18th Sunday In Ordinary Time- Letter from Abbi Harbeson, DMO
How Do You Share the Gospel?
This weekend, the Holy Family Evangelization Team hosted an Evangelization Crash Course for the leaders of the ministries of our parish. This morning of training and learning was an awesome opportunity to remind our leaders of the Gospel mandate: “Go and make disciples of all nations…” And that mandate is not just for those who lead or volunteer for our ministries here at Holy Family. The Great Commission applies to each of us. As baptized Christians, we have taken on the role of sharing the Gospel with the world, just as Jesus commanded His disciples in Matthew 28 before He ascended into Heaven.
For many of us, that command is overwhelming. Our minds may jump to the fear of what it means to share the Gospel with another. Perhaps we think that we must memorize Scripture or understand the Catechism and all of the Church’s teachings before we can evangelize. Allow me to remind you that is not the case. While we must immerse ourselves in Scripture and Tradition, these are meant to aid us in our discipleship, not to be prerequisites for it.
The simplest way to evangelize? Live! The Catechism of the Catholic Church sheds light on this reality: “Lay people also fulfill their prophetic mission by evangelization, ‘that is, the proclamation of Christ by word and the
testimony of life.’ For lay people, ‘this evangelization…assumes a specific character and peculiar efficacy because it is accomplished in the
ordinary circumstances
of the world’” (CCC 905.)
The Church herself tells us that while the mandate to share the Gospel is an incredible and necessary responsibility, its efficacy is dependent on the
ordinary.
This makes the task much less daunting!
How do you live the “ordinary”? How do your day-to-day activities and responsibilities represent the Gospel? How can you make the Gospel more present in your daily life?
This week I hope you will think of each moment–your drive to work, your grocery store run, your office, your coffee date with a friend, dinner with your family–as an opportunity to share the Gospel. No quotations of Scripture or a lesson on morality needed. Instead, LIVE the Gospel.
Mother Mary, the first evangelist, pray for us.
In His Joy,
Abbi Harbeson, Director of Mission and Outreach
