Got an Evangelization Moment?

𝙀𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙯𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧

Through the years at work, I've learned that wearing a Jesus (or Mary or a saint) medallion or crucifix seemed to capture my clients' attention, and without me even trying, it elicits them to open up, ask and talk about faith, prayer or church conversations. I find many people are living in quiet desperation, longing for something transcendent.

As an introvert, this is one simple way of evangelizing and sanctifying my workplace especially working on a setting or system that is imperfect.

Excited to hear your #holymoments story, too. Who knows, "you may be the only Jesus some people see."  

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Politics are Hot Buttons, Indeed! (A Basic Catholic Principle for Electing Officials)

Whether you are red or blue or in between, I like to share what Dr. David Anders from EWTN said that, for me, succinctly articulated my political philosophy in the hope it may help enlighten those of what as a Catholic should decide, even for a little bit.

 

"The CHURCH has maintained always that no ideology, whether conservative, liberal, capitalist, socialist-- no political ideology is adequate to really capture the essence of the human person or of human flourishing, because people are transcendent beings, body and soul, made in God’s likeness and image and we have a transcendent destiny, and so there’s no material construction of civil society that is adequate to man’s transcendent end.

There are however some basic natural law principles, things that we can know naturally about human flourishing that have to be respected in any civil society. And one of them, Pope Leo XIII made this point very plainly in 'Rerum Novarum'--the first of the social encyclicals--is the right to private property, the right to marriage, its duties and privileges, man-woman-child as the foundational cell of civil society, the right to life, the principle of subsidiarity that we ought not to construct these superstructures over the state that govern every aspect of our lives but that society ought to be thick with mediating institutions, voluntary societies, churches, families, baseball clubs, etc. and you only bring in these massive superstructures to deal with those things that absolutely can’t be dealt with at the local level, you kind of need the federal government to lay down interstate highways and armed forces to protect the country, they don’t need to be down there micromanaging everybody’s life. All these things are principles of Catholic moral theology and political theology. 

And so some of the more radical visions of social reforms out there seem to me to run roughshod over some of those principles and I would be deeply uncomfortable with them." - Dr. Dave Anders, Called to Communion.

"Citizens have co-responsibility for society. The moral theology tradition teaches that one may not vote for an enemy of religion or of freedom except to exclude a worse enemy of religion or of freedom."

I also like to echo the phrase what again Fr. Ed Meeks beautifully exhorted in one of the masses he celebrated popularly captured on video. And that is we need to "think with the Church."

Jesus left us the Church for a reason (Matt. 16:18) and it is in her that we find the pillar and foundation of truth (1 Tim. 3:15).

 

Purgatory is not an essential doctrine, but an optional one, just like limbo?

In the following posts, I will be attempting to share some sort of a Q & A series taken from Karl Keating's book "What Catholics Really Believe" which I thought was pretty appropriate for this blog's originally intended purpose, and that is to educate and inform Lukewarm Christians, in particular Catholics, about common misconceptions of our Catholic faith and teachings and thereby find ourselves living the faith merely in mediocrity or none at all. Sometimes I may add or edit a few to make some more points or extra emphasis.

#31 Purgatory is not an essential doctrine, but an optional one, just like limbo?

Double mistake: 1. Putting purgatory and limbo at the same doctrinal level. 2. Saying purgatory is an optional doctrine.

Pope Gregory the Great Saving the Souls of Purgatory by Sebastiano Ricci oil painting

Purgatory is a defined dogma of the Catholic faith. Meaning, as a Catholic you MUST believe in it.

Limbo has a different status. It arises from theological speculation, not revelation. If you find the speculation convincing, you may believe in limbo but if you find it unconvincing, that's fine too, you have the option not to believe in it. Probably it is fair to say, today, fewer theologians writing in favor of limbo than there were 50 years ago. When they refer to limbo, they mean the limbo of infants, where unbaptized infants are said to go, as distinguished from the limbo of the Fathers, where good people who died before Jesus' resurrection were waiting for heaven to be opened to them. Since the limbo of the Fathers is specifically mentioned in 1st Peter 3:19, Catholics must believe it.

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To get the full scope of the explanation, find Karl Keating's book at Amazon below

One Reason Why Posting "Religious Stuff" Online is Important

I like to share "stuff" about my Christian faith in social media particularly on Facebook once in a while by posting articles, memes, quotes and the like, mainly to educate or spread awareness especially to anti-Catholic, atheist, agnostic and polemical individuals (special thanks to them, they were one of the primary reasons behind why I started learning more and appreciated more my Catholic faith and tradition). I even created a page on the topic and tried my venture on selling Christian apparel online recently as well. (If it weren't for these reasons, I would have long readily departed with and deactivated my Facebook account.)

However, I'm pretty sure some friends on Facebook do not share the same sentiment, passion or interest I do and probably find my religious musings quite annoying or overbearing by now. I might be wrong but it's just a sense. So I wish to share one point why I am sharing "religious stuff" fairly "religiously", why go through all the trouble, sometimes not making myself look good, instead of just doing common things people do on Facebook: Self-promotion (e.g., taking selfies, food and travel photos, brand new cars, bags, shoes, etc., all the fun stuff)

I was inspired to write this blog piece to share a point made by a Catholic apologist Patrick Madrid from his audio talk "Right here right now" in particular when he ended his talk with a short story and its take-away lesson on why it's important that we need to engage and share our faith to others. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope St. John Paul II even affirmed that we should make use and take advantage of social media and online technology to communicate and evangelize in this new millennium. I may add that we need not worry if we think of ourselves unworthy or others think of us as hypocrites. We are all sinful creatures. If you wait until you look yourself perfect in the mirror before you start sharing your faith and posting online, it will never ever going to happen.

"The world is a dangerous place to live;

Not because of the people who are evil,

But because of the people

who don't do anything about it."

(Quote attributed to Albert Einstein)

For me, sharing our faith is like a double-edge sword. I noticed when I share, it also edifies and challenges me to be a better version of myself (i.e. walk the talk), putting myself accountable in the public eye, in my friends' eyes, while at the same time attempting to evangelize or educate online in the hope there are people willing to take the time and effort to read and reflect what I shared with the same time and effort they put watching entertaining videos or politics or sports online, and with the same docility, seriousness and attentiveness they take reading and believing secular articles and news media with ease against Christianity, clerics and the Church without second thoughts or without worrying about fact-checking or deceitful historical story-telling or reporting. Of course we should approach evangelizing with caution making sure we do not become hubristic, arrogant and proselytizing (e.g., calling Atheists and other Christian harsh names and accusing others as idolaters, anti-Christ, perverting Christianity, etc., as I had heard and encountered quite a few, unfortunately in the Fundamentalist, fallen-away Catholic camp. Catholics are of no exception into this trap, either.) Keeping in my mind that evangelizing is not the highest goal of our Christian life as Contemplative life is. Of course, there are a lot of ways to share your faith that are more effective than the impersonal social media, I get that. I am writing just within the context of why posting relevant informative stuff about your Christian faith online is also of value, especially in a fast-paced, technologically driven world we are in nowadays.

"Do not be afraid, speak out, and refuse to be silenced; I am with thee, and none shall come near to do thee harm; I have a great following in this city."

(Acts 18:9-10)

Anyway, the story Patrick Madrid told and his closing remark goes this way. This was a true story.

"I was walking down a dimly lit street late one evening when I heard muffled screams coming from behind a clump of bushes. Alarmed, I slowed down to listen and panicked when I realized that what I was hearing was the unmistakable sounds of a struggle: heavy grunting, frantic scuffling and tearing of fabric.

Only yards from where I stood, a woman was being attacked. Should I get involved? I was frightened for my own safety and cursed myself for having suddenly decided to take a new route home that night. What if I became another statistic? Shouldn’t I just run to the nearest phone and call the police?

Although it seemed an eternity, the deliberations in my head had taken only seconds, but already the cries were growing weaker. I knew I had to act fast.

How could I walk away from this? No, I finally resolved, I could not turn my back on the fate of this unknown woman, even if it meant risking my own life.

I am not a brave man, nor am I athletic. I don’t know where I found the moral courage and physical strength — but once I had finally resolved to help the girl, I became strangely transformed. I ran behind the bushes and pulled the assailant off the woman.

Grappling, we fell to the ground, where we wrestled for a few minutes until the attacker jumped up and escaped.

Panting hard, I scrambled upright and approached the girl, who was crouched behind a tree, sobbing.

In the darkness, could barely see her outline, but I could certainly sense her trembling shock.

Not wanting to frighten her further, I at first spoke to her from a distance.

“It’s OK,” I said soothingly, “The man ran away. You’re safe now.”

There was a long pause and then I heard the words, uttered in wonder, in amazement.

“Dad, is that you?” And then, from behind the tree, stepped my youngest daughter, Judy. 

Just imagine what would have happen if that Father had taken the easy way out, if he had not taken the risk, if he had not been willing to put his life on the line. Imagine if he had found out later that it was his own daughter. This story reminds us poignantly of our own need to step forward and not just know what we believe, not just know why we believe it, but be willing to share it.

Just when I was about to wrap up this blog, it was time to attend mass with my family, so I saved the draft. In our church, every week there is a challenge question posted on the projector screen for congregation to reflect upon. Today that question they posted affirmed the blog I am currently writing:

And in that same church, few years ago, I had read I guess a fairly popular quote in a hand-made poster in the wall that is a stark reminder to all of us Christians (whether you are cultural, nominal, lukewarm, practicing, active, indifferent) about the value of knowing and sharing our Christian faith:

“If we don’t teach our children to follow Christ,

the world will teach them not to.”

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