Why don't Catholics evangelize?

Homily for Feast of Ascension May 20, 2012

Before He ascends into heaven, Jesus tells his apostles, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.” Now one might study this statement and wonder how it could apply to one’s own personal life, asking “What is this passage saying to me?”

          This passage, my friends, should speak directly to your heart. It’s telling all of us, every one of us, to be evangelizers of the Word. Now I’m willing to bet that no one gathered here today considers themselves excellent evangelizers. It’s rare that one would step forward and say, “Here I am, ready and willing to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.” I mean, after all, we have our own lives to live, important tasks to perform to care for and maintain the well-being of our families. We just don’t picture ourselves as evangelizers. We don’t feel called to go around telling people about all the wonderful things relating to the Catholic faith.

          A few weeks ago, two people from one of the religions well-known for knocking on doors, rang my doorbell. They asked for a few minutes of time to listen to a spiel on why I should convert to their religion. I listened for a while and was astounded at their lack of knowledge of what we would consider the basics of our faith—The Trinity—3 persons in one God; the two natures of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, and other beliefs we state ever so clearly when we profess the Nicene Creed at every weekend Mass.

          After an extended period of my refuting their very literal interpretations of random Bible quotes, I tried to wrap it up by noting, how much I admired them for having the fortitude to go out and knock on doors in the name of their beliefs. One of the 2, quiet up until that point said, "When one is as passionate as we are about our faith, we can’t help but get out & knock on doors."

          That caused me think for a while. I wonder how many Catholics today are so energized by their faith that they would tell everyone they met about it? Probably very few. I mean, we have missionaries, like The Glenmarys, the Maryknolls, and others who belong to religious orders whose mission is to do precisely just that. But as far as the average Catholic in America, likely no.

           

But this is precisely what today’s gospel calls us to do! And also in the first reading, we hear, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Jesus asks his followers to proclaim the gospel to everyone. Yet few people do it. Why? Seems we as Catholics are kind of tepid when it comes spreading the good news of our faith. We may not feel comfortable doing so. We may not feel empowered to do so. We may be unsure of some aspects of Catholic doctrine. We may feel insecure if someone asks us to explain Purgatory, or our devotion to Mary, or praying to the saints to intercede for us.

          But in spite of that I think there is much that each of us can do to be evangelizers. We live in an area that is only 5% Catholic. So we all know that Catholic myths are abundant. We come into contact with many people in the course of our daily lives: relatives, friends, co workers, neighbors, and even strangers who we might strike up a conversation with. A heavy handed monologue about how great your religion is never a welcomed conversation. But when the opportunity presents itself, consider a simple affirmation of what it means to be a Catholic. Consider offering a clarification of one of the many myths about Catholicism. This can work wonders to clear up ambiguities folks may have about our faith and its practice.

          We all are well aware of the well-known quote attributed to St Francis “Spread the gospel at all times; use words if necessary .” Now this is very sound advice as a guide to living the moral life. But someone who abides by the commandments and practices the Beatitudes may not necessarily be a Catholic.

I know a Catholic friend who keeps a Bible and a copy of the Catechism in his office at work. If he ever runs into a question or someone asks about his faith, he responds in a soft voice, with clarity about what his Catholic faith means to him. That’s all it takes to be an evangelizer.

Enough can’t be said for good Catholic books and periodicals to be a part of every household. Copies of the leading publications are available in the Narthex. Pick one up and stay apprised of current events in the church as well as brushing up on Catholic beliefs.

In our first reading, from Acts, the apostles were challenged to begin the task at hand. As they watched Jesus disappear into the clouds, two men ask them: “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?”

The apostles were not supposed to spend their time staring nostalgically at the stars. There was work to be done. So they left the mountain, went into the city, and prepared for the phenomenal mission that was about to start – the spreading of the gospel to every corner of the world.

It is tempting on this feast of the Ascension to experience it the way the apostles did, to gaze into the heavens and to ponder the clouds and to pray over the miracle of this great moment.

But Christ’s words to his apostles are words to us all. “Go.” He wants us to go on a mission. The world will not be converted on a mountaintop. The message will not be spread in the clouds. It will happen in workplaces and the schools, in public places and private homes, and in media of all kinds. We are summoned to confide in others what it means to live out our faith as Catholics. Invite someone to Mass, ask inactive Catholics why they have fallen away. Tell them what they’re missing in the Eucharist, the very Body & Blood of our Lord Jesus.

And that is what the disciples did. They prayed. They read. And then got up and set out into the city, to make disciples of all nations.

This feast of the Ascension calls us to open our hearts and to begin spreading the Word of God. So, do not stare at the heavens too long. The Kingdom of God is waiting to be spread. Sooner or later, we all must turn our eyes from the heavens, and direct ourselves to the work on earth. Sooner or later, we have to go and make disciples of all nations.

There is no better time than now. As we gather at this Eucharistic table, let us be thankful that we live in the Spirit of the One who was raised from the dead, and ascended to the Father. Let us also be mindful of the task presented to us—to spread the Good news of our life in the risen Christ.

Why does Protestant Bible have 7 fewer books than the Catholic Bible?

Many folks are puzzled by the fact that the non-Catholic Bible has seven fewer books in its Old Testament than the Catholic Bible. For an extensive discussion on this topic, watch this video from Fr Martino:

Fr Martino on OT Canon

 The condensed version is:

In 2nd Century BC, Jewish scholars translated the  Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. Seven of the books were originally written in Greek, not Hebrew, but the 70 rabbis doing the project kept them anyway.

In 400 AD, St Jerome translated the Bible into Latin (called the Vulgate version). He opined that only those originally written in Hebrew should be part of the Canon, the other 7 should be tossed out. St Augustine weighed in, and said no, we should retain them all. The Council of Hippo in 393 confirmed that all 46 OT books shall remain in the Canon.

During the reformation, Martin Luther raised the issue again, and said the 7 Greek books should be dropped. A few years later, the Council of Trent reaffirmed the Church's Canon of 46 OT books. Luther & his followers decided to stick with only 39 books in their OT. So, today we have 2 separate versions of the OT.