I Don't Evangelize

Attraction, not Promotion.  AA Approach

In the sense of articulating our faith with the intention of convincing others...I don't bother. I don't even do the "new evangelization."

You would think, if anyone, I would evangelize:  I am a conservative, evangelical, charismatic, OLME-promising (Our Lady's Missionaries of the Eucharist), John-Paul-emulating, neo-catechumenal-influenced, ex-Maryknoll-seminarian, Communion-and-Liberation-accompanying, 12-stepping, Communio-reading, Trad-friendly, Catholic-Worker-admiring, confirmation-teaching Catholic. With that rich stew bubbling in my Catholic gut I should be preaching like Peter and Paul. But I am not! Why not? Several reasons:

1. One's deepest beliefs, values, longings, passions are opaque, mysterious and almost entirely invulnerable to rational argument. It is futile to try to reason someone into the Faith.

2. Worse than futile, it is counterproductive. The effort to convince  provokes resistance, defensiveness and resentment. For that reason the word "proselytize" has a negative meaning. We can do more harm than good even with the best of intentions.

3. Our faith is so precious and lovely that it can only be shared in an ambience of openness, freedom, trust, joy and beauty.  A strenuous, muscular, deliberate initiative is entirely inappropriate and even a little sacrilegious. The faintest hint of pressure, ulterior motive or calculation is toxic.  Jesus himself told us not to "throw pearls to swine." The point here is the exquisite worth of the pearls and their proper context and framing.

4. The relationship of God with each human soul is inexpressibly precious, intimate, delicate, and reverent. This is a sacred place where we dare not venture. Faith is always a gift, a personal gesture extended by God to this specific soul in a most unique, tender, creative manner. We keep a reverent distance. We pray.

5. The charism of leading others, individually or in the assembly, into intimacy with Christ is a very special one. I don't seem to have it. It is rare in my Catholic world where there is a shyness, a reticence about the faith that is not without humility and reverence.

Clearly what I am renouncing here is the intention to change the heart and soul of another. I cannot do that. I should not do that. I let God do that.

What I love to do, however, is to echo: to resound, acknowledge, praise, reflect, mimic, mirror, magnify and celebrate the Greatness of God in all that is Good-True-Beautiful in his world, our history, and  my life. Such is entirely spontaneous, serendipitous, organic, almost instinctive. It is the opposite of a calculation to effect a person or the society. 

For example: if I wake up to smell that the air is fresh, fragrant, breezy, dry, sunny, and entirely pleasant, I may impulsively exclaim "What a beautiful day." But, if my wife is in a bad mood, or mad at me, or always cranky in the morning, or hoping for rain for her garden...I will not try to make she see the loveliness of the day. I will restrain myself. I will wait. If later she comments, than I will join with her in the jubilation.

Our word "catechize" comes from a Greek root meaning "to resound or echo." So, I love to think of myself catechizing: echoing or resounding the Voice of Christ within the Church and the works of God in Creation and history. I see, hear, receive...and then I respond, emulate, proclaim, exult. I do this with others, always aware of their receptivity and sensitivity. If this is the truer meaning of Evangelize, than i do Evangelize!

My role models: Elizabeth Leseur, Charles De Focault, Elizabeth of the Trinity, Theresa of Liseux...all of turn-of-the-twentieth-century France.

Elizabeth Leseur shared a passionate, tender affection with  her militantly atheistic husband. As her entire social circle was secular and hostile to the Faith, she practiced her religion quietly, even anonymously. She never preached or argued.  People loved to visit and talk with her so attentive, compassionate and affectionate was she. In her memoir she recorded her love for Christ and her immense grief that she could not share it with her spouse. After her death, husband Felix read the diary and underwent a profound conversion. He became a priest and spent the remainder of a long life advancing the legacy of his wife who is now on the path to canonization.

Charles was an indulgent, pampered millionaire; then a daring soldier in North Africa; then a brilliant, fearless explorer of a Sahara unknown to Europeans; and finally a passionate mystic. Emulating the hidden life of Nazareth he eventually buried himself in the middle of the Sahara to live a humble, quiet life of adoration of the Eucharist and service to his neighbors. He was murdered in the desert: unknown, hidden, apparently a failure. Later his writings were found and have had immense influence in generating religious orders and lay movements including that of Kiko Arguello.

The Carmelite mystics Theresa and Elizabeth lived cloistered, hidden lives. Theresa ambitioned to be a missionary but the closest she got was her tender, touching correspondence with a tortured, priest missionary. Both lived sterling lives of prayer and holiness and mysteriously have influenced the entire Church.

Genuine evangelization is, then, not a program, an intention, an activism. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, hidden and mysterious, in the human soul. It happens invisibly, miraculously in the ambience of prayer and holiness. It is that quiet of holiness and prayer that we are called to cultivate, in ourselves and our shared life.

Holy, Humble, Hidden Ones...Elizabeth, Charles, Elizabeth, Therese...Pray for us! Influence us! Help us to quietly radiate the love of Christ in a world darkened by sin and disbelief!