Reflection on Fr. Dave's Homily week 20, cycle A - How you doing on Evangelizing?

This Sunday Fr. Dave preached about evangelization.  How are you doing?  I could be doing better myself at it.  Fr. Dave's homily got me thinking about it.  He encouraged us to outreach to those outside of our comfort zone and invite them to know Jesus and the faith in the workplace or through friend and acquaintances.   

The Gospel story of Jesus healing the Canaanite women's possessed daughter was the catalyst for this message. Jesus came for all, both Jew and Gentile, and the women’s persistent patience was a model she may not have fully understood who Jesus was, but she had faith in his power to heal.  Much more faith than many of the Jews at that time.  She had an immediate need, to help her daughter, and Jesus came through to help her because of her faith.  

We need to be there for others when they are seeking the healing of Jesus.    We can do this by simply sharing with others stories that we hear in the Gospel at Mass on Sunday.   The next time someone asks you what you did this weekend you can tell them you went to church and hearing about a miraculous healing of a little girl possessed by a demon.  I’m sure that will get some attention.  I’m sure there are many people who have not heard of the healing that Jesus did.  Maybe this is a good place to start for our brothers and sister who have yet come to know Jesus.  

Another good resource is Dynamic Catholic.  I just heard Matthew Kelly talking on Catholic Radio Indy 89.1 last week about subtle ways to evangelize.  If you are not comfortable talking to others in detail about faith you may want to consider letting someone else do the talking through books and CD’s.  Dynamic Catholic makes these available at very low costs.  This is something that you can order and keep handy to hand out when the time is right.  You can give to someone and invite him or her to read or listen to a tape or CD.  After a time you can ask the person what they thought.   This could be a good way to get people interested in knowing more about Jesus and the Catholic Faith.

If you want to read Fr. Dave’s homily check out this blog: http://holdtothetradition.blogspot.com

Have a blessed week sharing the good news of Jesus!