.
Now, I am not suggesting that you start carrying around a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and a Bible and stand on street corners loudly proclaiming the genius of the Catholic church to people who are not interested and likely offended by your approach. But I am suggesting that we all need to take our call to evangelize to heart. And perhaps I can suggest a way that can work for you.
In business today, we talk about two strategies to sell a product or service. One is called a “Push” strategy. It is about promoting products or services by ‘pushing’ them onto people. Sales displays. Trade shows. Time-share Condo’s in Florida or Vegas. The other is called a “Pull” strategy, which is about creating a loyal following and drawing consumers to your product or service.
Standing on the street corner, or around the water-cooler in the office, or knocking on doors and loudly proclaiming your message is an example of a “Push” strategy. Sometimes, it can work. But more often than not, for a variety of reasons, it is not very effective with contemporary society. We live in a world that has little faith in institutions, or moral absolutes.
We live in a world where “Tell me” has been replaced by “Show me”. We are more likely to be attracted to a message not by its words, but by the actions of the person saying those words.
And so, let me suggest three steps in living out our calling to evangelize, our calling to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ
Our first step, is to live our faith before we talk about it ….. to live our faith before we talk about it. Because we can’t give what we don’t got.
The call to witness begins with you and I being prayerful persons. Being people who nourish our faith by reading Scripture and participating in the Sunday Eucharist. Being people who are devoted to our families and are conscientious in our work. Being people who treat others with dignity and respect. Being people who share our time and resources with the less fortunate. This is what Pope Paul VI called “the wordless witness of your life,” the very first act of evangelization. He went on to say that this witness raises questions in people’s minds;
it prompts them to wonder and perhaps ask us what motivates and inspires us.
And that leads us to the second step……
Now, don’t bring out that Catechism or Bible yet. This is NOT the time to start answering direct questions, but rather it is a time of sharing worries or problems. Strange, you may think. But in reality, it is more important that people sense they can talk to us, than it is to start listing facts and figures.
So the second step in sharing faith is the ability to listen well.
For example, someone may confide in you a worry about their health problems, or maybe a parent is upset about a son or daughter’s behaviour, or a spouse who is troubled by tensions in their marriage, or someone who is grieving over the loss of a loved one or a broken relationship, or maybe a teen who is feeling left out of a peer group.
Instead of giving some easy advice or pious cliché, we listen carefully and respond in an empathic, nonjudgmental manner. This is already a healing and evangelizing action.
Scripture tells us, “Should anyone ask you the reason for this hope of yours, be ever ready to reply, but speak gently and respectfully” (1 Pt 3:15-16).
The simplest, most direct form this can take is to share our own story. And thats the third step. Share your story.
We do not need to have an abundance of biblical texts handy in order to evangelize or share our faith. Or a copy of the Catechism. Our greatest resource is our own spiritual experience. All of us, if we think about it, have had moments in which we knew we were in the presence of God, were touched or helped or encouraged or healed by God, were brought up short or deeply comforted by hearing or reading a Bible passage or listening to a Christian hymn. Often the encouragement or help came through some person; yet we were convinced it was really God who brought it about. That is what we share with the one who has opened up to us: “You know, I’ve been through something like that in my own life. And what helped me most was my faith in God (or Jesus).” Then we go on to explain briefly what happened.
The beauty of this approach is that it is simple and non-invasive. We don’t argue. We don’t boast. We don’t “talk theology.” We simply share our own experience. When we are finished, we give the other person a chance to respond. Perhaps this is as far as that person is willing to go at this point, which is fine. The questioner has had a good experience of being listened to and understood. In encounters like these, we give people something to think about. Whatever the outcome, a seed has been planted. There has been a Graced encounter.
We Catholics keep hearing that we need to move beyond our reticence and our habit of “keeping our faith to ourselves.” We are called to be more mission-driven, more willing to risk some degree of discomfort in order to further the message of Christ.
Three simple steps …. Live our faith (because we can’t give what we don’t got); Listen well ; Share our story
The purpose of all these steps is not to “make converts” or “fill the pews.” It is simply to open doors, to let others know that our faith has made a positive difference in our lives,
and that God’s love and saving help are available to them as well. In that way, you and I can rise to the challenge that God puts before us in today’a Gospel.
Live our faith, Listen well, share our story. Are you up to the challenge?