sometime ago in the Parish Renew programs that swept parishes, part of this program was to reach out to fallen away Catholics for the pain they had suffered at the hands of catholics and the Church. How progressive that was. It became apparent to me how many had been hurt buy the church or members and a simple reaching out healed so many wounds.
Today, we have the gay and abortion issues so predominant and central to our politicasl involvements and catholic lobbying efforts. Apart from the theology of the right and wrong of such issues, it seems we have forgot to reach out our hands in love.
People do not leave the church because of teaching, dogma, and issues. They leave as they do not feel welcomed, included and loved.
The mormons and protestants so successfully recruit and convert Catholics because of their strong sense of community. .They know to welcome sinners in love before and fellowship prior to expecting great personal change in these individuals as that will come later. They know not to debate them at first but to immerse them in loving fellowship before winning theological debates. When we just begin our evangelism with ebate and argument, we only lose them but when we begin with love, we see change in the hearts and minds of people.
We are so eager to condemn their sins and win some theological debate rather than win their hearts in love knowing Christ has the power to order their lives according to his will.
There is a scripture that says, “Be cunning as a serpent, gentle as a dove.” When we work to evangelize prostitutes, drug addicts, gluttons, the proud, or even gays…does not it seem wise to start with love as the first step in a process…this is simple missiology taught to every Catholic Missionary and yes, we are missionaries as the goal and mission of the church is to spread the good news. As such, we need to love, to be inclusive, to welcome and to be wise. Few converted Christians leave their past immediately…but it is encountering a loving God that we are complelled to change, die to self and proclaim, "It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives with in me.
When we support legislation to limit the rights of others, whatever rights those are, do we not drive the very people we wish to serve further from the church. When we start with judgement, does this bring them into the loving arms of Mother Church? Of course this does not imply affirming sin.
When we meet an overweight person, do we start our evangelism with the words, "You are a gluttonous sinner? Of course we do not. Maybe this is because 60% of our population is overweight and we know better. So, how is we believe that starting from judging others who are gay, is the best way to evangelize them. Evangelization, although rich in our historical tradition, has fallen out of fashion with Catholics but that is what we are called to be. Even St Paul knew when speaking to the Greeks to begin his sermon with the unknown God, a concept they already believed in. For us, we have love, hospitality and many other forms of charity and inclusion to start with before hammering home to homosexuals our judgements about their sins. We can judge an action as wrong but never are we allowed to judge a person for that is the sould responsibility Christ when he divides the sheep from the goats on judgement day.
When we love others we might be surprized that they actually ask us and solicit our advice concerning their moral state…but to do so they need to trust us. We trust others when they know they love us. Love seems like the best place to start…
