Question: While working on my plan for a pilot project here
in C. for Forming Intentional Disciples last night, I came to a question that
made me ponder. Reading Sherry Weddell's book, "Forming Intentional Disciples", she points to some fundamental principles, including a need for
a personal relationship with God and the need for us to witness to others. My
question is: Is it our witnessing that is changing others... or is the fact
they see genuine love and Jesus in our actions?
My conclusion
is the latter. Consequently, it will take 2-5 years (as Sherry says in FID) for
the parish to see the fruits of our efforts… because it will take that long to
move from the initial ID's stage to truly living the way God wants us to. In a
recent talk, Deacon P. calls it "Experiential knowledge vs Cognitive
knowledge". When only 60% of Catholics believe in a personal God... what
will it take to get the "Experiential knowledge" with God. We should
spend some time talking about how to witness when you don't have the experience.
Answer: I would like to clarify the meaning of: "our
actions".
First, it is very
important when we deal with Jesus' things to do it with humility, understanding
that God is the one who calls us, not us who call Him and that God is the
one who guides us in everything (if we allow Him to do so). We are NOT in charge
of anything, or going on a mission. We humbly try to reply, daily, to His Call. The
Grace of God comes before anything else. It is not by "doing" that we
will change the world but by "following the Grace of God".
The "go
get" mentality, or the "dower" allegedly "practical"
mentality can play very nasty tricks to the person who becomes Christian (you
call it "Intentional Disciple", I call it: "becoming more Christian").
So we need to be very careful not to play the gods here. This could be an the
modern world mentality and tendency. But the norm remains the Gospel, not our
mentalities/tendencies.
Therefore the tendency
will be to consider "that book", or "that formula", or "that
experience" and so forth as a "winning formula" and forget the
Grace of God. We do not control God. We are free to love Him, to reply to His
love and He is free to love us (first). He loves us… indeed, He never ceases.
This is why, by receiving humbly his Love, we try to let it flow to the outside
world.
The specific answer to your question is: neither nor. What we need to do is to
listen every day and every second, in our heart, to Jesus who calls us and do His
will. In the Gospel, we see that sometimes Jesus asked people, healed by Him
(who therefore became his disciples), to remain silent and not to say anything;
other times He asked them to witness to Him; other times He sent them back to
their daily life. Each person is different, each need is different, each time
in the Journey with Jesus is different, each mission is different. This is what
matters. The general rule is the need for all for growth, but it doesn't happen
the same for everybody. The general rule is as well the need to witness to Him,
and spread the Gospel. But when and how, we need to see with the Holy Spirit
that works in the Church and through the Church.
If He asks me
to witness, I have to do it. At any time! Immediately after meeting Him, or
years after that. As many times as He asks! If He doesn't, then I need to the
other things He asks me to do (according to my state: married, work, family,.. this
as well is a mission and a witness to Him.). There are different trees,
different type of heights, depths (roots) for these trees.
Now, after
that, if He asks me to witness and I do so, will this bear fruits? Not always. St Paul in the big city of Athens had to speak. Did it work? Well it was
a big fiasco. Only 2 or 3 persons followed him. Had St Paul known that he wouldn't have fruits,
would he have had to consider that it was better not to bear witness to Jesus? Of
course not! He had to. When Jesus asks us to do something He doesn't guaranty
the success. Obedience remains the highest virtue of the Apostle.
Some soils are
good, some others are hard. Some soils allow us to see the fruits of our
labour, others need years and others will see the fruits. What a sower has to
do, with a detached heart, is: to sow, with a detached heart, obeying to His
Master and trusting in Him, and Him only.
On the other
hand, the more a person matures in Christ, the more the old man's
influence on him/her diminishes, and the more the Grace of God works and make
the new man grow in him/her. We are like pregnant women with twins, the old
man and the new man, and the food we give (by our acts) either feeds
one or the other.
So the more we
are purified, the more we are transformed in Jesus, the more the Holy Spirit
moves us with greater ease, the more our acts gain in efficiency (they bring
more and better results). No doubt at all about that. One act made by a
purified person bears infinitely much more fruits for the Church than thousands
of acts made by a whole crowd. A saint asked Jesus how many souls He would give
her (He would save because of her act) for something she did for Him. She said:
10? He replied: 10.000.
But still, you
have saints who preached in places, and never got any result: starting by the
Lord Himself in Jerusalem .
That was tough. But still, God recompenses them anyway. And they have to do it
anyway, so people can't say: we never heard of that, so God's justice is
preserved. And you have "devils", who work a lot for the Gospel,
preach, make miracles, and still hear Jesus in the end say to them: "go
away, evil doers, I don't know you". Why? They were doing their
own will, not Jesus'
will (Doing a "good thing" is not enough for the apostle; one has to
do God's will. This is why Obedience comes first.). If He sends me, then I have
to go. If He doesn't send me, then better for me to shut up and stay still, and
work on bettering myself (we have to do it anyway), by the Grace of God. This
is why Jesus says: spend time removing the big log that pierces your eyes, and
then, purified, you'll be able with the Love of God, to remove the straw in the
eyes of your brother.
I am not sure
I got your question, but this is what comes to mind.
The experience
of Jesus, the personal relationship with Him, is a long journey anyway. It
usually takes years of growth until one reaches the Union
with Jesus, or at least the Spiritual Betrothal. Therefore it is important in
each step to discern His will and do it, with the help of His Grace.
Father Marie
Eugene, in the end of his book "I want to see God" (the second volume) wrote a small
treatise on the relationship - in us - between the Growth of Love and Apostolate/Ministry. Remember,
his book is a master piece commentary of the book of St Theresa of Avila : "The Interior Castle ".
This little study he makes is moved by a genius intuition, which is the need to
understand the relationship between the fruitfulness of our actions and our
spiritual growth.
He goes through all the stages of growth and explains the risks, the fruits, what we should focus on.
Fr François Regis Wilhelem did pick up this intuition and
deepened it in a book (only in French, Italian or Spanish). Excellent work,
that should transform our understanding of ministry in the Church.
I hope that
helped.
Please pray
for me
Jean
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