Evangelization: No Exceptions - No Exemptions

What is evangelization? Three words can sum it up: bring Jesus everywhere. Evangelization is about sharing the truth of Jesus with our family, friends, strangers, and yes even our enemies. It is about teaching Jesus. Not in the sense of catechism. It is much more personal. It isn’t listing his attributes, or waxing philosophically about his qualities. It’s not about memorizing Bible passages, or recalling all his miracles, as wonderful as this may be. If we are teaching Jesus Christ, we need to illustrate who he is by conforming ourselves to his life. The way we evangelize most effectively is when we witness who Jesus is by the way we live his life in our own. It is every one of our responsibilities to evangelize: no exceptions - no exemptions.

There are three major components to evangelization: Encountering, Relationship, and Prayer. Jesus is so much more than a talking point. He is someone to approach. All the moments in Scripture where Jesus encounters people, he changes lives. The woman at the well, the prostitute about to be stoned, the greedy tax collector Levi, the blind man from birth Bartimaeus, the grave dwelling demonic, and the tree climbing little man Zacchaeus. My personal favorite is the Prodigal Son. The son tells his father he’s dead to him. His money means more to him than he does. You know the story, he leaves and wastes everything. He comes back home with his tail between his legs, depressed, and begs his father to let him come back home. What does his father do? Longing, dreaming, and praying for this day, the old man runs to his son. He lavishes love upon him. He throws some filets on the barbeque and they party. Jesus ends the story talking about mercy. Did you ever wonder what happened that next morning when the boy woke up? What did it feel like to know he was loved that much? Did he share with others how much having this love given to him meant and changed him? The big scary word, evangelization, is just us showing what Jesus has done for us and inviting others to encounter and experience this love too.

Sometimes when we try and evangelize, we can get caught up in theology, talking about something or talking at people. If we look at the Gospels, we see moments where Jesus is just being Jesus. He’s not being a theologian. He doesn’t talk at people, but he is present to them. He invited people to walk with him because he cared about them. There are countless moments when we have an opportunity to be present to others and share what Jesus has done for us. We too need to be present in such a way that people don’t just see us as a talking head, or somebody who just knows a bunch of stuff, but rather somebody who cares about them.

The last major component is prayer. To pray is to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen, to listen to him more than we talk. We need to avoid turning our prayer life into a cosmic vending machine. God is not a genie in a bottle, where we rub the bottle hard enough and get what we ask for. God is not Santa Claus. Jesus Christ is our Savior. It is about staying connected, even when some prayers seem to be unanswered. All the dots get connected in time. 

The bottom line is this: we don’t get to be a Catholic without evangelizing to others. To be capable of evangelizing effectively we must be rooted in Christ. We need to encounter Christ, enter into a relationship, and pray so we remain plugged in to him. Summing things up: We don’t have to pretend to be someone we are not, the only person we have to be is the true person Christ created us to be. And if we are true to that we can share the truth of his love and all he has done for us and will do for others. This is evangelization.