News From St Mary and St Joseph Catholic Church

THE YEAR OF ST. PAUL COMES TO AN END

Ask Catholics about evangelization and you get a mumble and a shrug. Evangelization? That's what evangelicals do, isn't it? It's not that Catholics think it's bad. Rather, it is that most Catholics simply have no idea what to do. So we console ourselves with the saying of St. Francis of Assisi: "Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words when necessary."

Over 2000 years ago, St. Paul no more felt equal to the task of evangelism than you or I do. His secret was not a technique or philosophy. It was that Paul believed that if he trusted in the Spirit of Jesus to provide the power and the wisdom, the Spirit would come through. And he did. We can do the same. The great thing about being Catholic is that you can plagiarize and call it "being faithful to the Tradition." You do not have to have a theological brain when somebody asks you what Catholics believe. You don't have to be clever. Go find a Catechism of the Catholic Church or get a copy of the Compendium of the catechism (a Q & A format of the catechism) written by Benedict the XVI, our pope. (Both are available in St. Mary's Corner Shop.)

Not particularly confident that your saintliness is such that by merely telling someone about the Church it will expose them to the living presence of Christ? Welcome to the normal Catholic life. You don't have to be Mother Teresa or some other spiritual giant. Just ask a friend to Mass. They will, we are solemnly assured by God himself, have a genuine exposure to the actual spiritual and physical presence of Jesus Christ himself. Those are but two simple ways in which you can bear witness. The key is not mastering the techniques of Paul. The key is having the faith of Paul that Christ will keep his promise to us.

On the way to Damascus, St. Paul had met the Risen Jesus amid a great flash of light. What Paul encountered was more than a concept or a new idea of God's love. It was a blinding and overwhelming experience of the love of God shining through the person of Jesus Christ. For the remainder of his life, Paul, the great evangelist, carried with him that experience of light and love---transmitting it by preaching and by letter to all he would address. Paul in his letter to the Galatians declares, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me"(2:19b-20).

In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul prays: "I pray that...Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breath and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with the fullness of God"(3:16-19). One who is filled with the fullness of God is certainly not separated from God nor from the love of Christ.

"If God is for us," Paul assures those suffering in Rome, "Who is against us? He who did not withhold his Son, but gave him up for us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:31b-32, 35, 37-39).

On June 29, we complete the 2000th year since the death of St. Paul. Join the team of evangelizers. "[We must] translate the Word we have heard into gestures of love, because this is the only way to make the Gospel proclamation credible, despite the human weaknesses that mark individuals. This requires a more intimate knowledge of Christ and an even more docile listening to his Word...The fullness of the divine scriptures is love" (Pope Benedict XVI).