Dear Parishioners, I wanted to write a follow up bulletin about the subject of mission. A kind parishioner (you know who you are) gave me this critique of my homily. When you preached about R. I. M., Relationship, Identity, Mission Father when it comes to Mission most of us don’t know what to do about that… How do we evangelize? How do we as people of God bring the Gospel to people? It’s a fair point, how do we do the Mission? I was at the beach in Florida in January right before my annual silent retreat and this man was standing at a busy crossroads sidewalk preaching the Gospel to people passing by. People almost never looked at him and for the most part ignored him. It was kind of sad really, the volume of people just ignoring him and I felt kind of sorry for him. As a preacher, or let me just say as a person, no one wants to be ignored, but there he was alone and ignored. It is often daunting to speak about our faith with other people and often even about deeper topics than the weather. I think certainly we talk about the weather because it and other topics we find common ground we can all relate to with most anyone. We don’t usually go deeper until we get to know someone. This getting to know someone is key to evangelization, because it’s human, it treats the other person with dignity. The method of evangelization that Jesus used is much more human than we often think. People were hungry for God in his time. Today people are, but they don’t realize they are and that’s the difficulty sometimes. Like the famous line from St. Augustine, “My heart is restless until it rests in you my God.” We are restless, we are always seeking the new, the novel, and the shiny to distract us from our boredom. We need intimacy “In to me see” we need that deepest relationship intimacy where we feel we are known that God can only give (see Psalm 139 “you know my thoughts from afar”) But it also comes through another person and it isn’t automatic even Married people find themselves lonely. you and I are called to befriend to want to know the person we are trying to bring to Jesus. So the first step of evangelism is interest in the person, who they are, their like’s and dislikes, where they’re from, their hobbies etc. Getting to know them, befriending them is actually the path to evangelization as it shows you actually care. From here it’s a matter of delving deeper in friendships, speaking of deeper topics and then sharing how the Lord entered into our lives. Testimony or witness is simply telling your story of faith whether it’s long or short depending on the situation and how much time you have. The Gospel of Jesus sending the 12 out, a key verse or line, don’t go from one house to another, no stay there! Stay with someone, get to know them, befriend them then tell them of the freedom you have in the love of Jesus each day! Tell them how freeing it is to go to confession and how much peace it brings you. If you’re a person of prayer a person of relationship, with the Lord, your identity as His Beloved then the mission isn’t complicated, don’t get me wrong it’s difficult, but let it be simple, befriend, love and desire the Lord for the people you meet. The difficult part is letting go the things that hold us back. Detaching from our schedule, our time, our ways, our busyness, our fears etc. According to St. John Perfect love casts out fear. Fear of rejection, or loss is cast our through shoring up the first part of RIM, that Relationship with Jesus. This relationship gives us the Identity of beloved son or Daughter of God all powerful! I then stand not alone and found my life of faith on solid rock. There is more to say, but we will have more than enough homily’s and time for teaching to come. St. Alphonsus Liguori said it well, “I love Jesus Christ and that is why I am on fire with the desire to give Him souls, first of all my own, and then an incalculable number of others!” Peace and Love, Fr. Michael