Sharing Our Catholic Faith – A Practical Guide – Part 1

Live The Faith

The word Catholic means universal; and a basic aspect of our Catholic faith is that of spreading it or rather sharing it with others. One of the real beauty of our faith is to come to Jesus Christ in a real and powerful way. It can be equated to that of a priceless treasure or a pearl of great price. The great thing about this experience; the beauty of this treasure; the real value of this pearl of great price is that there is more than enough of it to be shared with the whole world. In fact, the Catholic faith attains its real value when it is shared with others.  The Catholic faith is something that is alive – in fact very much so – and active. 

Our Catholic faith is not meant to be an experience that is restricted to the time spent in church or religious assemblies, but transcends way beyond these boundaries into every facet of our being. If our Catholic faith is not lived in this way, then it becomes but another temporary fad.  Speaking of which, there is a very dangerous trend that is currently taking place, where a number of religious items, in particular rosaries, of being worn as fashion statements. This is something that I believe that we as Church must guard against since it undermines and belittles much of our faith. I will not go too much into this at this time as it is something to address and pray about in later articles.

Not only must our faith be lived, but must also be shared.  This is why Jesus called His disciples, and why He in turn commissioned them to “go!” In one of his letters to the Corinthians, St. Paul writes,

“So who ever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. And all this is from, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ who has given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us.” 2 Corinthians 5: 17 – 20 

So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. I just did a search on the Internet to find out what exactly an ambassador is, and I found that “an ambassador is the highest ranking representative elected by a country to represent or speak on behalf of that country to others”. Another definition is, “an official agent with a special mission”.

Let us put this into context of what we are discussing now. We know that through our baptism, we are born again into the family of God.  St. Paul in his letter to the Romans puts it like this; “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God”. (Romans chapter 8 verse 14)

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “The Christian faithful are those who, in as much as they have been incorporated in Christ through baptism, have been constituted as the people of God; for this reason, since they have become sharers in Christ’s priestly, prophetic and royal office in their own manner, they are called to exercise the mission which God has trusted to the Church. There exists a true equality among them in their dignity as children of God”.

Now I don’t know about you but that sounds like they are referring to you and me.  It speaks of the ‘Christian faithful being incorporated in Christ through baptism’ and ‘being constituted as a people of God’, and about ‘dignity as children of God’ and about ‘mission’ – now that definitely sounds like we have a special purpose here as ambassadors to Christ – a title that we must take seriously.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that “God infinity perfect and blessed in Himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in His blessed life. In the fullness of time, God the Father sent His Son as the Redeemer and Savior of mankind, fallen into sin, thus calling all into His Church and through the work of the Holy Spirit, making them adopted children and heirs of his eternal happiness.”

As a member of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, the Catechism of the Catholic Church also teaches that the word church refers to the “people whom God calls and gathers together from every part of the earth. They form the assembly of those who through faith and baptism have become children of God, members of Christ, and temples of the Holy Spirit.

So make no doubt about it, through our faith and through baptism, we are ambassadors of Christ Jesus; members of His diplomatic mission, where our reason for existence is to live our lives in and for Jesus Christ so that others may see him and experience his love and mercy through us.  Again I must emphasize not just when we are in the assembly of God’s people, but we must live out our mission in every aspect of our lives. Others must see Christ in us, in our families and in the way we love and care for each other. Our neighbours must see Christ in us by the way we relate to them; in the way we treat them. When we are driving, other drivers must see Jesus Christ in us through our courteous display in driving.  So often I have seen cars with some really great bumper stickers stuck onto their back windscreen, that give the impression that they are followers of Jesus Christ, but their driving tells a completely different story. Not too long ago I saw a car with praying hands at the back of it and a sign that said, “Jesus is my pilot.” Well I must say that the way that car was zooming in and out of the lanes, I thought it may really have been a plane, but the pilot certainly could not have been Jesus. Many of us I am sure, would have had the experience of going to mass, being greeted by fellow members of a church, and then being railroaded during the mass exodus to leave the churchyard.

We must be like other Christ. In John chapter 13 verse 35, Jesus says, “By this they will know that you are my disciples, by the way you love one another.” Our world that is so steeped in darkness, must see the light of Christ in us, and that light must not be shaded of hidden in any way, but I must be allowed to burn ever so brightly. There is a very beautiful song that I know, a Christmas song that says the light of Christ has come into the world. Well that light has been passed on to us through a baptism, and we must now live it. We are Christ’s light in the world, and we can choose to let the light shine or we can hide it under a bushel.  I absolutely love looking at relay races. I find them very exciting, especially the 4 x 100 m relay races. I love to see the baton being passed from one runner to the other, and the tremendous energy that is consumed in the process. We are like the members of a relay team; in fact, the members of the winning relay team. Jesus ran a fantastic first leg for us. He has put us way way out ahead of the rest and he has passed the baton to us; taking special care to meticulously place it into our hands. And now we must run with it. The great thing about this race, is that we have already won.  All we needed to do is to run to the finish line with the baton, the light of Christ, burning in our hearts, and allowing that light shine as bright as possible.

Jesus said, “You are salt for the earth. But if salt loses its taste, what can make it salty again? It is good for nothing, and can only be thrown out to be trampled under people’s feet. ¹⁴ ‘You are light for the world. A city built on a hill-top cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way your light must shine in people’s sight, so that, seeing your good works, they may give praise to your Father in heaven.”

(Matthew 5: 13-15)

Part 2 – You Cannot Give What You Don’t Have

Part 3 – Eureka! I Have Found It!