“…but in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to
make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you,
yet do it with gentleness and reverence” – 1 Peter 3:15, RSV
On December 18, 2011, at age twenty-two, I was blessed to
receive the final two sacraments of initiation and formally entered the Roman
Catholic Church. It was a great and blessed day. By Confirmation, I was
anointed with oil and received the seal of the Holy Spirit, deepening the grace
of baptism I received as an infant. Receiving the Eucharist, I feasted on the
source and summit of life, consuming Christ’s body, blood, soul, and divinity, just
as the Lord had instructed his followers to do. It was beautiful. It was
relieving. It was oddly quiet. Nonetheless, I received the sacraments and their
graces and have continued to grow in understanding of just what they mean for
me as a human and a Catholic. To help, and to obey God’s call in my life, I
went to theology school! Along my journey, I have been particularly learning just
what the last baptismal grace means. “It gives us a special strength of the
Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses
of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the
Cross” (CCC 1303). These are some thoughts on my experience.
As a relatively new Roman Catholic who is also studying
theology in graduate school, I regularly have an interaction of this sort when
meeting a new person or catching up with an old friend:
Person: Oh you’re studying theology?
Oh that’s different/cool/weird (etc.). What made you want to study that?/What
are you going to do with a degree in that?
Me: Well, after I became Catholic a
little over two years ago, I really wanted to learn more about the Lord and the
faith. I also felt there was a real need for educated lay people in the Church
to promote religious education within the Church and share the faith with those
outside of the Church.
Now, whenever this sort of conversation begins, there are
exactly two ways that it should proceed (usually), and those two ways depend on
both my heart, and the other person’s:
Person: Awesome!!!! I’m Catholic,
too, and it brings me so much joy to hear that you have come home to the Church!
Me: It is so great to meet a
brother/sister! (Share communally how cool it is to be part of the Lord’s
family… etc.)
OR
Person: Oh, I’m not religious/Protestant/a
different religion (etc.) So, you weren’t always Catholic?/Why would you want
to do that?/
Me: (Thanks for inviting me to
share the fullness of the Gospel of Christ with you!) proceed to share the Gospel
This, however, is not often the case, and sadly so. Now,
like I said, there are two conditions for this conversation to proceed in an
ideal fashion: the other person’s heart and my own.
What unfortunately happens with great frequency is this:
Person: Oh, I’m Catholic, too/Oh, I
was raised Catholic. Why would you want to become
Catholic? (said often with confusion and disdain, as if I just said, “I really
wanted to get AIDS!”)
Question: Why are people of THE Church, THE fullness of the
faith, THE pillar and bulwark of Truth questioning my addition to their
population with a tone of confusion, disdain, or discomfort? The information I
just shared should translate in such a way to a Catholic listener, so that what
I just shared really means: I was rescued and adopted by the SAME loving father
that rescued and adopted you! I just told you that we are siblings that get to
share an infinite inheritance and live with the SAME Holy Spirit that gives us
gifts, helps us bear really awesome fruit, and be better than we were before. I
just informed you that we SHARE a union in the sacramental graces of the Church
- the Church that God in FLESH founded and continues to reside with and in. I
just told you a piece of information that, with your own knowledge of yourself,
meant all of that. Again, this is the same as if you were one of the angels in
heaven who just got word that one more sinner repented. “Just so, I tell you,
there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke
15:10).
I bet that I sound a little bit upset or perhaps mad (in
both senses of the word). And I am. However, nothing good comes from blaming. As
Pope Francis said this past October in an address on the New Evangelization, “It
would be a mistake to place the blame on one side or the other; indeed, there
is no need even to speak of blame…. As children of the Church we must … divest
ourselves of useless and hurtful things.”
What I am trying to say is simply this: there is great
reason for joy in meeting someone that you are in communion with. To be sure, there
is similar joy in meeting someone who has no clue that they can become complete
and have a new brother, father, and advocate, that provide all things for his
or her good, and bring this person into a family that spans more than two
thousand years with nearly every single culture, language, and ethnicity. There
is joy in bringing this good news. There is joy in sharing the hope of eternal
beatitude in the midst of the one who made you, and made you whole. As I said
above, however, there are two conditions for this conversation to have the best
possible outcome. We can only sow seed. Their heart must be receptive. Whether the
person I am speaking with is Catholic or not, if their heart is not open to the
Truth, it will not be received. This by no means gives reason to not throw the
seed out. We cannot often know what condition the soil is in, or who may be
preparing the land. We have an obligation to share this Good News.
Penn Jillete, the famous magician from the duo Penn and
Teller, is an intellectual man and, unfortunately, an atheist. He posted a
YouTube video several years ago in which he made a very potent and rational
statement on evangelizing. He says, “If you believe that there’s a heaven and a
hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you
think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it
socially awkward … how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you
have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them
that?” An excerpt of the original video can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owZc3Xq8obk
Hence, the second condition for the potentially ideal
conversation to occur: my heart. It is totally on me to follow the first
portion of the verse in the prologue – “in your hearts reverence Christ as
Lord.” Another way of saying this is to regard or treat Christ as Lord. With
this, Peter implies several things.
1)
I am not the Lord – Humility
2)
Jesus is the master, with all authority and
worthiness – Praise
3)
This is to be acknowledged constantly in the
very core of my being; it should be the directing Truth of my very existence
and essence. – Conversion and Evangelism
When this is acknowledged in my heart, I can continue to explain
why I am doing what I am doing, and why I am who I am. It gives me the freedom to
sincerely and honestly tell a stranger or an old friend, Catholic or not, why I
am Catholic and why that identity gives me a reason to hope, and to have great
joy and peace. This is the primer for extending that invitation of grace. If I
can explain to someone why I am a Catholic Christian, I can surely go the next
step, and (NOT LIKE A SALESMAN) invite him or her to acknowledge Christ as Lord
also. After all, how much would I have to hate someone to NOT tell them that
they need to repent and believe in the Gospel?
Confession: I do not always regard Christ as Lord in my
heart. I sin, and often. But that is part of this hope that is within us as
Christians! I don’t have to sin. I am
no longer bound, like a slave, to
sin. I am now bound to Truth and thus have freedom, which is the only reason
for real peace and joy. It is the anointing of the Holy Spirit (Sacrament of
Confirmation), which gives us the gifts of wisdom, understanding, right
judgment, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. And these are the
very graces that aid us in the continuation of our conversion, as we walk the
path of discipleship. At the same time this anointing, this grace, enables us
to bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galations 5:22-23). Tell
me these are not valuable tools and good gifts. BUT, they require cultivation.
They require focus, and a re-orienting of the will.
St. Josemaria Escriva writes in his ever useful, The Way, “Will-power. A very important
quality. Don’t disregard the little things, which are really never futile or
trivial. For by the constant practice of repeated self-denial in little things,
with God’s grace you will increase in strength and manliness of character. In
that way you’ll first become master of yourself, and then a guide and a leader:
to compel, to urge, to draw others with your example and with your word and
with your knowledge and with your power” (19). And further on in the same work
he writes, “Yours is only a small love if you are not zealous for the salvation
of all souls. Yours is only a poor love if you are not eager to inflame other
apostles with your madness” (796).
All of this leads me to one conclusion: the New
Evangelization is of vital importance to the Church in America. It is of vital
importance to me. It is, in fact, how I was led into the Church in the first
place.
Blessed Pope John Paul II wrote in Redemptor Hominus and repeated in Redemptoris Missio, “Christ the Redeemer, fully reveals man to
himself.... The person who wishes to understand himself
thoroughly...must...draw near to Christ.... [The] Redemption that took place
through the cross has definitively restored to man his dignity and given back
meaning to his life in the world” (RH
10. RM 2). He continues in The Mission of Christ the Redeemer, “there
is an intermediate situation, particularly in countries with ancient Christian
roots…where entire groups of the baptized have lost a living sense of the
faith, or even no longer consider themselves members of the Church, and live a
life far removed from Christ and his Gospel. In this case what is needed is a
"new evangelization" or a "re-evangelization" (33). “Christendom”
is not enough. Conversion to the Lord is all that can offer hope. Pope Emeritus
Benedict XVI’s Porta Fidei, draws a
clear link between the conversion and holiness of the individual believer and
the activity of evangelizing. We must continue the moments of our own
conversions, persevering in holiness and purification. From there we can
ourselves be torches in the pews, setting whole congregations ablaze with the
light of the Gospel, and continuing out of the Church, to those who have left the
faith, or never known it.
I’ll leave off now with an exhortation from our Pope
Emeritus, who spoke this in his 2011 address to the Plenary Assembly of the
Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, which he formed in
2010. “It is important to realize that being Christian is not a type of
clothing to wear in private or on special occasions, but is something living
and all-encompassing.”
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