Evangelization

The St. Ferdinand Men's Club has been reviewing the four signs of a Dynamic Catholic from the book by Matthew Kelly. I was supposed to do a brief presentation at our February meeting, but it got bumped due to a full schedule. Since I'm not sure if it will get rescheduled or not, I thought I would convert it into a blog post.

The first sign we covered was prayer. We covered it first because it is the first sign in the book, and because I feel it is the basis for everything we do as Catholics. The next sign I was going to cover is evangelization. I skipped ahead because I think this is the toughest of the four signs, and I think it is one of the most critical for our parish at this time.

What is evangelization? Fundamentally, evangelization is sharing our faith with others. It is being open to opportunities to talk about our faith, our faith journey, and our practice of the faith. Evangelization is also about sharing our faith with our faith community (parish) and helping to bolster our fellow parishioners.

When I want to understand how to evangelize, I turn to the saints. The first saint I look to is St. Rose Philippine Duchesne. She is the dedicated religious that founded St. Ferdinand school and helped bring Catholicism west of the Mississippi river. She evangelized by working for the poor, building schools to teach the faith, and by supporting the missionaries in any way she could.

Another person I look to for help understanding evangelization is Fr. Pierre De Smet. He was a Jesuit missionary in America, whose "home base" was St. Louis. He was instrumental in establishing missions in Florissant, MO, Kansas, and Oregon. He made great strides converting Native American tribes by learning their language, understanding their customs, and adapting his approach to their particular needs. Fr. De Smet's peaceful approach to evangelization earned him the respect of most of the Native American tribes west of the Mississippi.

Stories of holy people moving thousands of miles from home to start missions and teach poor kids are exciting and romantic. They make evangelization seem intimidating for most ordinary people. The key is to understand that St. Rose and Fr. De Smet had particular callings that spoke to their characters, allowing them to do these things. Most of us are called to evangelize in simpler ways.

St. Rose, despite her accomplishments starting schools, was most known for her prayer life. She was known by the Native Americans as the Woman-Who-Prays-Always. Her contemporaries were convinced of her holiness because of her diligence in prayer.

Fr. De Smet gained the respect of the Native Americans he worked with in several simple ways. He learned their language and customs, helped broker peace between tribes, and treated them with respect. His success came from simply living as a Christian.

So, who should evangelize? The short answer is: EVERYONE! We should all feel called to share our faith with others. If we have truly embraced Christianity and its way of life, we should be eager to share it with others.

How should we evangelize? First and foremost, we should evangelize through the example of our lives. We should live as Christians are called to live by Jesus Christ. That example was compelling enough to draw thousands to the church in the days immediately after the Ascension. It is good enough to work today.

We are also called to evangelize by telling our story. A great way to to get people curious about the faith is to share with them what drives you in your faith. The compelling personal story goes a long way to drawing people to the Lord.

A critical way we evangelize is by supporting our faith community. My cousin always signs his emails with the tag line "Keep the faith." I used to think it was a catchy platitude, but now I see the brilliance of it. Keeping the faith is difficult, and it needs the support of a strong faith community. By participating in our faith community, we bolster the faith of others and make them strong to evangelize too.

So how do we, as modern Christians, draw others to Jesus?