Evangelisation

I ended my last post on a self-query about the nature of presenting one's faith, and this theme recurred last night when we had an informal discussion with Archbishop Bohan, and the question of witness to the Faith came up, and again this morning in his conference where this came up again.

This has left me in a rather contemplative mood concerning my attitude towards sharing my faith online.

First, to examine what my actual practice has been, I tend to veer towards privacy, I suspect. Not in the sense that I keep my faith private, for I certainly make it well known that I am Catholic, and I would say indeed that, for most people who know me online, I am "The" Catholic--online, if not in their "real" lives. Partly, this is because I am a seminarian, but I would like to think that it's also because I am, and have always been, very knowledgeable about the Faith, and willing to spew it out to anyone who asks.

Nonetheless, I've always been a bit concerned about the fact that I really do try very hard not to offend the sensibilities of those who are not Catholic. On the one hand, it's very easy to justify this attitude to myself, given the knee-jerk reaction that any good Catholic tends to have towards fundamentalist evangelicals. Although there are many good, fervent believers in that stream of Christianity, with better prayer lives than I and more admirable faith, as a general way of life, they tend to be very simplistic--and rather "in your face."

Largely, I think this trend in Evangelical Christianity stems from its earlier American roots and a rejection of the intellectualism available in the Catholic and older Protestant traditions--a rejection more based in the fact that, as a grassroots, lower-class movement, the early evangelicals were not all that well-educated themselves, and so when encountering the "high-fallutin'" theologies of the other traditions, moved towards simplicity as their chief argument against them.

Now, as a Catholic, I come from a faith that can be put into very simple terms. This is a part of the beauty of it. One does not need to be a vastly intelligent academic to be Catholic, and the roster of the saints is full of some incredibly simple individuals. At the same time, however, the simplicity of the Faith does not limit it, and instead of being a tradition highly suspicious of science and reason, we are, I date to say, the most eminently rational religion in the world.

Lest I have the "Galileo episode" and "evolution" thrown in my face as evidence against the eminent rationality of the Catholic Church, I wish to clarify my position to the extent that, although the Catholic Church past and more presently, has found issues (justified to an extent in the case of evolution and unjustified ultimately in the case of Galileo) with various scientific and other rational theories, the issues presented have been themselves academic, rational issues, and not the simplistic Bible-thumping of the fundamentalists. Although not everyone may agree with the conclusions of our arguments, it would be idiocy to do us the indignity of saying that our arguments are unacademic and unreasonable.

Anyway, getting back to my original train of thought, as a Catholic I have a natural instinct to shy away from in-your-face evangelising--or proselytising, as it should really be known. Add to this the fact that I am a typical Canadian as well--and we have a very "don't rock the boat" mentality--and you get someone very much disinclined to go advertising his faith.

My approach, therefore, has always been to simply have an evangelisation of presence, of example. To borrow the phrase associated with St. Francis of Assisi: "preach always; use words if necessary." Archbishop Bohan's concluding message to us was much the same: "To those who know you, but do not know God, you must act in such a way that they will see God in what you do."

It was, of course, rather affirming to hear agreement with my own position, but I still wonder whether, perhaps, I might not be rather too complacent in my attitude. It is not that I think my approach is wrong, but rather that my application of it is poor. If the best way to evangelise is to demonstrate in my own day-to-day life what an awesome life it is to be in communion with God, in service to His church, and to be keeping His commandments; then I really ought to actually live my life in communion with God, in service to His church, and keeping His commandments. More importantly, I should not just keep my Christianity hidden away in a back pocket somewhere, just one aspect of me among many, no more obvious than my Tolkien affectations or my LEGO geekiness. Instead, it should be clear in everything I do that "I am a Catholic Christian. Jesus is the centre of my life, and He should be the centre of yours."

That last statement is one that I find hard to say. Not hard to believe! Hard to say. I have no trouble at all acknowledging that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, and that no one can come to fulfilment save through Him, but I instinctively shy away from judging anyone for anything--which is good.

What I think I need to realise more firmly here is that, in saying "you need to come to Jesus" is that I am not judging someone. Really, I'm not. I know perfectly well that there are all sorts of reasons someone hasn't come to God, and I'm entirely too aware of my own shortcomings in that field to be feeling "holier than thou" about it in any way, but I'm so timid about the idea of appearing judgemental that I won't even express what, ultimately, is an expression of love.

Seriously.

Jesus said "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you believe in Me, you will not perish, but have Eternal Life."

God wants everyone. everyone. every single last person ever. to come to Him and love Him. He loves everyone with a passion so intense that He sent His only son to come and die for us. Not because we deserved it, for we certainly didn't, but because we needed it.

And although I am far from being holy enough that I actually feel, in the fibre of my being, that everyone should become Catholic out of my own love for them and concern, how can I possibly look at those around me, whom I love, and say that I do not want them to know Jesus?

I can't.

I may be weak and human and so unable to rouse myself yet to saintly passion for the conversion of the whole world, but I would be so utterly inhuman and remiss indeed if I did not desire that those I already love to know God and come to share eternal life with Him. If I may express it in the most banal of terms, Heaven will not be as awesome a place if all these atheist friends I love deny themselves the chance to go there, and it pains me to think that they are cutting themselves off from the source of eternal life.

It pains me more than if they were taking knives and slicing through their jugulars.

Moving out of one's comfort zone is hard, but I think it is a lot easier when done for love. As the Bible says, "for a good man, one might actually dare to die." For these good atheists, I might actually dare to live a better life myself. If I cannot rouse myself for my own sake to live the Christian calling, perhaps I can do it for love of them.