How does a Catholic share the gospel?

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In a Protestant community (particularly evangelical, baptist, or reformed), the faithful always have a sort of script on how to share their faith. (Four Spiritual Laws, Romans Road, etc.)

If a non-Christian asks how they might be saved, how should a Catholic respond?

Extra points for an illustrative script.

(disclaimer: this is not a thread about why Protestants are wrong, but rather how you would communicate to someone that doesn’t know or doesn’t care about the differences between Catholics and Protestants)
 
I’ve been to various get togethers where a person from a protestant denomination will fling out some anti-Catholic comment that I can’t begin to understand. I prefer to stay away from these people and leave them to their own self identifying congregation.
 
Just to repeat… This thread isn’t about what Protestants say at all. It’s you (Catholic) and a non-Christian (sincerely seeking, but doesn’t know or doesn’t care about Protestant theological distinctions).
 
I kind of feel like your example of someone asking “If a non-Christian asks how they might be saved, how should a Catholic respond?” only happens when you’re discussing apologetics. But my answer would be that we are saved through baptism (normally by water but sometimes by blood, desire, etc.) and then living in communion with God (and repenting and turning back to Him when we sin). Of course, a completely different yet equally true answer is that we’re saved by Christ’s passion and death. Or even more simply, we’re saved by grace. There are probably other ways to answer it, I guess it depends on exactly what you mean.

To answer your question more generally, I think the best way to share the gospel is to live it. This is not to say that you don’t vocally share the faith, but when you reflect Christ to the people in your life it opens doors for communication about God. The people in your life will be much more open to listening to you when they see you living a holy life.
 
Well…there is a good article on this in the CA Online Library.
One way I start off is with Catholic tracts on topics of interest and since Salvation is the overarching issue I have found that this one from Grotto Press is very useful.

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                                                         CIL Tract: Sound Bites on Salvation (set of 25)
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                                                         At last, here’s a  concise presentation of salvation from the Catholic perspective, with  generous quotes from the Catechism. Give it to everyone you meet!
 
Do you have a copy? I can’t tell from the site what the booklet says. Can you transcribe the just of it here?
 
Basically it covers a sort of “Roman Catholic’s Road” to Salvation, using references from the Catechism and the Bible. Here’s the references…

Man’s Purpose: CCC 1 & 396 and Genesis 2:17 & Revelation 4:11
The Problem: CCC 397 & 1034 and Genesis 3:1-11, Romans 5:19
CCC 399 & Romans 3:23
CCC 405 & Romans 7:21-24
CCC 400 & Romans 5:12
CCC 1034 & Matthew 13:42-42 Revelation 20:15
God’s Solution- Jesus Christ
John 1:14 16
CCC 457 & 1st John 4:10, 14 & 3:5
CCC 458 & John 3:16
CCC 459 & Matthew 11:29
CCC 460 & 2nd Peter 1:4
Necessity of Faith
CCC 161 & Mark 16:16, John 6:40 ff
CCC 153 & Matthew 16:17 cf, Galatians 1:15, Matthew 11:25
CCC 154
Conversion
Matthew 4:17 & CCC 1989
Our Mother, the Church
CCC 169
1st Timothy 3:15
Baptism- the Port of Entry
CCC 1257 & Matthew 28:19-20
An Ongoing Process
CCC 162 & 1st Timothy 1:18-19, Philippians 2:12-13
Galatians 5:6, Romans 15:13, Matthew 10:22 & CCC 80-82
CCC 1489

I like it because it’s so thorough.
 
Thanks. Here’s a recap with full text from all of the references above:

Man’s Purpose
**CCC 1 - **God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.

**CCC 396 - **God created man in his image and established him in his friendship. A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God. The prohibition against eating “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” spells this out: “for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die.” The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil"symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that man, being a creature, must freely recognize and respect with trust. Man is dependent on his Creator, and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom.

**Genesis 2:17 - **but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
**Revelation 4:11 - **“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
 
The Problem
**CCC 397 - **Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command. This is what man’s first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.

**CCC 1034 - **Jesus often speaks of “Gehenna” of “the unquenchable fire” reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. Jesus solemnly proclaims that he “will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,” and that he will pronounce the condemnation: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!”

**Genesis 3:1-11 - **Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
**Romans 5:19 - **For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

**CCC 399 - **Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first disobedience. Adam and Eve immediately lose the grace of original holiness. They become afraid of the God of whom they have conceived a distorted image - that of a God jealous of his prerogatives.

**Romans 3:23 - **for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

**CCC 405 - **Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam’s descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin - an inclination to evil that is called concupiscence". Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ’s grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle.

**Romans 7:21-24 - **So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

**CCC 400 - **The harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now destroyed: the control of the soul’s spiritual faculties over the body is shattered; the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions, their relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. Harmony with creation is broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man. Because of man, creation is now subject “to its bondage to decay”.Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true: man will “return to the ground”,for out of it he was taken. Death makes its entrance into human history.

**Romans 5:12 - **Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

**CCC 1034 - **Jesus often speaks of “Gehenna” of “the unquenchable fire” reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. Jesus solemnly proclaims that he “will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,” and that he will pronounce the condemnation: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!”

**Matthew 13:42-42 - **and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
**Revelation 20:15 - **And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
 
God’s Solution- Jesus Christ

**John 1:14-16 - **And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ( John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

**CCC 457 - **The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who “loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins”: “the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world”, and “he was revealed to take away sins”:
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Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us. Closed in the darkness, it was necessary to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Savior; prisoners, help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor or insignificant? Did they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and unhappy a state?
**1 John 4:10,14 - **In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. … And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
**1 John 3:5 - **You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

**CCC 458 - **The Word became flesh so that thus we might know God’s love: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

**John 3:16 - **"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

**CCC 459 - **The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.” “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” On the mountain of the Transfiguration, the Father commands: “Listen to him!” Jesus is the model for the Beatitudes and the norm of the new law: “Love one another as I have loved you.” This love implies an effective offering of oneself, after his example.

**Matthew 11:29 - **Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

**CCC 460 - **The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature”:“For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.” “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.” “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.”

**2 Peter 1:4 - **by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
 
Necessity of Faith

**CCC 161 - **Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation. “Since “without faith it is impossible to please [God]” and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life ‘But he who endures to the end.’”

**Mark 16:16 - **Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
John 6:40 - For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."

**CCC 153 - **When St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus declared to him that this revelation did not come “from flesh and blood”, but from “my Father who is in heaven”. Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. “Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and ‘makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth.’”

**Matthew 16:17 - **And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
**Galatians 1:15 - **But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,
**Matthew 11:25 - **At that time Jesus declared, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;

**CCC 154 - **Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the truths he has revealed is contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason. Even in human relations it is not contrary to our dignity to believe what other persons tell us about themselves and their intentions, or to trust their promises (for example, when a man and a woman marry) to share a communion of life with one another. If this is so, still less is it contrary to our dignity to “yield by faith the full submission of… intellect and will to God who reveals”, and to share in an interior communion with him.
 
Conversion
**Matthew 4:17 - **From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

**CCC 1989 - **The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion, effecting justification in accordance with Jesus’ proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high. "Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.

Our Mother, the Church

**CCC 169 - **Salvation comes from God alone; but because we receive the life of faith through the Church, she is our mother: “We believe the Church as the mother of our new birth, and not in the Church as if she were the author of our salvation.” Because she is our mother, she is also our teacher in the faith.

**1 Timothy 3:15 - **if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Baptism- the Port of Entry

**CCC 1257 - **The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are “reborn of water and the Spirit.” God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.

**Matthew 28:19-20 - **Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

An Ongoing Process

**CCC 162 - **Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can lose this priceless gift, as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: “Wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith.” To live, grow and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith; it must be “working through charity,” abounding in hope, and rooted in the faith of the Church.

**1 Timothy 1:18-19 - **This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith,
**Philippians 2:12-13 - **Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
**Galatians 5:6 - **Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
**Romans 15:13 - **May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
**Matthew 10:22 - **and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

**CCC 80-82 - **“Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together, and communicate one with the other. For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing, and move towards the same goal.” Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own “always, to the close of the age”.
“Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit.”
“And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching.”
As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, “does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.”
**CCC 1489 - **To return to communion with God after having lost it through sin is a process born of the grace of God who is rich in mercy and solicitous for the salvation of men. One must ask for this precious gift for oneself and for others.
 
Bible Links: biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%202:17;%20Revelation%204:11;%20Genesis%203:1-11;%20Romans%205:19;%20Romans%203:23;%20Romans%207:21-24;%20Romans%205:12;%20Matthew%2013:42-42;%20Revelation%2020:15;%20John%201:14-16;%201%20John%204:10,14;%201%20John%203:5;%20John%203:16;%20Matthew%2011:29;%202%20Peter%201:4;%20Mark%2016:16,%20John%206:40;%20Matthew%2016:17;%20Galatians%201:15;%20Matthew%2011:25;%20Matthew%204:17;%201%20Timothy%203:15;%20Matthew%2028:19-20;%201%20Timothy%201:18-19;%20Philippians%202:12-13;%20Galatians%205:6,%20Romans%2015:13,%20Matthew%2010:22;&version=ESV
biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians%202:12-13;%20Galatians%205:6,%20Romans%2015:13,%20Matthew%2010:22;&version=ESV

CCC Links:
scborromeo.org/CCC/para/1.htm (just change the 1 to any paragraph)
 
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