Why Share Our Faith Story?
Jesus Preaches in a Ship by James Tissot (Brooklyn Museum)
Six Reasons Jesus Calls us to Evangelize: Part one of four parts
Editor’s Note: This four-part series is taken from Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story: Tools, Tips, and Testimonies by Nancy HC Ward. The series includes Six Reasons Jesus Calls Us to Evangelize, Six Ways Sharing Our Faith Story Helps Us Grow, Three Ways We Encourage Others with Our Faith Story, Three Ways We Glorify God by Sharing Our Faith Story. Enjoy!
In Go and Make Disciples (28–33), the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops gives us the wisdom of the Church in explaining six reasons we are called to evangelize:
- We must evangelize because the Lord Jesus commanded us to do so. . . . (Matthew 28:18–20).
- The Lord commanded us to evangelize because salvation is offered to every person in him. More than a holy figure or a prophet, Jesus is God’s Word (John 1:1; 1:14), God’s “very imprint” (Hebrews 1:3), the power and wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). He is our Savior. . . .
- We evangelize because people must be brought to the salvation that Jesus the Lord offers in and through the Church. . . . We evangelize so that the salvation of Christ Jesus, which transforms our human lives even now, will bring as many as possible to the promised life of unending happiness in Heaven.
- Jesus commanded us to evangelize, too, in order to bring enlightenment and lift people from error. The Lord Jesus, “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6), came to us as a teacher, opening for us the wisdom that not only leads to life eternal but also leads to a human fulfillment that reflects the dignity and mystery of our nature. . . . Evangelization opens us to Christ’s wisdom and personal union with God and others.
- The Lord gave us a message that is unique. All faiths are not merely different versions of the same thing. Knowing Christ Jesus and belonging to his Church are not the same as believing anything else and belonging to any other community. Pope John Paul II has pointed out, “While acknowledging that God loves all people and grants them the possibility of being saved (cf. 1 Tm 2:4), the Church believes that God has established Christ as the one mediator and that she herself has been established as the universal sacrament of salvation” (On the Permanent Validity of the Church’s Missionary Mandate, no. 9). . . .
- Finally, the Lord gave us yet another reason to evangelize: our love for every person, whatever his or her situation, language, physical, mental, or social condition. Because we have experienced the love of Christ, we want to share it. . . .
In love, Jesus commanded us to evangelize to bring others to the salvation he offers everyone, to enlighten those in error, and bring them in union with God in Heaven. The Lord’s message is unique and two-fold: God loves all people and wants them to be saved, and God has established Christ and the Church as the “universal sacrament of salvation.” We know Christ’s love and want to share it freely with everyone without discrimination.
In faith and love, we keep these solid truths in mind as the bedrock for sharing our story, as we discover in detail many ways to evangelize through our witness in everyday situations.
Ask Yourself: Am I surprised by any of the reasons Jesus calls me to evangelize? Which one struck the deepest chord in my heart?
Next in the Why Share Our Faith Story series: Six Ways Sharing Our Faith Story Helps Us Grow.
