Introducing people to Jesus

Homily
Tuesday of the 4th Week of Easter
27 April 2010
St. Lawrence Catholic Center

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Everyone should be an RCIA sponsor at some point. There are few better ways to strengthen one's faith than to pass that faith on to another. We make converts differently now than we did during the days of the first disciples. We hear in today's reading from Acts the disciples having great success making converts. Those first disciples had seen the Lord, and they were eager to introduce others to Him. They were eager to teach people how to be in a real relationship with Jesus Christ who had risen from the dead. In the early days, they did not have as large a tradition to teach as we do today, but they likely spent even more time than we do in RCIA talking about Jesus Christ, who He is and how to be in an enduring relationship with Him. They had a smaller tradition to teach, but they were making tradition by sharing with others their relationship with Jesus. They were called Christians - the ones who belong to Christ. They knew Him well, they were intimate friends with Him, so much so that they were convinced that in building community, they were introducing people not so much to themselves, but to Jesus.

In the same way, being an RCIA sponsor, or evangelizing at any level, is more than just teaching someone how to be Catholic. Evangelization today has to have a striking similarity to evangelization at the beginning. It is taking interest in another person, and letting them get to know you, confident that if your own relationship with Christ is strong, that in meeting you they will really be meeting Christ. Jesus says as much to those who are trying to figure out who He is. In saying that He and the Father are one, Jesus is inviting those who seek to know Him that in knowing Him the person they are meeting just as much is the Father. The difference between evangelization and proselytizing is seen clearly in today's Gospel. Jesus is not commanding obedience to an answer to the question of who He is. He is eliciting faith, by inviting those questioning Him to get to know Him, by drawing upon their relationship with the Father who sent Him.

So it is with us who evangelize today. Evangelizing is not so much about convincing others of the truth of Catholicism, although this is important. It is not so much about teaching another person the ways to be Catholic, although this is important. It is entering into meaningful relationships with others, confident that in letting ourselves be known, those who love us will not fall in love with us as much as they will fall in love with Jesus Christ, who is at the heart of who we are.