Continue reading »]]> This is the time of year when parishes wake up from a long summer nap and get cracking. Vacationers return and we are glad to see them and each other. Parish Lifelong Faith Formation programs crank back up and DREs and catechists are busy organizing classes and greeting the kids. The choir starts practicing again after winging it through the summer. Committees begin to meet again.

It’s very satisfying to look around and see the church doing what the church is supposed to do. Lots of people are helping out with this or that, taking responsibility and sharing leadership.

Then this Gospel selection from Luke appears and there’s a problem. Now here’s the problem: We are doing church, and that’s good. But we have followed Jesus to worship together, to be renewed, so that every week we can follow Jesus out — out to the school and the hospital and the bank and the office and the neighborhoods. We gather together to follow Jesus, then we split up and follow Jesus out to seek the lost, the broken, the bleating, the alone.

Jesus seems to care inordinately about the ones who aren’t here. Jesus came to save the lost — lost sheep, lost coins, lost brothers, lost prostitutes, lost loan sharks, lost weaklings. Jesus came all this way looking for them. And those we have given up on or forgotten about or dismissed because of their unworthiness are the very ones that Jesus has headed out to look for. He looks back over his shoulder to see if we are following him.

Remember what happens every-time somebody who was lost gets found? Amazing grace. Celebration for all because we are so inextricably bound one to another, church leader to stranger, hungry to full, joyous to mean-spirited, faithless to faithful. What happens when the lost sheep gets found is that the joy is contagious. And the 99 sheep have an excuse to throw a party, which is what we come together to do every week.

Continue reading »]]> I was at dinner the other night with friends and like most of our conversations we eventually turned to discussing our faith.  A question was posed: So how do we evangelize people who are Catholic and who are at Mass, but who don’t seem to know about the Gospel or the Eucharist?

We concluded: You can always lead by example, of course! That is the first way that we can lead others back to Christ. I think a lot of people I know who have fallen away from the Church have done so because they have never had anyone to look up to in the Church, and they probably see most people not caring (or not seeming to care) .

In addition to leading by example, you can always tell somebody flat out, “It was good to see you here! I hope you’ll come again.” This can be disarming, but that open invitation can work wonders—trust me!

So – What would you do?

Continue reading »]]> In my email this past week was an invitation to attend a webinar: Invitation to Conversion. I was intrigued by its title and so, I registered to attend this talk via the internet. In our digital age, webinars are one way to equip the disciple to share the message of Jesus.

However, the best way to share the message and prepare the disciple is the personal contact and the personal witness of living our life as disciples of Jesus.

Evangelization and witnessing is often a fearful prospect for many Catholics, yet it is the Christian mandate and one of the highest callings we can pursue. This week’s Gospel Reading can help remove that fear by showing us that witnessing for Jesus is simply living and relating to others in such a way that they comprehend that “the Kingdom of God has come near.” For many in this world that is the beginning of hope; the realization that God and his life is accessible to them. .

Evangelization always works best when it is a joint effort of two or more people. A companion in Christ reduces the stress of relating and talking to someone about Jesus and it more than doubles the creativity and wisdom that can be brought to the process of revealing the Kingdom of God to others. Having another with whom we can pray for people’s conversion is very empowering

As a community whose mission is to bring Christ’s love to those we serve, our presence and our common prayer supports our mission and our focus. Living in community and praying together moves us to service and inviting others to know God’s love for them.

Christ desires to reach the world, beginning with your world and your witness. It’s unreasonable that a witness should have to be sent from half-way around the world, or even from across the city, to bring the Gospel to your neighbors or your acquaintances. That is why he has you there.