The Inseparable Calls to Holiness & Mission
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.
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 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.” 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.
Being consumed in this way renders temptation to sin so very weak, even though with the mystery of “concupiscence,” we will still 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 sinful desires. Then we rejoice to find that when a temptation is presented we say to ourselves: What? Should I leave God’s awesome embrace to tinker around with that junk? No thanks, I’m good.
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. With the grace God gives us to seek to evangelize comes the ability to love the person we are engaging from the beginning, the middle, and the end of the encounter. There’s always room for our ability to evangelize to grow, but if we can get the love part down, it’s both effective and an encouragement that you’re on the right road as a joyful missionary disciple.
The Lord tells us that “out of the store of goodness in [a good person] his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil.” So, while we don’t want to get distracted in evangelization by our own perceived lack of holiness or the accusations of the enemy (those “fiery darts” of the accuser), 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 notes, “a joyful heart makes a cheerful countenance.” The life of holiness is a life of joyful love in the Lord that powerfully overflows to others.