among the seven bajillion classes that
you have to take in seminary to become a
priest I'm taking one right now devoted
specifically to the mission of the
church how did it grow and spread what
methods were used how was it adapted and
influenced by different cultures to be
lived out in different ways questions
like that it's a really fascinating
course and one of the things that's just
blown my mind thinking about and
studying is how quickly the church grew
from the very beginning because think
about it technically it started with one
guy Jesus and he had these twelve guys
around him and maybe some other
followers he had 72 he sent out but for
the most part he only get ministry for a
couple years in a couple hundred miles
and even with a handful of helpers
there's no way that he could have
interacted with more than a few thousand
people
flash forward only 100 years and we're
up to 40,000 Christians another hundred
years up to over a million by the year
350 were at 33 million Christians
ranging all the way from Spain to China
this in a time not only when there are
no forms of social communication no
internet no television no radio there
weren't even easy ways to travel if you
wanted to communicate with someone in
China you had to walk there and then
once you got there there was no Google
Translate no guidebook to show you
around the city forget about having a
Bible translated and said their language
the Bible wasn't even fully compiled
anywhere it's just so remarkable to
think about how widely and how quickly
the faith spread the work of these
heroic men and women that left their
homes risked their lives and in many
ways entered a world that was completely
different from their own
to spread the gospel but I think what's
even more amazing than the fact that it
took off like it did clearly the work of
the Holy Spirit is how it did I'll be
honest if you would have asked me before
taking this class how I thought
Christianity spread as quickly as it did
I probably would have said they was
primarily the work of st. Paul and
Barnabus traveling thousands of miles on
preaching missions the Apostles going to
foreign lands and setting up communities
theologians like Clement defining the
faith of apologists like Justin Martyr
defending the faith and bishops like
Ignatius and
is leading the people in faith in other
words are the sort of top-down approach
to the mission of the church one in
which the charismatic leaders those
writing the treatises and preaching the
faith were the central driving force
behind its growth for the fact of the
matter is that a handful of remarkable
people can't account for what happened
the reason that Christianity grew so
fast and so far truly was because of the
work of the average Christian sharing
the gospel within their own world
it was the work of women raising their
children in the faith converting their
husbands and then sharing it with their
women friends in essence gossiping the
gospel who then shared it with their
kids and their husbands it was the work
of regular merchants and traders people
who traveled around the world they lived
their faith in new cities and spread the
gospel it was the work of regular and
sometimes insignificant Christians who
when faced with persecution refused to
give up their faith in some ways saying
nothing
they spoke volumes to the people around
them when they chose death rather than
worship another god no doubt our church
is forever indebted to the heroic works
of people like Paul and Ignatius
Irenaeus and Justin Martyr those people
who offered our church structure and
orthodoxy from the beginning those who
took the first step of evangelization
but our church would not have spread the
way it did it would not have taken root
had it not have been for the thousands
of regular Christians simply living the
gospel gossiping the good news and
sharing it with their neighbors
Christianity spread not because of the
charism of its leaders but because the
faith of its everyday believers and it
makes me wonder today we have some
amazing leaders devoting their entire
lives to evangelization you've got
people on social media like Bishop Baron
Mike Schmitz James Martin you've got an
entire convent of sisters live tweeting
the Super Bowl and sharing the joy of
their lives hashtag media nuns
you've got Giants in our history like
Fulton sheen and Billy Graham and all
these people do a tremendous job of
offering structure to our faith of
teaching us things of challenging us to
new things of feeding our souls by
getting the message out there for those
who believe but I have to believe that
just like the early church it's not
gonna be them it's not gonna be me who's
the primary reason that someone
here's the gospel and takes up a life of
discipleship we make up just a few
people but you all of you watching make
up a legion of evangelizers each and
every one of you has a unique
opportunity to reach your family your
friends people in your neighborhood in a
way that Bishop Baron and Fulton sheen
just can't my guess is that most people
have never even heard of these two
people and probably don't care what they
have to say but they know you and they
care what you have to say and what you
have to live for whether you realize it
or not you are a representative of
Christ and the church when people know
that you are a Christian they will look
at the way you act the way that you
speak the way you treat others and come
to conclusions about our faith for some
people you might be the only Christian
that they ever meet you might be all
that they know about our religion and
you can shape what they think about us
for the rest of their lives and so I
exhort all of you all those who watch my
videos all those who send me messages
telling me I'm doing great work remember
that the work of evangelization is ours
to share the church did not grow simply
because of the writings and sermons of
its leaders it grew because of the
extraordinary faith lived out in
ordinary situations by virtue of your
baptism by virtue of claiming to be a
follower of Christ you are an evangelist
I hope and I pray that you take this
Duty seriously because I'm not kidding
when I say our church depends on it
[Applause]
[Music]