St. Paul encourages his friends in a letter, “You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake.” This is to say: Paul “walked the walk.” Not only did he instruct his people in Truth, but he lived the Truth. This is the only way the world will consider embracing the Catholic Faith.
Words, even if they are well spoken, will never accomplish their aim unless our lives, our actions and choices, are consistent with those words. Now that doesn’t mean Catholics have to be perfect—no one is—but our life must model what the Church teaches. And because the Church is an extension of Christ Himself and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, our living of Church teaching will bear fruit.
Remember: “you tell a tree by the fruit it bears.” This “fruit” will speak to the world—no words necessary.
How do we model such a life? The answer is you can’t . . . without God’s grace. Everything a Catholic does is rooted in the interior life. From it comes our witness to the world. Without a deep interior life, there will be no witness, and our evangelizing words will fall flat.
Daily prayer, weekly fasting, and frequent reception of the sacraments should not just be utilized by the clergy. Without these practices, our lives will not bear witness to Christ, and our words will not have an impact. It’s really that simple. Our world today is suffering because of its rejection of the Truth, God, and the sacraments. Only by our life’s witness will we transmit the Gospel—and it’s time to get serious about this mission.
“My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me.”
When the world knows you as a Catholic who takes his faith seriously, people watch you very closely. Trust me on that one. My wife and I have been married for 12 years and have five children. My wife is Haitian American, my children are bi-racial, and we belong to a parish that is predominately Polish. When my family walks into Sunday Mass, we stand out.
We always sit near this one family—a woman and her elderly father; sometimes her son attends too. It seems that her husband is out of the picture somehow or else has no interest in attending Mass, since I have never seen him with her. When my family walks by, the elderly gentleman always looks so happy to see us. There’s a look of approval on his face. No words necessary—the simple sight of my family at Mass makes the man react in that way.
The mere sight of my family can be a sermon—thanks be to God—and this is the kind of sermon our world desperately needs. When others witness the Gospel lived out, many second guess their choices or the assumptions they’ve made about Catholicism. It can inspire curiosity and attraction to some quality that they see being lived out.
So, again, how can we create such a witness? It is only by a deep interior life aiding our cooperation with God’s grace. Allow me to illustrate what I mean by an “interior life.” My wife and I get up very early each day, before our children wake up, to pray. We pray before the Blessed Sacrament in Eucharistic Adoration on Saturdays and Sundays. We go to daily Mass most days and to Confession twice a month. We pray the Rosary every night as a family. We also both fast weekly. Why tell you all this? Because without these practices, we would never have had five children. We’d never have made the necessary sacrifices to provide for our family, nor would we be able to live out our Catholic faith the way we both do!
Abraham Lincoln once said: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” We ought to utilize the same model. If we as Catholics wish to live out our faith (because that is the only way to impact the world), then we must deepen our interior lives through these spiritual practices. It is from this “sharpening” that the evangelizing witness, the lasting happiness, and the interior peace comes.
St. Paul writes, “For our Gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction”—a testament to the power of the Christian witness and an encouragement of the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us be encouraged by the fact that we ourselves do not manufacture this witness. We do not bring about our own transformation. It is through the Holy Spirit that this interior transformation takes place; it is because of Him that our lives bear fruit. All we need to do is cooperate with Him, putting into place the solid foundations (i.e. spiritual practices) for Him to grow our lives.
When we do this, the very way we live our lives becomes encouragement and a witness to others. An authentic Catholic life tells the world that yes, it is possible to follow Jesus Christ and thrive, and yes, what the Catholic Church teaches not only works but brings great joy.
Dear Jesus, help us to spread Your fragrance everywhere we go. Flood our souls with Your Spirit and Life. Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly that our lives may only be a radiance of Yours. Shine through us and be so in us that every soul we come in contact with may feel Your presence in our souls. Let them look up, and see no longer us, but only Jesus! Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others. The light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be ours. It will be You, shining on others through us. Let us thus praise You in the way You love best, by shining on those around us. Let us preach You without preaching, not by words but by example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what we do, the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear for You. (St. John Henry Newman, “Radiating Christ”)
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on Oh, Francesco.
Photo by S. Laiba Ali on Unsplash
