Called To Witness Christ To Others

Our Holy Saturday Easter Vigils were filled with excitement as we experienced the baptisms and confirmations of new Church members.  What a gift they are to the Church!  New members remind us that Jesus’ resurrection is not only a past historical event.  We see the risen Christ working in people desiring to become His disciples.  Every year, our new members are living reminders of Jesus’ resurrection.  Thus, they remind us of our primary mission as Christians – witnessing Christ to others. 

All baptized Christians are called to be witnesses of Christ – in our families, work places, parishes and wherever we may go.  As people of love, kindness, mercy, patience, understanding and joy, we are that “yeast” about which Jesus speaks in the Gospel, giving life to the world.  The lives of Christians should attract others to Christ.  This has been the entire focus of Pope Francis’ Pastoral Letter, “The Joy of the Gospel” – Christians witnessing to the presence of the risen Christ.

“We are all missionary disciples” – In all the baptized, from first to last, the … Spirit is at work, impelling us to evangelization” (paragraph 119).  The ancient belief of the Church is that “God furnishes the totality of the faithful with an instinct of faith – sensus fidei – which helps them to discern what is truly of God” (E.G. 119).  Bishops and priests are called to listen to the Holy Spirit speaking through God’s people. 

Thanks to our baptism, all Catholics “…whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelization, and it would be insufficient to envisage a plan of evangelization to be carried out by professionals while the rest of the faithful would simply be passive recipients” (E.G. 120).  “Every Christian is challenged, here and now, to be actively engaged in evangelization; indeed, anyone who has truly experienced God’s saving love does not need much time or lengthy training to go out and proclaim that love.  Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus…” (E.G. 120).  Pope Francis recalls two examples – the Samaritan woman who after conversing with Jesus returned home inviting others to meet Jesus and Saint Paul, who after encountering Jesus on the road (Acts 9:20), became the great missionary preacher to the non-Jews.

However, evangelizers need to mature in our work with “…better training, a deepening love and a clearer witness to the Gospel.  In this sense, we ought to let others be constantly evangelizing us…as each of us finds ways to communicate Jesus wherever we are.  All of us are called to offer others an explicit witness to the saving love of the Lord…” (E.G. 121).  Are we willing to become better trained as evangelizers by participating in our parish adult faith formation programs?  Our new members went through a lengthy formation in the faith before they were baptized and confirmed reminding us again of our need for continually learning about our faith.

If we never participate in adult formation programs, small faith sharing groups, Cursillo, Christ Renews His Parish and other experiences, how can we learn more about our faith?  Sunday homilies cannot provide the sufficient time for in-depth learning about our faith.  Do we believe that a grade school or high school religious education is sufficient?  How mistaken we are to believe this!  Even businesses require “on the job training” when something new is initiated.  We do God, ourselves, the Church and the world a collective disservice by failing to continue to grow in our understanding of our faith.