AMDG
(my brother, by the way, used me as a cushion and didn't get a mark on him.)
I work as a lifeguard and wear shorts when I guard, so my knee is on display for whomever comes in. Several of the regulars asked what happened to me, especially because I had it all wound up in an ace bandage. Band-aids and joints go together about the same as open wounds and gross pool decks. So, I told them each the story about how I tripped over my own feet in a parking lot. One guy, a man I hadn't seen before, asked if it was at the Y that I'd done it, and I said no, it was at church. And he asked me where I go to church and I told him. And then he talked about how it was good to see that I went to church, because it's really just awful how many people don't believe in God and I said yeah, it's really sad, and then he asked if I would pray for him, and I said sure. And then he said he'd pray for me, and asked my name, and as he started to paddle down the length of the pool he called out that he was praying for me right then.
And I don't know if he'll ever set foot in a Catholic church. I don't know if he will remember me talking about being Catholic. I don't know if he will ever wonder more about the church I call home and ask questions.
I know that it was an encounter that touched my heart. I don't know if it touched his, but I'd like to think so.
Because the point of evangelization, the point of the gospel, the very heart of it all, isn't winning debates. It's loving, and it's proclaiming the good news. It's having the guts to say "yeah, I go to church,", and it's not laughing at that joke and it's making the sign of the Cross in public and yeah, sometimes arguments and counter-arguments are necessary.
But you are not the point. When we die, there will be no scorecard of how many theological smackdowns you smote that co-worker with. There will be no awards due to how many people you fricking schooled on the Real Presence or the Virgin Birth or the papacy.
Even thought that's easier, isn't it?
It's easier to get angry and it's easier to set it up as a legal debate and it's easier to make it all a head game, but human beings have hearts and before any of that, we have to love and we have to be presented with things in a natural, human way if we are to really learn them and care about them.
And I think a lot of us think that you need to go to a far off place to evangelize, or have a theology degree. We think you need to be a confrontational person, or a really nice person.
Nope.
There is evangelization by means of the soap-box, by means of scholarly papers, but more important, I think, is the kind that comes slowly and naturally.
There is the messy kind, the human kind, the kind that comes in answering questions about that funny brown necklace you wear; the kind that comes in mentioning Mass when someone asks what you did over the weekend, The kind that comes of saying "I'm sorry to hear that," and then saying "I'll pray for you," and then actually praying. The kind that comes when you live life the way Jesus did and let the consequences of that come as they may.
And it's hard. It's very hard, but maybe it shouldn't be. Because it's like telling someone you got accepted to that school, or you're getting married, or you got that promotion, or he asked you out, or that meeting went way better than you expected, or you were able to get free ice cream; except it's so much better than that, because ice cream and acceptance letters won't last forever, but He will, and His love for you will.
Ask Him to let you see Him in the ordinary. Live like He is your best friend, the sort of person whose name comes up in casual conversation. Because even skinned knees can be an evangelization.
Awesome, Kate! And "fricking schooled on the Real Presence..." That's a keeper. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteIt was actually crazy to realize what I was reading because just yesterday I was sitting on a bench when this guy came up to me with his SOAPBOX (literally he was carrying a stepping stool) and asked me if I knew my sins were forgiven. I said yes sir, I'm a Catholic, and he became really aggressive and told me how the Church was wrong and how I should start questioning it. It left me really shaken because I wasn't expecting an attack and I couldn't defend myself--and didn't want to. Because that sort of aggressiveness isn't going to reach anyone (and it only made me sit there and cry when he left). This was really sweet! I love the little moments I can share my faith with people in a genuine way that leaves them thinking--even if it's just answering an innocent question. That's free-range evangelization!
ReplyDeletepreach, sista! ;-)
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