I write today with\nanother installment in my series on the question, \u201cHow do you evangelize a\nculture that used to be Christian?\u201d This\nis the fifth in the series. If you have\nnot read the others, here are links to those articles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, I want to\nturn to the question of how do we share the faith in terms of whose job it\nis. My previous articles in this series focused\non some answers to some of the questions that people who have left the Church\nor never gone to church might have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, whose \u201cjob\u201d is\nit to give them the answers? First, I\nwant to say I don\u2019t like the word \u201cjob\u201d. \nIt is not a job in the sense of something we do just to make money. It is a ministry<\/em><\/strong>. What makes it a ministry? It is done in the service of God to lead\npeople to his kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The average\nparishioner might answer the question, \u201cwhose job is it?\u201d by saying it is the church\u2019s\njob, meaning the clergy, religious, and, perhaps, other paid staff. The staff, clergy, and religious might\nrespond by saying they can\u2019t do it all. They\ndon\u2019t have the time. They say it is for\nthe laity, the parishioners, to share in the ministry of evangelization. In turn, the parishioners might say they\ndon\u2019t have the knowledge to talk about the faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are these real\n\u201creasons\u201d or are they just \u201cexcuses\u201d to get out of doing it ourselves?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before discussing\nthose reasons, I want to address another reason we might not like to talk about\nour faith, embarrassment or shame over the handling of the clergy abuse\nscandal. The abuse that happened and the\ncoverup that followed never<\/em><\/strong> should have happened. To anyone who is a victim of the abuse and\ncoverup or know someone who was, I need to say, \u201cI am sorry<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d It never should have happened. Much progress has been made since the scandal\nbroke in 2002. Please pray for our\nchurch as we make sure it doesn\u2019t happen again. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n We need to trust\nin God to lead us through this. There\nhas been scandal before in the Catholic Church and God has always helped lead\nus through it. The scandal is caused by\nhumans. It takes God\u2019s help to correct\nit. For more on this, I encourage you to\nread Bishop Robert Barron\u2019s book, Letter to a Suffering Church<\/em> published\nin 2019 by Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. \nHe speaks of how God has led the church through past scandals. He also speaks of the good works of the\nchurch and its role in starting the university system of education and\nhospitals, ministry that speaks of the good works done in God\u2019s name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We are not the first to face ridicule for the actions of a few bad religious leaders or by those who oppose our faith.\u00a0 We hear the prophet Jeremiah say (excerpts from Jeremiah 20:7-11<\/a>)\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jeremiah was very\ndiscouraged. He wanted to give up but he\ndid not. He continued to preach God\u2019s\nmessage as his prophet. We need to do\nthe same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Returning to the idea that clergy, religious, and staff say they can\u2019t do it all.\u00a0 They are right and they are not supposed to.\u00a0 Lumen Gentium<\/a><\/em>, The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church<\/em> from the Second Vatican Council says, <\/p>\n\n\n\n “For their pastors know how much the laity contribute to the welfare of the entire Church. They also know that they were not ordained by Christ to take upon themselves alone the entire salvific mission of the Church toward the world<\/em><\/strong>. On the contrary they understand that it is their noble duty to shepherd the faithful and to recognize their ministries and charisms, so that all according to their proper roles may cooperate in this common undertaking with one mind (30).” <\/p>\n\n\n\n It goes on to say of the laity in paragraph 31, <\/p>\n\n\n\n “But the laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world<\/em><\/strong>, that is, in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven<\/em><\/strong>. They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven. In this way they may make Christ known to others, especially by the testimony of a life resplendent in faith, hope and charity. Therefore, since they are tightly bound up in all types of temporal affairs it is their special task to order and to throw light upon these affairs in such a way that they may come into being and then continually increase according to Christ to the praise of the Creator and the Redeemer.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Living in the world in the same way as the people we seek to\nevangelize, parishioners are uniquely suited to share the faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What about the parishioners who say they don\u2019t have enough\nknowledge to talk about our faith? My\nfirst response is to acknowledge they may not know all they should. We have not done a good job of\ncatechesis. This is an excuse, not a\nreason. That\u2019s because we can do\nsomething about it. As a church, we need\nto offer ways for adults as well as our youth and children to learn more about\nfaith. In turn, parishioners need to\navail themselves of these opportunities. \nIgnorance is only an excuse, not a reason, when you can do something\nabout it. I am trying to do my part with\nall that I offer on this blog and website. \nYou are working on your part by talking the time to read this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As part of their lack of knowledge, people may feel like they don\u2019t know what all the \u201cbig church works\u201d like \u201ctransubstantiation\u201d and \u201cconsubstantial\u201d mean so how they can explain it to others.\u00a0 I would offer here that you don\u2019t need to use those \u201cbig church words\u201d when you first begin to talk about the faith because the people you talk to won\u2019t know what they mean other.\u00a0 Tell them what it does mean to you.\u00a0 For example, what do you need to say about \u201ctransubstantiation\u201d?\u00a0 It means that what was \u201cbread and wine\u201d is now the \u201cBody and Blood of Jesus\u201d (coming soon, after 3\/4\/20, \u00a0my third presentation in my series, \u201cSacraments: Channels of God\u2019s Grace<\/a>\u201d<\/a> on the Eucharist.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a society where relativism, believing there is no\nuniversal truth, we need share what our faith means<\/em><\/strong> to\nus. The most important thing you can\ntell others about your faith is what it means to you. How has God blessed you? How is God a comfort to you? When life is going rough, when things seem\ndark, how has Jesus brought light into your darkness. As we read in Matthew 5:15-16, <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In sharing how Jesus has been a light to us, we bring his\nlight to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As to those who acknowledge it is our choice to believe\nwhatever we want but that we shouldn\u2019t impose it on others, I offer two\nresponses. First, we do not seek to\nimpose our faith on others. They are\nfree to choose to believe or not but they are not free to choose for themselves\nif they have never heard about Jesus and God. \nWe need to tell them so that they have a choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secondly, to those who say we shouldn\u2019t talk about our faith,\nindicating that they think we are wrong, I offer the following thought, \u201cIf\nthey are so sure we are wrong and they are right, then how come they are afraid\nto let us talk? Perhaps they are afraid\nthat we are right. That would mean they\nhave to change their lives. So, they\nchoose to try to silence us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I will conclude this particular blog article with two\nthoughts from scripture. First, we need\nto realize it is not the \u201cjob\u201d of the laity or clergy, religious, and staff to\ndo all the evangelization on our own. In\nLuke 9:52, we hear that Jesus \u201csent messengers ahead of him.<\/em>\u201d That means He came after them. Jesus will do the same with us. We need to help people get on and begin to\ntravel down the road to Jesus. Jesus\nwill finish the \u201cjob\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secondly, while we each need to always seek to grow in our\nown faith, when we struggle with the worlds, realize we don\u2019t have to do it on\nour own. I end with these words from\nMark 13:9-13<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Watch out for yourselves. They will hand you over to the courts. You will be beaten in synagogues. You will be arraigned before governors and kings because of me, as a witness before them. But the gospel must first be preached to all nations. When they lead you away and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say. But say whatever will be given to you at that hour. For it will not be you who are speaking but the holy Spirit. Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peace,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I write today with another installment in my series on the question, \u201cHow do you evangelize a culture that used to be Christian?\u201d This is the fifth in the series. If you have not read the others, here are links to those articles: \u201cThe Quest for Fulfillment in the Modern World\u201d \u201cHas Science Eliminated the …<\/p>\n