Last week I began my reflection on The Old Evangelization: How to Spread the Faith Like Jesus Did by Eric Sammons (El Cajon, CA: Catholic Answers Press. 2017) with my article “Discipleship Necessitates Evangelization.”
In that article, I presented Sammons’ discussion of how our “fear of rejection” can keep us from sharing the faith with our family and friends. He continues that theme in chapter 4. He presents the standard excuse, “But if I don’t tell her, then perhaps over time I’ll be able to bring her closer to God” (66, my emphasis). The point is entirely valid. We should ask ourselves how we can accomplish the greater good, by being blunt with others about the truth or by trying to remain part of their life. It is very unlikely that we help them by remaining silent about the truth. Our silence can often be interpreted as approval. What good do we accomplish by hiding the truth from them? If we want them to know Jesus Christ more fully, they need the truth to do so. Staying part of their life can present further opportunity for evangelization, for their conversion. However, if we do not speak the truth, how can there be any chance for conversion?
Sammons writes about how the “fear of rejection” shows itself in parish ministry with quotes like “We can’t do that; it might upset people in the parish” (70). We don’t want to upset people needlessly. However, at times maybe they need to be upset. How else will they turn their lives more fully to God?
He also quotes the idea, “We have to meet people where they are” (70). This is true but that doesn’t mean we are supposed to leave them there. Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, [and] from now on do not sin any more” (John 8:11). He met her where she was at in her sin but He did not say it was not a sin. He called her to conversion, “do not sin any more.”
He then refers to the common thought, “If we do that, no one will come” (70). This can be true but nothing ventured, nothing gained. As Sammons writes, we don’t know how people will respond (70). We need to ask the Holy Spirit to direct us to what we should do. We need to do something, even if some take offense. Otherwise, as Sammons writes, “Their guiding principle has been to please people, not preach the gospel to them.”
Jesus didn’t please everyone. That wasn’t his mission and it isn’t our mission. Our mission is to proclaim the gospel, not to change it to make it easier or more acceptable.
Jesus didn’t fail when people rejected him. He came not to abolish the truth. He came to fulfill it (see Matthew 5:17).
We may never know who we lead to conversion. They may undergo a conversion later in life that we never know about. Sammons offers three questions we can ask ourselves to know if we have done what God asks of us (this is what defines success).
First, “Did I accurately represent the teachings of Christ and his church” (72)?
Second, “Was I charitable in all I said and did” (72)?
Third, “Did I invite the person to draw closer to Christ” (72)?
If we have done these, we have done what God asks of us. That is success! (see the Parable of the Sentinel, Ezekiel 3:17-21). It isn’t easy. Just ask Jesus. He was crucified for what He said.
Sammons goes on to tell more stories of people who converted because someone spoke the truth to them (I encourage to read this book for yourselves). We ask the Holy Spirit for the words to say and for the courage to actually say them.
Sammons then speaks of the “heresy of low expectations” (83). Do we really expect people to change? Do we expect people to change or do we “soften the truth” to make it easier for them (83)? Do we think it is possible for people to change (84)?
Sammons writes, “Looking the other way while people live in sin because it would be “too hard” for them to escape it is not mercy – it’s cruelty…But in reality it is we who do not want to be troubled, by having to make the sacrifices necessary – such as unceasing prayer, fasting, and confrontation – to affect changes in a loved one’s life” (85).
Mercy is needed. So is truth. Sammons writes, “I once heard a priest say, “I want to be a lion from the pulpit and a lamb in the confessional” (85). I hope and pray that is what I do. Preach the truth and show mercy when people fall.
Sammons then speaks of a person who wished to start a chapter of Courage (Courage is a Catholic organization faithful to what our faith teaches about homosexuality while offering great support to those with an inclination to same-sex attraction and their family members) whose bishop told them that he didn’t “believe that people with same-sex attraction could leave the homosexual lifestyle” (86). Really? Has that bishop not read the various times in the gospels where Jesus says nothing is impossible for God?
Sammons writes, “There is no mercy in allowing a person to wallow in his sins; instead, the greatest mercy is to challenge him to confront his sins and abandon himself to God” (87).
May God give us the grace we need to speak the words He asks of us.
Peace,
Fr. Jeff