Encouragement for Evangelizers

Today's Gospel highlight's Jesus' passion for the Love of God to pour out upon us all. "Zeal for your house consumes me." Christ could not stand the fact that people had erected human traditions as barriers to God's presence. When those whose livelihood he shattered challenge, he responds with the prediction of his ultimate act of sabatage. He'll shatter that ultimate barrier between God and us: sin and death.

That's his mission. That's what makes Christ the savior. And save us, he has.

That's hard to believe some days. We look out upon the world, and it's the same mess it's always been. Check your history. People have always found incredibly unique ways to exercise cruelty upon each other. Sins multiply and feed upon our souls like locust upon a field before harvest. Alienation, hypocrisy, violence and nihilism stalk us like rabid lions. We can examine such a world and wonder, "Who has Christ actually saved?"

We examine our own lives, and we wonder again who Christ really has saved.

We would be entirely human to doubt God's salvation. And we would be wrong. Thanks be to God, Christ has saved us. He sacrificed himself once for all. He continues to pour his Grace upon us through the movement of his Holy Spirit upon the world and in his Mystical Body, the Church. In other words, Christ still carries on his saving work; he's just doing it through a new medium: Us!

Today's Reflection in The Word Among Us makes that clear.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus’ bodily presence brought truth, grace, and healing to the world. But now what he did in and through his physical body, he is doing through his mystical body, the church—and not just through its formal structures and ordained ministers but through each and every one of us. We are Jesus’ hands and feet! It is through us that he communicates his love, healing, and truth. The prophet Ezekiel saw healing water flowing from the Temple and going out in all directions. In one sense, that’s us. We are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus wants to fill us to overflowing.

In order to bring Christ to the world, however, we must plunge deeply into the fountain of life ourselves. Personal prayer, the gift of the sacraments, the wisdom of Scripture, the love of our brothers and sisters in Christ—all of these are their own founts of life for us. If Constantine, the most powerful man in the western world at that time, could be converted through the witness of Christians, imagine what our witness could do for our neighbors, friends, and co-workers. If we immerse ourselves in Christ, we really can change the world!

We do not need to remain discouraged. We can rest in the presence of our savior through prayer, adoration of the Eucharist, fellowship in small Christian community, scripture and the sacraments, and so many other priceless ways. God lives among us still. He will nourish and strengthen us as we rise to bear the Gospel day after day. We may turn our lives and our wills over to him, and we will find the encouragement we seek.

Christ counts on us to bring him to the enshadowed world. The freedom of Humanity rests on our shoulders, for only through Christ will the people of the world truly become free. Christ still saves. Let us be the instrument of his salvation. Let us be his Church!