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Greetings dear family of our beloved Saviour, Jesus Christ, May the light of the Holy Spirit grant to us all the grace, wisdom and courage to always witness to the love of God, either by word or deed Amen.
I thought I would write a series of letters on Evangelising. The request of Jesus to “go and make disciples of all Nations” is a call to each one of us. We are all called to evangelise the Gospel, to proclaim the kingdom of God. In truth, the only person who can convert another soul is the Holy Spirit; Jesus does not need our help in the work of redemption. Ultimately, He could pour down His grace upon whom He chooses and convert them without our help, but He chooses not to do it this way, but sometimes to allow His children to enter into His work. Why? – Because, He loves us and knows that it is our joy and consolation to bring souls to Him.
Upon our profession of faith and Baptism we become Soldiers of Christ and are called to fight the good fight. As someone once wrote: “All that is necessary for evil to exist, is for good men to do nothing.” St. Paul tells us that “faith comes by hearing” (Rom 10:17) and so it is our duty to spread the Gospel. The word ‘Gospel’ means ‘Good News’ and our world so needs to hear the good news that Jesus has redeemed us. The Christian life is about having a personal relationship with God, our Father, it is not simply knowing about Jesus, it is about knowing Jesus. This is the essence of evangelisation: - to let everyone know that God is their heavenly Father and loves them very much! Our task, like Jesus, is to look for the lost sheep, embrace them in our hearts and carry them to the Good Shepherd for Him to restore to the Father’s fold. We must spread the news that the Christian life is a wondrous and awesome journey, a great and marvellous quest, to be raised up through the power of the Holy Spirit, to know God and to grow in love and virtue so that on that great day, we can all stand in God’s presence, clothed with the grace and mercy of Christ. There, we shall embrace God and become one with Him forever in a love so pure and tender, a divine love that will be our joy and consolation for all eternity.
“The Kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke17:21) We must also tell people of the joy and wonder that can be found – here and now – within their own hearts, so that they too will ask, seek, and knock for that door, the door to their inner most being, the door of their hearts to be opened, that they may receive God’s divine love, and know peace in this life and eternal beatitude in the next.
Our world is very much lacking in hope these days, and yet people still do not look to Jesus to help heal our world – why? Perhaps it is because people are being kept too busy by their materialistic lifestyles to get to know Jesus, or maybe it is because, as Jesus tells us, “Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds where evil”… (John 3:19-21) Whatever the reason, it is important that people know that Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world, but to save it (John 3:16-19). He does not judge us at this time, but forgives us and reconciles us to the Father that we “may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)
God, however, will not force His love upon His children, but wills to draw them back to Him through the example of love given to us by His Son, Jesus. Philip Yancey once wrote “Although power can force obedience, only love can summon a response of love, which is the one thing God wants from us and the reason he created us… Love has its own power, the only power ultimately capable of conquering the human heart.” These words remind me of another saying which goes something like this: “If you love someone, set them free, if they return to you they are yours, if they don’t return, they never were.”
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