Luke 12:8-12
One of the great challenges that I regularly encounter is the mindset that it is perfectly fine to maintain a private (and only private) way of living our Catholic faith. In funeral planning meetings, when I ask about the faith of a loved one, I sometimes, “He or she was very private about his or her faith…but his or her faith was strong.”
For whatever reason, we have become way to comfortable with this way of thinking. Imagine you said believed this about any other aspect in life. “Tell me about your spouse.” “Oh, I am very private about my spouse. I never talk about her.” This would strike us as very odd.
On a human level, you talk about the things that you love. If you see a good movie, you talk about it. If you have a good meal, you talk about it. You talk about your children because they love them. For heaven sakes, people talk about their pets because they love them. In short, you talk about what you love.
For those who deeply love Christ, they cannot help but talk about Him. And they give public witness to Him, regardless of the cost. “Whoever acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God.” imagine our Lord acknowledging you before billions and billions of angels!
There are many ways you can give public witness to Jesus. It may not be giving yourself to the lions like St. Ignatius of Antioch did in the Coliseum, but there are ways you can provide witness for Christ. For example, make the sign of the cross and ask God to bless your meal in public places. Know your personal story – can you share how God has changed your life and is the center of your life in five minutes? Stick up for our Lord by defending the Church’s teaching when others are criticizing it.
Develop a little list of resources that you could recommend to someone who is open to God or going through a hard time. I just had someone email me and said she is really struggling and asked if I had any suggestions or prayers she could pray. I sent her a prayer called, “I am loved” by the St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal.
Finally, whenever you do something nice for someone or do an act of charity, don’t be afraid to add, “May God bless you!” In short, private witness is fine, but public witness for Christ is critically important! The more you give witness for Christ, the more you will receive His extraordinary love.
~St. Thérèse, pray for us!