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| Promising obedience at my priestly ordination |
This past Friday I celebrated my 11th Anniversary of being a priest. It’s honestly hard for me to grasp that I’ve been a priest for over ten years already, as the years have just flown by (and everyone tells me that life only speeds up the older I get!). I remember when I started college seminary in the fall of 2002. I had 8 years ahead of me of studying and being formed to be a priest after the Sacred Heart of Jesus, at least as close as the seminary could make me. But I remember thinking that it would take such a long time, and at times it felt like ordination would never happen!
But the eight years did fly by, and now 11 years have somehow gone even faster. The days were long, but the years were short. Still, by trying to do my best each day, and working hard to be receptive by God’s grace, those long days added up becoming a much shorter period than I expected.
When we have a daunting task, it can seem like it will never get done. For gardeners it can be weeding a flower bed after it’s been let go for some time. For homeowners it can be a major project around the house. For parents it can be raising children. For children it can be looking forward to graduating from high school when you’re in 6th grade. Whatever it is, if we try to think about the entire picture, we can easily give up because it’s too challenging, it seems too big of a project, it appears like it will never get done.
The same can be said for spreading the faith and preparing for heaven. It can seem like we’re never going to make a difference or have someone come back to or join the Church. Or living a saintly life can seem like we have to change so many things immediately, and it will never get done. St. Paul reminds us today that we are to be courageous. We should not let the magnitude of the task at hand as followers of Jesus get us down.
Instead, Jesus reminds us in the Gospel that great things start from small things. The mustard seed is quite small, but it turns into a larger bush. The plants never seem to grow quickly enough, but then, before you know it, they are sprouting and bearing fruit. If you were to look at the growth each day, it would seem miniscule. But, over time, the growth is real and measurable.
I would suggest that, for at least some of us, this is the approach that we should take to evangelization. Perhaps we think about evangelization as walking around the City of Flint, knocking on doors and telling others about Jesus. And that is one way. Or maybe we think about a big event, with a world-renown speaker, with showy lights and technological wonders. Those things can work, and especially for extroverts those can be great avenues for spreading the faith. But what if you’re an introvert? What if the idea of going door-to-door and talking to strangers about Jesus sounds as enticing as a root canal without novocaine?
If that is you, then I would encourage you to remember to start small. And you may not even be starting small to finish big; maybe you’re just continuing to spread the faith in small ways. But those small ways will pay off. Despite the requirements of my job, I’m not a “big crowds” kind of guy. I would rather have a conversation with one or two or maybe even three people, max. While my vocation foists me into opportunities where I am with larger groups, I really feel most comfortable talking one-on-one. And I find I’m most effective that way.
So the way I try to spread the faith is to find one person with whom I can talk about Jesus. Sometimes they’re already believers, and they just want to grow in their faith more. Sometimes they don’t know Jesus. But I find that it can really help them to understand who Jesus is, or what the Church believes, when I can just be with one or two persons.
Now, converting the world to Catholicism (which is our goal), would seemingly take forever just one or two people at a time, especially when that conversion often takes months, or years, or sometimes even decades. But those relationships that are formed with one or two individuals can often be long lasting, and can be relationships of trust that allows a person more easily to open him or herself up to Christ. And, if that one person is transformed by Christ, then hopefully he or she can find one or two people with whom they can share the Gospel. And pretty soon, what started small has become a conglomerate of people who are alive in their faith, all because a person decided to share about Jesus with a friend or a neighbor or even a stranger.
Our call to be a part of the New Evangelization can seem daunting when we look at the big picture. But if it’s overwhelming, just bite off a smaller bite; think about one person with whom you can talk about Jesus, and share the faith with that one person. It may start small, but the good things in the Kingdom of God often do.