Hello, and welcome to the
Tiber River Café. My name is Dean
Humphreys, and today’s topic is an introduction to Catholic
Evangelization. Catholic evangelization
simply means we bring the Good News of Jesus Christ into every aspect of our
lives. We share the Good News of Jesus
with our family, our friends, and with our neighbors.
All our efforts at
evangelizing, our attempts at converting individuals, converting our
communities and our society; all our efforts must be completely connected and
centered on Jesus. We must put all our
effort in the name of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus, the life of Jesus, the
promises of Jesus, and the Kingdom of Jesus.
Catholic evangelization is a personal process that will lead to a public
proclamation. First, we discover Jesus
through a personal encounter with him.
Next, we follow Jesus and we become his disciple. And last, we become a witness of Jesus, we
share the Good News of Jesus Christ and his Church, we evangelize.
At the very beginning of the
Gospel of Matthew, chapter 4 verse 18-22, we read, “As he was walking by the
Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,
Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea;
they were fishermen. He said to them, ‘Come
after me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and
followed him.” Jesus asks us to follow
him, to become his disciple.
We are to become not only
disciples of Jesus, but more importantly we are to become intentional disciples
of Jesus. We are to learn as much as
possible about Jesus of Nazareth, his life and ministry, what he said and what
he taught. We are to know Jesus as our best
friend, our brother, we are to fall in love with Jesus. And we are to learn as much as possible about
the Body of Christ which is the Catholic Church, we are to learn as much as
possible what the Catholic Church teaches and why. We read in First Peter, chapter 3 verse
15-16, that we are to “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who
asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and
reverence.”
How do we become disciples of
Jesus? First, by reading the Bible we
learn about Jesus, especially the New Testament, and concentrating on the
Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, as well as the Book of Acts. And by reading the Catechism of the Catholic
Church we learn about the Catholic Church, what we as Catholics believe and
why, we learn about our faith. By
attending Mass every week and attending Mass more frequently if possible, by participating
in the Sacraments of the Church—receiving the Eucharist which is the Body and
Blood of Jesus, and going to confession on a regular basis. And attending Church-related activities like
youth and young-adult events, ongoing faith formation, lectures and seminars, and
Bible study.
We also grow deeper in our
relationship with Jesus with daily prayer.
We talk with God, with Jesus, we share our lives, our hopes and fears, we
talk with Jesus like a friend. We can
read Catholic books and magazines, and we can watch Catholic television shows
and YouTube videos. And we also offer
service, we seek to help the poor and disadvantaged. Each and every day we should be learning more
and more about Jesus and his Church.
Think of it as a life-long journey, a spiritual path, and each day we
put down another cobble stone on our spiritual path, and each day the path gets
a little longer and little more solid.
Let’s return to the Gospel of
Matthew. At the beginning of Jesus’
ministry he calls his disciples, “Come, follow me.” Jesus then spends the next three years
teaching his disciples, he teaches them the Good News. Then at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, chapter
28 verse 19-20, right before Jesus ascends to heaven, he gives his disciples
one last instruction, one last command, to “Go, therefore, and make
disciples.” Jesus instructs, he
commands, his disciples to evangelize.
They are to go to the ends of the world to tell the Good News of Jesus. We as Catholics have the same command. We are called by Jesus to first, “Come, follow
me.” Then we are trained and educated in
the Faith which is a life-long process.
And then Jesus sends us out into the world, “Go, therefore, and make
disciples.” We are to evangelize.
At the very end of the Gospel
of Matthew, chapter 28, right before Jesus ascends into Heaven, he tells his
disciples, “Go, therefore, and make disciples.”
These are the last words of Jesus, this is his departing instructions to
his closest disciples. And I think to
myself, what will my last words and thoughts be? What will I say to my wife and son at that
moment? Jesus’ last words are to go
forth, spread the Good News, to evangelize, and to baptize all nations, to
spread his message to the whole world.
And then he promises one last thing, because his disciples were probably
scared, just like you and I are scared, Jesus promises, “And behold, I am with
you always, until the end of the age.”
We won’t be alone, there is no reason to be afraid. Jesus will always be with us. Despite our fears and doubts we are to spread
his message, we are to evangelize.
First, ‘Come, follow me’. Then we learn all we can about Jesus and his
Church. And then ‘Go, therefore and make
disciples’. By learning about Jesus, we
become more and more joyful. We will
radiate love and joy in everything do.
And people will become curious.
Others will often ask us why we are so happy and joyful. And this is a wonderful opportunity to start
a conversation, to start sharing the Good News. And as we continue to grow
deeper in Christ, becoming his disciple, we yearn to share our excitement with
others—our family and friends. At first
this can be very awkward and scary, but there is this strong need to share this
‘secret’ with others, you know the secret to happiness and you want so desperately
to share this with others.
So we are all called to share
the Faith. Everyone has the right and
the need to hear the Good News of Jesus of Nazareth—some will listen, and
unfortunately others will not listen for we all make choices and we all have
free will, but for those who do choose to listen, it will be a life-changing
event with eternal consequences.
Remember, our job is to be prepared, we are to plant the seed of faith,
and then the Holy Spirit will take it from there. We are to weave our faith into our everyday
life. We are to live our faith every
moment of every day, and people will see our joy and they will be curious, and
perhaps ask where our joy comes from, and then we can share our story, what it
means to be Catholic. Don’t be afraid.
And you don’t need to have an
advanced degree in theology to share your story, you just need to live out what
you believe and not be afraid to share it.
Sharing your faith may not always make you popular, you may be laughed
at, left out, made to feel like there is something wrong with you simply
because of your beliefs. Don’t be
afraid. We share our faith because we
know the truth, and we need desperately to share this truth with others. The message of God’s love is far too great
for us to keep it to ourselves, we must share it with others, we must
evangelize.
The most effective way to
evangelize is to show this contagious joy we have for Jesus and his
Church. As we learn more about Jesus we
develop a friendship with Jesus. This
friendship continues to grow and will naturally lead to joy. As our friendship and joy for Jesus continues
to grow we will have a strong desire to share that joy with others, we have a
strong desire to evangelize. We can
always find limited joy in the things of this world—money, possessions,
friends, status; but the ultimate joy is our friendship with Jesus. Live your friendship with Jesus as radically
as you can, at every level of your life.
We are to reach out to
Catholics who no longer go to Mass, who may be following a Protestant
denomination or no church affiliation at all.
We are to also reach out to those Catholics who may still be going to
Mass but perhaps attending infrequently and perhaps they don’t fully understand
and appreciate the beauty of our Catholic faith. Our mandate is to transform nominal Catholics
into holy Catholics, Catholics that are seeking an authentic spiritual renewal,
one person at a time.
So there you have it, a very
brief overview of Catholic evangelization.
We are first called by Jesus, ‘Come, follow me’; we then learn about
Jesus and his Church, we develop a friendship with Jesus, we have joy and
happiness; and then we are told by Jesus, ‘Go, therefore, and make disciples’,
we are instructed by Jesus to share our faith, to share the Good News of Jesus
Christ and his Church, to share our joy.
Something to think about next Sunday at Mass.
Well, thanks again for
stopping by the Tiber River Café, where there is always plenty of room at the
banquet table. I hope to see you next
time. Peace be with you.
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