3rd Sunday of Easter, Year A
Previous Years: 2020 || 2017
Preached at the Church of the Assumption in Bellingham, WA
Recording
https://moorejesus.podbean.com/e/evangelizing-through-our-passions/
Transcript
Thanks to T.V. for editing this transcript.
I say it often and I’ll say it again. We are experiencing one of the greatest crises the Church has ever seen, and I might say, one of the greatest crises that Western society has ever seen. The mass de-Christianization of the West, the sheer number of people who are leaving the Church, is one of the greatest problems our society and our Church has ever faced. This situation demands that our exclusive focus, or at least the greater focus that we should have, is on evangelization. We must try to bring people back to the Christian faith, helping those raised in the faith to retain that faith.
But when I talk about evangelization, many times people are picturing our first reading. We have Peter in the middle of Jerusalem just preaching to the crowds there. They are there for a major Jewish feast and he’s just laying it on them. You know that he must have been inspired by God because somehow, he was successful, despite telling them that you’re the ones who killed God. Yet, they were all baptized after he was done. It’s a hard image for us to picture going out on the corner of State and Holly and just preaching to the crowds, or anyone who comes. We don’t expect to find success in that, and knowing society, we probably wouldn’t find success in that. So, if that’s your image of evangelization, I can understand why you don’t love the fact that I bring it up a lot because it’s hard It doesn’t fit with us very well. It’s not something we look forward to or are excited about. But true evangelization is not preaching to the crowds. True evangelization is an invitation into something that we’re passionate about; to our families, our friends, and our intimate networks. So, let’s look at our gospel. It’s a model, a pattern of what evangelization looks like. We have these two guys and what’s interesting about them is that they are a good analogy for a lot of people who are raised in faith but never found faith. They were following Jesus around, likely pretty excited about him. At one point they said, they thought that he was the Messiah, but now they’re in a place without . Because they knew about the resurrection., women from the group went to the tomb but. they didn’t find the body. Some disciples, some fellows from our group went and confirmed the women’s account. They didn’t find the body. Jesus is not dead, but they can’t accept it. They don’t get it. So they’re sort of in a lukewarm place. They know Jesus. They want Jesus to be the Messiah, but they don’t understand how he could be. They don’t really understand. So they’re walking along the way away from Jerusalem. Then Jesus comes and He gives them a new perspective and thus no longer have to guess how it is the Lord after all.
Somehow Jesus is able to use the right words so that their hearts are aflame within them and their doubts, all of this struggle, is somehow replaced with passion. Now that they are once again on fire for the Lord, now that they have that flame within them, once Jesus breaks the bread, they recognize him and they have an experience of the risen Lord. They say, we’ve seen him and this account from the women and the other disciples is true. We know that he’s here. So what do they do after that? Well, they rush back to Jerusalem. Now remember, they’ve been walking all day and this is Easter Sunday. They probably left mid-morning because they have the account from the women and the other disciples. It has been a day’s journey from Jerusalem and they’re stopping because it’s nighttime and very dark on ancient Roman roads. You don’t go out after dark, that’s how you get robbed. That’s where the Marauders are so it’s a safety thing. They’re coming inside to be safe, and they’re a little bit worried about Jesus saying he’s going to go on further because there might not be another inn before it gets dark, and Jesus will not be safe. So they’re in this inn and when they recognize Jesus, all caution goes out the window. It doesn’t matter that Jerusalem is another eight hour walk back the other way in the dark where it’s dangerous.
They set out immediately. They don’t wait. They are so on fire and impassioned for their experience of the risen Lord that they have to get back to Jerusalem, and they have to tell everybody in Jerusalem that they have seen Jesus. That’s what it looks like for us once we have that passion, once we recognize the risen Lord. We have to talk about it. We have to tell people about it. It’s hard to keep it in. And all of the barriers that we put up to evangelization, all the reasons why it doesn’t work for us. For example, oh, I don’t want to talk about it. It’s kind of awkward. This person might not really want to talk to me afterward. Oh, it’s not an appropriate context. All of those barriers go away. All of our worries about safety and security go away because we’re on fire for Jesus, and we can’t keep it in.
So again, what does evangelization look like practically? Step one find a passion. If you have never felt your heart burning within you for a matter of the Faith, keep looking. Catholicism is so broad, it is so wide, and there is so much in our faith that it just means you haven’t found the part that speaks to you. These guys needed the Scriptures opened to them before they were open to recognizing the risen Jesus. You might need something else. I love bringing in visiting priests, like next weekend with Father Albie, because they have a different perspective.
I know what I’m passionate about and as best as I can, I’ve tried to bring that passion to you. I trust that you will truly hear the gospel through me, because of my passion, not through my duties. If I talk about stuff I believe I have to talk about, you’ll realize I’m bored and not passionate and it will not work. So I talk about things like the Mass and canon awand philosophy. My passion is what’s sometimes called a genetic analysis of ideas. I like to know why we think what we do. Where have I our ideas come from? Why do we do the things that we do? What’s the history of them? The understanding that history connects us back to generations who have come before. So I’m passionate about that and I talk about it. I will give you an entire discourse on the Code of Canon Law, because I think in the Code of Canon Law, we have an entire history of Catholicism in legislation. It’s beautiful. But that that might not be your passion. So don’t rely on me. If that’s not your thing, look elsewhere. Watch some videos on form. Read biographies of the saints. Enter into different prayer experiences and devotions. We have to evangelize each other because those passions exist in our pews. Even if you don’t hear your passion from the ambo, share yours with your friends.
Make sure our parish knows the breadth of the faith and how wonderful and amazing it is. So if you haven’t found a passion, if your heart isn’t burning within you, keep looking. I know there is a way that the Lord will reveal himself to you. Mix it up. Do something new in the faith. If you have found your passion, share it. Share it because you’re excited about it. People want to hear you. Be excited about it. Talk about it with other people because that passion will evangelize. And then invite people into it. It’s one thing to say, oh, I read this fantastic book and stop there. That kind of leaves them hanging out in the wind. Instead say, I read this fantastic book. Would you want to read it with me again and talk about it? That’s a lot more appealing.
I’ll give you three examples from our parish. First , we have a woman who’s very devoted to the Rosary. She loves the Rosary. I’m constantly blessing Rosaries for her and she tells me stories. She says she has to go to the doctors a lot. So when she’s in the doctor’s waiting room, she’ll just pull out the Rosary and start praying And people will ask her, like, what’s that thing that you’re doing? Or what is this? Or, oh my grandmother had one of those. What is it or how do you use it? And she’s taught multiple people how to pray the Rosary in the doctor’s office or on the bus or whatever else. And knowing this woman, I think she’s a little more active than she’s letting on. , like getting people to ask about the Rosary. But we’ll just leave that to your imagination. But she’s inviting people into her passion! She wants to make sure that everybody has an invitation into this thing that she is so excited about.
We have another woman in our parish that was watching YouTube videos and said she found this priest who was recommending a 40 day bread and water fast, which is hard. I did bread and water fasts in college two days a week for a while and it’s miserable. I absolutely hated it and I fast in different ways now. But this woman, she was inspired to try it out. So she did a 40 day bread and water fast, and in that she saw the risen Lord. She had an experience of the of the providence and the love and the care of Jesus. And she was just on fire for this thing. So the next time she was ready to try it out, she invited her friends to do it with her. And I know at least one of her friends took her up on that offerand had a fantastic experience of the risen Lord because she was invited into this passionate experience of faith.
A third woman in our parish started listening to Bible in a Year right when it came out. You know, I took a while to get on that bandwagon. This woman convinced me that I needed to do it because she was so passionate about it. She was really into it, and she would talk to her family and friends about it. Her family members are now listening to Bible in a Year and she’s on her second time through. She invited me, other parishioners and her family into it. She’s now on fire for the Scriptures. An example. Somebody moved into her neighborhood and she learned that this person Was Christian but not practicing. So she invited them to do a Bible study together. So now she’s doing a Bible study on her blog. Not just because she’s excited about the Bible but because she’s passionate about it!
My friends, this is what evangelization looks like. It doesn’t look like a street corner with a megaphone. It looks like getting excited about your faith and sharing that excitement, inviting people into that excitement, saying, I’ve had an experience of the risen Lord. Do you want to have that experience with me?
Now two cautions. Caution number one. It’s really important that we talk about recognizing Jesus at the end of this because there are a lot of passions, a lot of things that cause our hearts to burn within us, that don’t terminate in a better relationship with Jesus. We’re in Bellingham so I’ll just use the very easy and obvious example. A lot of people here love hiking. They love mountain biking. They love being outdoors. This is great. There’s a lot of passion around that. You go around Bellingham, you’re going to see a lot of Subarus. You’re going to see a lot of bumper stickers about hiking. It’s just going to happen, right? Galbraith mountain is very busy today. Probably more people on the mountain than in the church, right? That’s okay to have a passion. It’s wonderful to have a passion. But if that passion doesn’t lead us to more prayer, coming to Mass, reading the scriptures, receiving the Sacraments, or service to our neighbor it doesn’t lead us closer to Jesus. It’s a passion but it’s not an evangelization. We need to make sure we’re clear about that distinction. For me, it was the 2008 live action Speed Racer movie. I watched that thing probably 25 times in college because I love it, and I never got tired of it, and I kept wanting more people to see it. And so every time somebody said they hadn’t seen the movie, I said, well, come to my dorm room on Friday, we’re going to watch it together. So I watched it a lot of times. I learned what evangelization was by talking about this movie, but it never pointed anybody to Jesus, right? So I learned the process, but I never saw the fruits of Faith. It’s not evangelization, it’s just a passion.
The second caution. Given the distinction between passion and evangelization there’s a specific category we have to be very careful with and it’s those parts of our faith that are politics adjacent. I’ll use the pro-life movement as an example just because I myself have been to the National March for Life and. I’ve stood in front of abortion clinics. So my experiences solidified this caution for something that’s politics adjacent. One of two things can be true. One, it leads us to Jesus. So for the pro-life movement, there’s this idea that trying to help women in crisis with a better option than abortion is a beautiful thing to do. You feel like you’re actually giving them options rather than desperation. You’re actually inviting them into a deeper loving experience rather than a violent experience. You’re speaking out for the marginalized and those without a voice. All of this will lead us closer to the Lord, who himself looks out for the marginalized and the voiceless, those who are in pain and struggle. It can be an experience of Jesus, but it can also be an excuse just to have political passions. A lot of us really like to fight about politics. There’s a part of us that really thrives on that. And the pro-life movement can be the, quote unquote, Catholic approved way to fight about politics. If it’s just a fight about politics, if it’s just a way for me to enter into my political tribe, and it doesn’t lead me to Jesus, it’s not evangelization.
Two people can do the same thing stand in front of the same abortion clinic, pray for the same people, and one can be an experience of the risen Lord, and one can lead us away from the risen Lord. So we just have to be careful with that category when we’re evangelizing through those means. All of this is to say, that I don’t want anybody in our church to feel overwhelmed by the idea that preaching the Gospel is important and that it’s all of our responsibilities. When you are passionate about something, it becomes very easy, you will feel it. I never felt ashamed at asking somebody to watch the 2008 live action Speed Racer movie, because I loved it. If you love Jesus, if you love your Faith, if you are excited about the saints or prayer or service or whatever it is that helps you see the risen Lord, then evangelization becomes easy and automatic. You won’t care about the marauders on the road. You won’t care that it’s dark outside, or that it’s an eight hour journey that you just made. You’re just going to do it because you love it, because you’re excited about it. If you’re not yet excited about the Faith, keep looking as there is something out there for you. And if you are excited about the Faith, keep talking and keep inviting because the people around you need to hear it.
Fr. Moore 