Some Thoughts on Evangelizing

31st Sunday of the Year

Difficult conversations are usually preceded by feelings of fear elicited by uncertainty regarding the outcome. We can’t know in advance how the other person will react or receive what we want to say, and we generally tend to err on the side of the conversation not going well. If a difficult conversation happens to result in anything but a disaster, we are surprised and relieved. This seems to have been the case, based on what we heard in the First Reading, for how Paul’s mission went in Thessalonica, where he proclaimed to them the gospel of God.  After the fact, Paul writes to them, saying that “we give thanks to God unceasingly, that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us, you received not a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe.” Paul gives thanks that the Thessalonians received the gospel well, because it was not at all a guarantee they would. Paul reminds them of his “toil and drudgery”, how he worked “night and day” so that they would come to faith in Christ. Though Paul was a strong man of great determination, resolute in his convictions and confident in his vocation toward the Gentiles, I think you can still sense that there was a bit of hesitation on his part that things in Thessalonica might not go according to plan. Paul was no stranger of his message being rejected and himself being run out of town. And thus, he gives thanks that, by the mercy of God, his mission in Thessalonica was a success.

I’ve recently had a few conversations with folks about the work Paul did, the work of evangelization. The fact of the matter is that if we are to get people to come to church, we are going to have to invite them; and our best chances are not, as we probably expect, with Catholics who have fallen away but, rather, with those who have never had any real contact with the Church at all. And the only way to give those people an experience of the Church is to get out there and talk to them. Now, I will be the first to admit that evangelization is a very easy thing to talk about but a very difficult and uncomfortable thing to do. Whenever I talk to Catholics about evangelizing, we all have the same, reluctantly repulsive reaction: that’s important business, but that’s business for somebody else. We anticipate that an evangelizing conversation will be a difficult conversation and, thus, expect the outcome to be negative. But, as I preach as much to myself as to you, that notion may be somewhat misguided, for two reasons.

First, lumping evangelizing conversations in with every other kind of difficult conversation is a mistake, because evangelizing conversations are unique in that the one really doing the conversing is not us, but God. Remember what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: “you received [from us] not a human word, but as it truly is, the word of God.” If God speaks when we speak about God, then it is God who is doing the heavy lifting. We, in turn, become the mouthpiece, the medium through which his word passes and reaches the other. Now, this does not mean that we need only open our mouths and suddenly God’s voice will come out. God speaking through us will use all of us, our thoughts, our intuitions, our way of relating to others. For this reason, we need to learn about God, to fall in love with God, and nurture our relationship with God each and every day; otherwise, the word of God will not speak as clearly through our humanity. St. John Henry Newman’s motto was a perfect summary of what’s going on when we evangelize: cor ad cor loquitor—heart speaking to heart. God’s heart speaks to ours, forming us, and through our heart, his heart speaks to the hearts of others. So, while evangelizing involves difficult conversations, the burden of the difficulty is entirely on the one for whom nothing is impossible. And, further, since bringing people to faith is his project, he will work it out in his time, not ours. The conversation you or I have may not seal the deal; it may just be one part of God’s larger, far more intricate plan. Overcoming our first hesitancy to evangelize is easy: simply remember that it is God’s work. Overcoming the second is more complicated.

An effective salesperson needs to have (at least have the appearance) of credibility. Someone going door-to-door peddling their wares must at least look like they think their gadget or gizmo will change your life; and a person who doesn’t sell products but rather advice should at least appear to live by what they preach. It is not, unfortunately, beyond the capacities of human brokenness for there to be in some people a complete disconnect between how they expect others to live and how they live themselves; yet I can tell you as someone who is weekly, even daily, in a position to tell you how I think you should live, anyone with even a touch of honesty wants to resolve whatever disconnect between word and practice there may be. Chances are your hesitancy, as well as mine, for trying to convince others to be Christians comes from a feeling that we aren’t very good Christians ourselves. How can we expect others to live what we fail to live ourselves?

Rather ironically, that this hang-up to evangelization is so firmly lodged in our Christian consciousness might be the fault (so to speak) of Christ himself! Jesus never speaks so forcefully in the Gospels than when he denounces the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees, who preach but do not practice. We have heard these Gospels often and  taken them to heart and, by consequence, are on guard against any semblance of being a religious hypocrite. This is good, and we obviously cannot fault our Savior for anything, so it is ultimately for our good that he has placed this caution within us. Yet even as we strive to be credible Christians and time and again fall short, we cannot let the fact that we are not perfect Christians inhibit us from proclaiming the Gospel according to which we are laboring to be formed. For who is the better teacher: the one who has every answer and stands on the moral high ground looking down on those who are still searching, or the one who, in their own quest for understanding, walks with their students on the way toward the truth? What Christ seems to teach us is that the most effective evangelizer is the one who proclaims, in Paul’s words, “not only the gospel of God, but our very selves as well.” The Christian who evangelizes well is the one who shows the world how the Gospel shapes their life, even if imperfectly; for this produces a credibility that is proven through lived experience and shows that the Gospel has force to sustain us and advance our growth even in our failures.

We may overcome some of our hesitation to evangelize by remembering that it is God’s work and that it’s OK, even helpful, that we are not yet perfect Christians. So then, let us let God, who is perfect, do the work in us that he is about.

Homily delivered November 4/5, 2023 at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen and St. Thomas Aquinas Parish.