Sr. Anne Marie Walsh is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting for Facing Our Immortality online support group. Join Zoom Meeting: Please use the link below. Included are the meeting ID and password. Our meeting begins at 6:30 pm MT.

Topic: Definitive Questions

Time: Feb 12, 2024 07:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada); (NB) 6:30 pm Mountain Time

https://zoom.us/j/95448669169?pwd=eUZ0MzNTczZTcG1jVFZUSUNNOGM3Zz09

Meeting ID: 954 4866 9169

Passcode: 325195

Prayer: Remember O Most Gracious Virgin Mary…

Definitive Questions

The saints often cast our meeting with God at the end of our time on earth in terms of a life review in which certain questions are implicit.  How have you loved?  Have you kept my commandments?  What do you have to show for the gifts you’ve been given?

There is another plausible question that the Lord might ask us and which we may not be expecting: How many disciples have you made? 

Currently, there are about 1.3 billion Catholics in the world (which boasts an 8.1 billion population). If every Catholic devoted time to making at least one disciple, one convert, it would go a long way toward fulfilling the mandate Our Lord gave us to make disciples of the nations. Converts and reverts are often so fervent that they set off a momentum of interest, which in turn draws other people in.  So, your conversion of one person can often indirectly result in the conversion of many more.

Jesus laments that the harvest is plenty, and the laborers are few.  In other words, there is no reason to argue about how many are lost vs. saved because it ultimately becomes an indictment against ourselves.  So many need not be lost if we are doing our job as Catholics. 

Yet, evangelization is a word that scares the ordinary person because it is often misinterpreted.  Most people do not see themselves in the light of the common definition of a missionary.  Most people dismiss the concept as meant for “professionals,” priests, religious, etc.

However, in our Baptism, we are all called to go forth and make disciples.  So, it is something we need to take seriously.  One way to understand how we might proceed is to look at the early Church and learn how they understood this mandate and how they moved to fulfill it.

What becomes obvious in reading the Acts of the Apostles is that the early Church practiced evangelism in several different ways.  The Apostles went out to the corners of the earth and founded communities of disciples whom they formed and equipped for ongoing growth.  However, the members of those communities practiced what has been called “oikos” evangelism.  Oikos is a Greek word which means house or household.  Household referred to immediate family but also included extended family, friends, business and social associates, and even servants or slaves and their families.  How often do you read that the conversion of one person often led to the conversion of the whole family, the whole household?

Oikos has to do with your sphere of influence, those people you share something in common with either through kinship, work, or social connections.  It was the basic social unit and one by which the Church grew because of the immediate links of relationship, influence, and communication.  This is the realm in which the ordinary person practices evangelism. 

Today, one of our most popular pastimes is to sit around and argue about the state of the world, the state of religion, the state of our culture, etc. Yet, how many people have the right to hear the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ but have not heard it because of the passivity of believers? 

This Lent might be a good time to dip your toes into the work of evangelism.  Strengthen your own faith through prayer, and then consider one or two people you know who need to hear the truth of Jesus Christ and His saving power in their lives.  Begin praying for them daily and asking the Holy Spirit to give you opportunities to invite them to a deeper relationship with God, to show them what peace faith in God brings even during trial and difficulty, and to lead them to the deeper meaning of their life.

St. James tells us there is a tremendous reward when we work with Jesus in this way:

“My brothers, if anyone among you should stray from the truth and someone brings him back, he should know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.^”  James 5: 19-20. That’s the kind of heavenly return Jesus gives us for our little efforts.  There are no better deals in the whole universe!

1. The Scriptures point out that reaching the immediate family is not always easy.  “No prophet is without honor except in his own home…”. How can we move in Oikos Evangelism, given that challenge?

• Stop for a minute and think about how many people you know who are disconnected from God and need to hear the kerygma for the first time or need to be invited to draw near again.  How many do you know who have known God and practiced their faith and now have fallen away?  This requires a different approach.  What would the difference be?

• What special gifts do you think suffering in your own life might bring to a discussion about God with those who are far away from Him?

• What can you do when someone is not yet ready to “talk” about God?  What kinds of things can you do in the Spirit to make the ground softer and more receptive?