When I think about the Catholic faith in my life, I think about it like two sides of a coin.
On the one side, there is the learning of the faith that is still ongoing: that comes with prayer, with being taught the faith from my parents and in faith formation as a child and through seminary and the ongoing reading and learning about the faith; the trying to grow as a person in receiving God’s mercy and striving to overcome sin and grow as a person. Like all of us, I’m a work in progress still!
On the other side is the evangelization part. Spreading the faith by helping others to come to know about who God is, and why His Church is so special, and of God’s love for them. This is something we are all called to do as well.
Last Wednesday, June 24th, we celebrated the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist. In His ministry, John pointed people to Christ; He prepares the way of the Lord. And as we look at him, I think we can be challenged to do two very important things: truly find conversion in ourselves, and the fortitude to proclaim the message of repentance and conversion to a world that really is not all that dissimilar from the world of John.
John, the son of a Temple priest, would baptize people in the desert who were looking to change for the better. John baptized others as part of a cleansing ritual. A person would traditionally wash before going to the Temple, but the deeper symbolism in John’s baptism was that you went out to the desert and were baptized to be cleansed of sin. To become a new person. To be liberated from your past and then enter into the promised land that is God’s Kingdom.
For us, I think that has to be a starting point, and that is so counter-cultural these days. There are many churches out there that attract people because they have nice music, or a feel-good message, but they don’t necessarily challenge people. It’s difficult to take a hard look at oneself and to say, “I have to change.” It’s very easy to become complacent or drift from day to day. But the Christian must always look deeper and have that balance, the balance that says yes, I am loved by God, but that love also requires a response. Which means we do an examination of conscience and look at our sins and name them. This is why we celebrate his feast at the summer solstice; it’s a reminder that on our own, we can only achieve so much – we always need Jesus and the light of God’s love to truly fill us. That conversion is also helped through prayer and growing in our knowledge of the faith.
So, once we have that interior conversion attitude down, we roll up our shirt sleeves and get to work. And the two big ways we get to work in God’s world are through words and actions that we also see in John’s life.
With respect to actions, whether it’s in our own families or our family of faith, we must always remember that what matters more than anything else is hearing the word of God and then doing it. From simple acts of charity like listening to a person, spending time with them, helping children with homework, donating to charity or volunteering, these are all simple ways we, like John the Baptist, can point to Christ.
We also are unafraid to proclaim our faith. Our goal in life shouldn’t be just to not offend someone; our goal should be the same as that of John – to help a person become a saint. We learn our faith, and also strive to explain it through the interactions we have with others, be it on social media or in daily conversations; and certainly at times there may be pushback or people may not like the message, but maybe we’ll just eventually have success if we keep casting our nets into the sea and try to bring the fish into the boat.
Zechariah at first doubted God’s power, which is why for a time during Elizabeth’s pregnancy he was unable to speak. But at John’s birth, we are told in the Gospel that “his mouth was opened” after he writes the name on the tablet of John. He then speaks blessing God. That’s what grace does – it frees us and allows us to also bless God and to proclaim him. Like Zechariah and his son, may we have that trust in God, and never fear proclaiming him to a world that needs to know him.
Have a blessed week, Fr. Paul
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June 28, 2026