Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord!
These are often the last words spoken at Mass. Many don’t think much about these words, recognizing them only as a dismissal. They are clearly more than that; they are a call to action!
We tend to think that every person has an individual task in the Church:
- The laity participates in secular affairs and family life.
- Priests administer the sacraments and serve as Church leaders.
- The religious (monks and nuns) and dedicated missionaries lead lives of prayer, service, and evangelism.
(Regular missionaries, too, have their place: sometimes risking life and limb, not to mention comfort and convenience, to spread the gospel to regions unreached by the word of God.)
Here’s what we miss: everyone tends to cultivate their surroundings and associate with others like themselves. Because Christians primarily socialize with other Christians, it can be easy to forget that most of society is lost. There are few men and women truly after God’s heart in our secular society, which is based on subjective relativity that values greed and self-exaltation. We must remember that our own neighborhoods require evangelism and conversion just as much as foreign regions. Often, we are the only ones who can convert certain people.
Our Personal Knowledge
Because we know certain people more deeply, we are in the best position to meet that individual where they are. Waxing poetic on a point with which they already agree accomplishes little to nothing; speaking to their most passionate objections might yield progress.
In fact, the apostle Paul, writing on adaptability, states:
To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the Law, I became as one under the Law, though not being under the Law myself, so that I might gain those who are under the Law;
To those who are without the Law, I became as one without the Law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might gain those who are without the Law.
To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak; I have become all things to all people, so that I may by all means save some.
Becoming all things to all people is critical to evangelism. Each person in need of conversion has their own lives, their own pasts, and their own level of understanding of the gospel. Likewise, each person is in a different stage of coming to Christ.
Sometimes, people seek clear answers to genuine questions about their faith and look for guidance from experienced Church leaders and modern scholars. However, more often than not, they claim to have intellectual doubts because the truth is harder to accept, and many feel they have gone “too far” and are beyond redemption. Yet God’s mercy is endless, and forgiveness is nearer than they realize.
Sometimes it’s fallen away Catholics. In their distance from the Church, all they are made to see is slander from those who seize any opportunity to illustrate Church corruption or hypocrisy. They need to see a tangible example of a true and selfless believer in the flesh.
Still others might go so far as to attend Mass regularly or find peace in the Faith, yet do not assent to the more difficult-to-swallow dogmas, or still regularly live in mortal sin. They might need a friendly confrontation and given that last bit of encouragement. Confrontation is always better received by a known friend than a stranger or adversary.
Tilling the Soil
The simple truth is, people are most likely to listen to those they trust, and trust is built over time. The popular Parable of the Sower is useful to illustrate:
Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.
The well-known parable is understood to describe people’s ability to receive the gospel:
- The wayside represents hearts that don’t care to hear the gospel at all.
- The stony soil is a shallow heart; it hears the gospel, but with no foundational roots, they fall away from the Faith.
- The thorny soil is the troubled heart; it receives the gospel, but thorns (fears and desires of the world) overcome and choke out the Faith.
- The fertile soil represents hearts open and ready to receive the Lord; it bears fruit (and results in real conversion).
Because we know our friends for longer periods of time, we see how they change over time and observe them as they pass through various stages of life. We get to know some of their innermost thoughts and feelings. We can see when they’re troubled, or when they arrive at a fork in the road and need guidance. We can see when their hearts become fertile and their minds more receptive to the Lord.
Humans are God’s Tools
In these times, it is more critical than ever to seize the moment to evangelize. Perhaps you don’t feel properly equipped. It might be an inconvenient time, when your mind isn’t particularly excited about the Lord. But the Lord calls upon us in His own time.
Often, conversion doesn’t happen under ideal circumstances. It won’t happen when you approach a stranger with a Bible in your hand and prepared ideas in your head. It will happen at the end of a long night, after a few drinks and shallow conversations. When all the other guests have left, the bonfire grows dim, and your friend finally opens up to you. The fact is, you’ll often be the only person he or she is willing to listen to in the moment they are ready; you’ll be the right person at the right time.
In these moments, it becomes the greatest gift of all to surrender ourselves and to let God use us as His instrument on earth for the conversion of souls.
God didn’t make Noah’s ark appear out of the ether. Noah built it at God’s command with human hands.
Although God may open someone’s heart to hear, the gospel must be shared with human tongues. When God elects us to fulfill His plans, let us remember the words of Isaiah:
Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Photo by Ignat Kushnarev on Unsplash
