Chris Stefanick advises a caller who has trouble talking about the faith to people in his life, exhorting him to let it flow naturally from his true personality and make Jesus and prayer parts of his everyday interactions.
Transcript:
Host: We go to Brian in Ohio listening on 870 AM. Brian, you are on with Chris Stefanick, what’s your question?
Caller: Hi Chris, thanks for taking my call.
Chris: How’s it going, Brian? Good, good. Can you hear me now?
Host: We can, yes. Can you give Chris your question?
Caller: It’s sort of along the line of some of the more recent callers where, you know, modern Catholics seem to rely on institutions like CCD or Catholic schools, but they, you know, we have the adults even now where they don’t really know the faith and and therefore they don’t know Jesus. They more or less know, you know, rituals, and maybe some obligations, things like that. And you know, I learned my faith from my mother and my grandmother, as you talked about, but but you know I have a hard time introducing Jesus even within my own married family and and friends and things like that. Hopefully my question came along clearly.
Chris: Yes it did, thank you. So you said they don’t know the faith, therefore they don’t know Jesus; I think very often it’s the case that they don’t know Jesus, therefore they don’t really care about the faith, even if they kind of know it, you know? And I think it’s–again this stuff– to be an effective evangelist, it has just drip from who we are, you know? We have to bring up the name of Jesus in conversation as if he’s an intimate friend of ours. That doesn’t mean we have to force things or be awkward. Frankly, a lot of us feel like we’re forcing things when we’re NOT bringing up His name, cause He’s always on our minds, always in our hearts.
I would just encourage the average Catholic: Stop repressing yourself. Just start being who you are! You know, we were always who we were throughout Catholic history. I mean I’m half Irish, right? The traditional greeting in Ireland was “God and Mary be upon you.” Until maybe the 1950s, from the time of Saint Patrick. Uh, I’m half Slovak. [Slovakian greeting], “Praised be Jesus Christ,” is how you said “Hi.” You know, this is just dripped from our mouths, from our interactions. It was ingrained in us.
It’s still ingrained in us but, for that percentage of Catholics I know we are kind of small, kind of minority, who like, “This is the most important thing in our lives,” can we please just be ourselves? Just stop hiding, just stop worrying about the response you’re gonna get to that constantly. Stop thinking you’re gonna offend people all the time, because again, if you’re yourself in a way that’s joyful, that’s not giving in to frustrations of people who aren’t as far along as you are, in a way that you’re showing like, “I’m just in love with Jesus, he’s my friend,” you know, if someone’s having a hard day, just comes around the top of your head, you know, “I’m gonna pray for you.” Even if they don’t believe, you know, if they act offended to that, first of all that’s their issue, you know, but second of all, you planted a thought about God into their hearts and mind and they’re not gonna forget that, you know.
So with your family members, be patient but just keep being yourself, man. And just keep saying the name of Jesus in casual conversation. You know, in a way that’s not forced but just natural.