This might seem scandalous, but I find that the ministry of evangelization goes way better when I don’t get distracted by my own perceived worthiness or unworthiness when sharing the Gospel. God loves the person I’ve been prompted to try to share the Gospel with way more than I can imagine. I count on God’s grace to work through me because of God’s mighty love for the person in front of me, not because of my holiness. I just find that the ministry of evangelization goes way better when I don’t get distracted by my own perceived worthiness or unworthiness when sharing the Gospel.
However, it is true that holiness and mission are inseparable, and so holiness IS important for evangelization. I’ve been privileged to witness a lot of weddings as a priest. It’s such a beautiful moment when the vows are exchanged. I intentionally leave a little extra silence between the vows, and after the vows have been exchanged. It’s a magnificently holy moment as the sacrament of Holy Matrimony is being conferred; and I think it’s a great image of holiness. Husband and wife lovingly devoted to each other with God as the center of their marriage, whom they are devoted to together.
Holiness is a Love Affair
Holiness isn’t just about, hey don’t do that stuff man, it’ll mess you up (though that’s true and a part of it). It’s so much more than a moral code; it’s a love affair. It’s learning to practice devotion and to stay focused on the presence of the God who both created you and, through the Cross of Jesus, overwhelmed you with His infinite love. As the Jesuit Fr. Joseph Whelan once said, “nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way…. Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”[1] Holiness is being consumed by the love of God and allowing that love, as St. Paul says, to “impel” us to being conformed to the righteousness of God.[2]
Holiness is being full of the love of God.[3] Being full in this way renders temptation for sin so very weak … even though with the mystery of concupiscence, yes indeed we still will face temptations. But it’s hard to want to eat pez while you’re right in the middle of enjoying the most delicious steak. Staying fixated on the Lord helps us, by His grace, to quell the influence of our concupiscent desires. Then we rejoice to find that when a temptation is presented we experience no real desire for it — as it’s foreign to God’s love. We say to ourselves: What? Should I leave God’s awesome embrace to tinker around with that junk? No thanks, I’m good.
The love of God has filled and continues to fill our lives through prayer, the sacraments, the scriptures and living a moral and upright life in Christ. It is out of these that the fruits of the Holy Spirit abound! Though not named as one of the 12 traditional fruits of the Holy Spirit in the Catholic Tradition, evangelization is certainly a fruit of the Holy Spirit too. It’s ideal that we all repeatedly have the experience of Jeremiah who said the word of God burned inside of him like a fire that he couldn’t keep to himself![4] The call to holiness and mission are indeed inseparable.
Out of Love Comes Sharing the Gospel
As we grow in our love of God, and foster the knowledge of who we are in Christ and an openness to the Holy Spirit, we can’t help but want to share the Gospel and enjoy the life-giving experience of engaging with people in the ministry of evangelization. We become so convinced by the Holy Spirit that life in Christ is the absolute greatest thing on earth that we want that for others, and even more than that, we know that Jesus wants that for others!
Asking Jesus for the desire to evangelize is a good idea. The desire is his, and he gives it to us, and if he’s giving us that desire, then you can be sure he’s going to give you the grace to do it well. I would define this grace as loving the person well from the beginning, the middle and the end of the experience. We can always improve on delivery as well as being attentive to the situation and staying open to the Holy Spirit. Most likely, there’s always room for our ability to evangelize to grow, but if we can get the love part down (loving the people that God sends to you, and the people to whom He sends you), well, you can take comfort in knowing you’re on the right road as a joyful missionary disciple.
When it comes to holiness, the Lord tells us that a good person “out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil.”[5] So, while we don’t want to get distracted in evangelization by our own perceived lack of holiness or even the accusations of the enemy (those “fiery darts” of the accuser[6]), we do want to remember that the life of holiness we enjoy in Christ overflows! The benefits of living with a clear conscience and peaceful heart in Christ are amazing. We readily abound in the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, not the least of which is joy; and as Proverbs goes, “a joyful heart makes a cheerful countenance.”[7] The life of holiness is a life of joyful love in the Lord that is designed to overflow to others.
[1] Barton T. Geger, S.J. “Ten Things That St. Ignatius Never Said or Did.” Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits. Volume 50, Issue 1 (Spring 2018): 5.
[2] 2 Corinthians 5:14.
[3] Ephesians 5:18.
[4] Jeremiah 20:9.
[5] Luke 6:45.
[6] Cf. Ephesians 6:16.
[7] Proverbs 15:13.