The universal call to missionary discipleship, as I mentioned last week, can seem a little intimidating. We perhaps have in our mind what a missionary might look like, or at least somebody who publicly proclaims the faith. We think of people who teach the faith and might think: “I cannot do that.” You might listen to a priest or deacon preach at Mass and think: “I could never do that.” But those are only a few expressions of missionary discipleship.
I recently heard Dr. Edward Sri, a well-known Catholic speaker and teacher, use an analogy that I find helpful in this regard. He described the experience of having seen a good movie. When we go to our friends, we are eager to share our experience with them. We are not film critics or experts in cinematography, but that does not prevent us from sharing what we liked about the movie, inviting our friends to go see that movie as well. The same is true with sharing our faith. We do not need to have an advanced degree in theology to share our faith. Pope Francis makes this point in the quote that I shared last week. The pertinent line is as follows: “indeed, anyone who has truly experienced God’s saving love does not need much time or lengthy training to go out and proclaim that love.” (Evangelii Gaudium, 120)
Before proposing some practical ideas on how to be a missionary disciple, I want to suggest a possible reason why we might be hesitant to share the faith. I think we can find the reason in the very next line from the Holy Father in the above-mentioned quote: “Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus.” I note the use of the phrase: “to the extent.” One of the principal reasons why we can be hesitant to share the Gospel is because we have not let the love of God in Christ Jesus penetrate our hearts. Sure, we know that God is love, and we will even be willing to acknowledge that God loves us. But so many of us have hardly encountered that love in a personal and profound way, such that our lives are changed by it. We go to Mass, we say our prayers before meals, we may even read the Bible or pray the Rosary, but that does not necessarily equate to personally encountering the love of Christ. He can and does offer that gift to us through those means, but He will never force Himself on us. He asks for hearts open to receiving His love and letting that love penetrate to the very core of our being.
Some of you reading this have indeed encountered that type of love from the Lord, and thanks be to God for that! But some of you reading this may have not truly encountered that love yet. The good news is that there is hope! We are never too old or inexperienced to have His love surprise us in a powerful way. Opening ourselves to encounter God’s love for us is therefore the first and fundamental step in beginning to live missionary discipleship. Practically speaking, this means taking time each day to open ourselves to encounter that love. We call this prayer. We can continue to recite our normal prayers, read the Bible, and go to Mass. But we need some time each day to come face to face with Our Lord, to be aware of His look of love upon us, and to enter into communion with Him, sharing our hearts with Him, so that we can be more open to the sharing of His heart with us, which is always taking place, just waiting to be received. As the saying goes: “You cannot give what you do not have.” We cannot share the Good News that Christ wants to share with others if we have not experienced and are convinced that the Good News applies to us.
So if missionary discipleship seems difficult, perhaps that is a good gauge of where you are in your personal relationship with Jesus. Have no fear if where you are at is not where you would like to be. Ask the Lord to open your heart more to His love for you, and that love, once received, cannot be kept to ourselves. Like the experience of seeing a great movie, we will not be able to wait to share with others the goodness of God’s love and His desire to deepen that love with all of His children.
Father Alford