Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Ascension Presents.
So back in the day in the 1960's, Pope Paul VI, who was the pope at the time,
he wrote a document called the "Evangelization of the Modern World". And one of the things he said
was that the test, often times of whether a person has been evangelized
—so whether I've encountered Jesus, whether I let him change my life,
I'm following him as a disciple—
One of the tests of whether or not a person has been evangelized is whether or not they are willing TO evangelize.
Am I telling other people about Christ?
You know, he went on to say that the mission, the mission of evangelization
He says is the very heart of the Church. It's her identity.
And, yet as Catholics, we are not really necessarily known for having spiritual conversations.
As Catholics, we are not really known for evangelizing.
And ... I get it! Because it can be tough; it can be intimidating,
And, some people will say, "Well, I can't evangelize because I'm kind of shy."
In fact, there's a number of people who have written to me and said,
"Father Mike, I know I'm supposed to evangelize but I'm just ... I'm just shy"
That's fine. That DOES NOT disqualify your from being an evangelist for many, many reasons.
Here's one of them.
The best evangelists aren't necessarily the ones who are the center of attention or the life of the party.
The Church NEEDS people who are quiet, and reserved, and thoughtful, and calm, and peaceful, and attentive to others
to share the gospel.
I mean, think about it, just because someone is loud;
because they're aggressive; because they're bold—doesn't necessarily guarantee
that they're gonna be at all interested in the other person.
They could just be bold and loud and aggressive because they want to be the center of attention.
I think the whole idea of "Well, I'm shy, I can't evangelize",
that's a smoke screen because I would say this—
and you might not know this—
If you were to say "Father Mike, well, how 'bout you? Are you shy or are you outgoing?
Are you timid, reserved or are you confident?"
I would confidently say that I am more reserved! (laughs) Because I am!
I'm kinda more along kinda the shy spectrum of things.
Because of that, I KNOW that, sometimes, I will use "shyness" as an excuse to not evangelize. Why?
I care more about my comfort and my comfort zone, than I care about the other person.
Now, you might say "Well, I'm shy and that's not me.
That's not my problem at all. Like, I'm shy and really just shy for other reasons."
That's fine. And, please don't—I'm not trying to cast that on you or project that on you.
I'm saying, there can be times in a person's life that my claim that "Oh I'm shy, I can't evangelize"
doesn't mean I'm shy, it just means (sighs), in this moment, I care more about my comfort
than I care about the other person.
I don't wanna get in a situation where I don't know the answer.
I don't wanna get in a situation where I feel uncomfortable.
I don't wanna get in a situation where I do the wrong thing and look stupid.
And, so I'm gonna say, "Oh, I'm just kinda shy."
No. I just don't love that much. Now, again that might not be you
but that's me an awful lot.
Now, again that doesn't mean forcing myself, and, in fact
I think that's a really bad way to do it— to force yourself into a conversation;
but, instead do this, pray for the open door.
And then look for the open door!
Say "OK, God, if you want me to share the gospel with this person,
if you want me to talk with this person about you
or even just ask them where you are in their life,
open the door."
And, if God doesn't open the door, then you just keep walking.
But, if he does open the door, you're ready because you've said,
"God, I give you permission to open the door to this conversation."
Now, here's the next thing,
Sometimes, people say "What? Just go up to strangers and talk about Jesus?"
NO!! Chances are, the Lord isn't calling you to talk to strangers about him.
Chances are really, really, really good that he may be inviting you to talk to
your friends, to your family members, to the people in YOUR life about where he is in their lives.
There's a great book "Forming Intentional Disciples", that talks about the fact that in our church walls,
the vast majority of people in our church walls, have not been evangelized.
They're not committed disciples to Jesus.
Talk to the person sitting next to you, and it doesn't mean you have to convince them of something.
All it means is that you get to have a conversation about, if the door opens, where's God in your life?
St. Andrew is called the first of the Apostles. Why? Because he introduced Peter to Jesus.
He's the first person that we get really, who in the Gospels, who says,
"Hey, I'm gonna introduce my friends, or my brother in this case, to Jesus"
He doesn't say, "OK, Peter. Umm ... OK, here's the argument.
I believe I found the Messiah.
A-a-a-a-nd, here's why I think he's the Messiah."
He says "I think we found the Messiah. Let me take you to him."
We don't have to have all these arguments.
We don't have to convince them of anything. Bring them to Adoration.
If someone has an open heart, if someone has an openness of trust, an openness—curiosity even—
to bring them into the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist,
could do maybe a thousand things more than just an argument;
or, rationale for why he should be the Lord of their life.
In fact, there was a man who was another brother priest, he was in seminary with me.
Before he was in the seminary, he was a mailman.
I don't know how he found himself in an Adoration chapel one day,
but someone, like a friend said, "Hey, let's go into this room over here." (laughing)
And, he had no idea what was going on.
TIME OUT!! You should, like, prep the person you're bringing to Adoration at least a little bit. TIME OFF!
And, he went in, and he knelt down, sat down and all of a sudden, he just started sobbing.
He said, "I couldn't even look up. I couldn't even look at Jesus in the Eucharist."
I just sobbed there because I know that I'm in front of God,
who's good and he's love and he's beauty and he's truth. And, I haven't been living those ways."
That encounter with Jesus, because someone was his Andrew, right?
Let me just—I think I found the Lord. And, brought him to him.
It made him a Christian, a Catholic, now a priest serving in a diocese in the Metro area in Minnesota here.
It's just phenomenal!
Be an Andrew!
I'm gonna let Jesus be Jesus. When I bring people to Jesus, I'll let Jesus be Jesus.
But, I'm gonna be Andrew. And THAT's the key!
If I'm not really outgoing, OK, fine. Just be you!
Well, I'm SUPER outgoing! GREAT! Just be you.
You don't have to be in a massive social situation.
Who is the person in your life that you can have a spiritual conversation about Jesus with?
Because maybe that one person,
and your just introducing them to Jesus and letting Jesus be Jesus will change their life,
and maybe they'll be the person that's outgoing and can go out and tell everybody about him.
I think about this.
My dad (ha) he says, "I've invited people to go to Mass with me for the last thirty years or longer."
He said, "Not one person has ever taken me up on that offer."
But I said, "Dad, ya know, but Dad, I, uh...
you invited ME to Mass.
The invitation was more like a command.
Um, (laughs) but you invited me to Mass, and my siblings."
And, it was actually, I remember it was really significant for me, my dad read at Mass for a little while.
It was so powerful for me to look up at Mass and see my dad up there, reading the word of God.
It didn't change my life immediately. But, I just think, "That is amazing!"
And because he invited me to Mass ...
You know, I get emails all the time. People will say "I saw your video", "I listened to your podcast on iTunes,
and I started going to Mass."
So even though no one said yes
to my dad's invitation to go to Mass ...
But, because of my dad, there's a heck of a lot of people who are now going to Mass.
Let Jesus be Jesus. Let you be you!
And, just begin, if you haven't already started,
to care about other people more than you care about your comfort!
This is my decision. I have to do that, too.
You be you!
Let Jesus work through you! That's the whole thing
is let Jesus work
through you.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name's Father Mike. God bless!