- Make sure my relationship with Jesus is developing and growing.
- Discover what my God-given gifts and talents (Charisms) are.
- Discern with Jesus’ help how He wants me to use these gifts and talents.
- Remember that whatever environment I am in, I am to represent Him in that environment.
- Be the Gospel in that environment.
- Rinse and repeat.
For what it’s worth, when I think about evangelization, I think we are making something that should be second nature and straightforward way too difficult. I believe it needs to be easy to understand. That is: a relationship with Jesus, an understanding of what we individually can do, and then sharing Jesus with others. That’s it. Now, I am not saying it is easy. I am saying it should be easy to understand. And one additional thing: we are charged by the King Himself to “go and make disciples of all nations.”
He wants each and every one of us involved in bringing Him to this fallen world. Think about that! He is counting on each and every one of us to be on the playing field, manning our position in this war between Him and evil. What an incredible honor.
As Pope Pius XI once said to Dorothy Day:
“Let us thank God that He makes us live among the present problems. It is no longer permitted to anyone to be mediocre.”
We become intentional disciples of Our Lord Jesus Christ when we share Him with this world. G. K. Chesterton once wrote: “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.”
Here is my final point. Think of who and what you really deeply love. Answer that for yourself. Now I know that you share those loves with other people. It might be golf (why did I think of that just now?!). It could be your spouse, best friend, traveling, or a host of other passions. You cannot not share those loves. It brings you joy to give them away.
You know where I’m going here. If you really love Jesus as much as you say you do, then you need to give that love away to others. They may not need to play golf, but they surely are in need of the King of Kings.
What are we waiting for?
De Colores!
Tommy Smith
Lay Coordinator / South Carolina Catholic Cursillo