A Mini Lesson in Evangelization

I had to take a short trip for work to another facility & a co-worker needed to go there, too, & asked if he could catch a ride. I said jokingly, "As long as you don't mind listening to Palestrina's Lamentations of Jeremiah."

So, we motored out in my still-hanging-together Mini Cooper. Observing the trees down & other damage all alongside the road, we started talking about the weather & all the storms that have hit the area. The I switched on the radio & really did have Palestrina in the CD player, because our Latin Mass choir is practicing to offer Missa Brevis on Pentecost. I played a little of the Kyrie, & explained that this plea for God's mercy at the beginning of the liturgy was the last remaining Greek in the Roman liturgy.

Now, my friend is agnostic, but not anti-religious. He was simply not brought up in a household of faith & didn't know much about religion, even the Christian religion. In our prior conversations, he has always asked intelligent & straightforward questions about what Christians believe & the differences between the various Christian sects. This kind of questioning can be the most difficult to answer because of the lack of common language & presuppositions on which to proceed. It's not like discussing a point of disagreement with another Christian. You have to build your points from ground up & assume very little.

I've said it before, though, that the divisions between Christian groups is a huge scandal to non-believers. It confirms their suspicions. His question was along the lines of, "How can 2 different Christian groups read the same book of the same stories & come to such opposing conclusions about what it means?" A very fair question. I don't think we believers ask ourselves that question enough.

I started by confirming his doubt. In ancient times, there were all kinds of understandings & misunderstandings about who Jesus was, what he did, what it meant, & what we should do in response. Each group who believed something different used the Scriptures to support their position. I also pointed out that what we call the Bible today was really a collection of individual writings that varied among the different communities of the ancient world. I noted that all this points to the need of an authority outside of the Scriptures themselves.

Then I shifted the discussion toward Tradition. Jesus taught some thing; he did some thing; he handed on to his disciples some thing; to Peter, especially, he entrusted this thing & commanded that this thing be preached to all nations. I was so bold as to say that the Catholic Church believes that it has received this thing - this Faith - from Jesus himself; she is its custodian & passes it on to others throughout the ages.

When some people believed Jesus was merely a good teacher, it was the Church reflecting on what she had received that allowed her to declare, "False!" When others said Jesus was just a vision or spirit from God, not a real human being, the Church again was able to say, "False!" based the intimate knowledge she had received from the Lord. When some wanted to add this or that book to the list of biblical books, but toss out these others, it was the Church that was able to say, "No, this is what is true, because it accurately relates what I received from my Lord."

I didn't think to say this at the time, but describing Tradition as a rule of faith in contrast to Scripture is much like the difference looking through a scrap book or photo album of Dear Aunt Polly versus actually talking with Dear Aunt Polly's siblings, relatives, & friends. Later you find out that those same folks put together the photo album to begin with! Which source would you go to to understand some detail of Dear Aunt Polly's life? Not that I'm comparing the Lord of Lords & the King of Kings to Dear Aunt Polly. Jesus is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, fully God & fully man! And Dear Aunt Polly? Well, I just made her up.

I also mentioned the schism & fractures within Christianity itself. I said that this was never meant to be so, & that I knew this was a huge stumbling block for people. I said no Christian group can be an isolated island unto itself. Among Protestants one often finds the mentality of "church shopping" - keep moving around to you find one that suits you. Your favorite pastor's moved on? Then leave. Find another you like? Go there for a while. And so on. This can happen in Catholic circles, too, but I pointed out that one of the primary jobs of the Pope as the office of Peter is to ensure the unity of Christians, & that the Church is in discussion with virtually every major Christian group at some level to understand the reasons for their disunity & to seek reconciliation. I still hold great hope that I will live to see formal reunification with the Orthodox Churches, though God's will be done in all things.

At the end of our trip, I apologized for rambling so much, & my friend thanked me for answering his questions so thoroughly. I personally have found that whatever the topic or argument, the Catholic Church always has very intelligent & rational reasons for holding the positions that it does. But even beyond that, it has a deep & all-pervasive love for Jesus Christ. I think people who genuinely seek the truth are attracted by that. It has avoided devolving into an ideology or a movement of some kind, as all schisms are ultimately fated to do; she remains herself regardless, because she is only who she is because she has received it from Christ himself & is charged with handing it on to others.

In any case, the lesson here is that you have to be ready to share this Good News whenever, wherever, & with whomever the opportunity arises. Happy Eastertide!