B Cycle – 5^th Sunday in Ordinary Time 23

Mk. 1:29-39

The Church tells us we are “empowered to evangelize by our baptism.”  Yet the average Catholic will tell you they are ill equipped to evangelize. It can be intimidating to share your faith with people who do not go to church or have rejected Christianity.  Yet the church tells us we are empowered to evangelize; it is our duty, and we are equipped to share the good news.  Why do we feel inadequate?  Do we fear being challenged because we do not have enough knowledge to refute the challenges?  Is it a fear of losing a friend or breaking a relationship with a family member? 

I would say for the most part we are afraid because we do feel inadequate.  We are unable to defend what we believe.  That is a huge barrier to sharing our faith, but it is a poor reason based on a false concept of evangelization.  We are empowered to share our faith in Christ not the dogma or theology of the Church.  If our faith is based on obedience to the rules and dictates of our faith or on the exterior expression of faith it becomes a huge obstacle to effective evangelization.

If our faith is not in our hearts or if it is not based on experiencing the presence of Christ with us daily, then we have nothing to share but words. Without an experience of God to share we are empty vessels and have nothing to offer anyone but to repeat empty words.  We must be offering them more than doctrine.  We must offer them Christ.  We are the catalyst for others to seek an encounter with Christ not just to come back to Church.   

Paul the Apostle was a powerful evangelist because he spoke from his experience with Christ.  Remember he was a Pharisee, trained in the Torah and the Law.  He denied Christ was the Messiah and was active in arresting those who believed in Jesus.  We know he had a powerful encounter with Christ as he was on the road to Damascus to arrest Christians.  His experience was personal, powerful, and challenged everything he believed about Christ.  From that moment on his ability to proclaim the good news of salvation was based on his encounter with Christ.

Did he use his knowledge gained from his training as a Pharisee?  Of course, he did for that training allowed him to connect the intellectual with the personal.  But in the end, what he offered people was a clear explanation of the desire of God to reconcile each person individually to Himself.  How do we take years of faithfulness to the demands of our faith and become current day versions of Paul?  We share our story about our encounter with a merciful loving God we profess to believe in.  We share our experience about the transforming power of the Holy Spirit giving us eyes to see, minds to understand and hearts to respond. 

Remember, Paul had two encounters, two experiences.  He encountered Christ first and that encounter confused him, frightened him, and challenged his own faith.  Then he had an encounter when hands were laid upon him and the Spirit came upon restoring his sight and giving him a spiritual insight connecting all he knew intellectually with what he had experienced.  His ability to preach the gospel message of God’s love and God’s forgiveness flowed from his experiencing that love and forgiveness. That is what we offer to others when we evangelize.  We are inviting them to open themselves to experience what the prodigal son experienced.    

God has from the day Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden desired us to return to Him and experience what every person Jesus touched experienced.  Joy, freedom, love, mercy, forgiveness, choose your own word but what God offers everyone is an embrace that you will never forget. That is the message we share with others.  We do not just invite them to come to church. First, we must share our lives and our experience of God with them. We can express our experience in words that create within them a desire to act on that desire.  We could begin to feed that desire by encouraging them to read the scriptures. Where they will discover God does not condemn but welcomes; a God who heals not punishes, a God who longs for them and will never ignores them. 

We invite them to Bible discussions not bible studies. We invite them to spiritual programs that allow the participants to share their unbelief without being challenged. We invite them to deepen their faith by preparing them to encounter God not to meet an obligation. We must become what Paul became and that was a person who shared his own weakness and unbelief with others. Shared his own highs and lows with others. He became one with them and never condemned them.  He gave freely what he had received which was grace flowing from the throne of God.  Paul was a sinner redeemed, not condemned.  He became what we all are destined to become and that is the very image of Chrit (Rom.8:29).   

My brothers and sisters, we have a destiny which is ours to live if only we would embrace our destiny.  It is not to be faithful Catholics, practicing our faith.  It is to make our faith part of our lives and live it daily.  We have been given a treasure so great we simply cannot fathom its ability to change our lives just as it did Saul of Tarsus. We need to begin a journey to Damascus or to what ever destination God is directing you to begin.  It is a journey into the unknown and its impact on your life will be transformative.  But it is a journey we all must make if we are to become what God created us to be.   

The words of Jesus at the end of the gospel we heard today are critical for us to understand.  Let us go on to the nearby towns and villages.