In May 1994 I got assigned to Commander, Naval Submarine Force, Pacific in Pearl Harbor, HI. It was a tough assignment to take, but someone had to do it. I was assigned as the Equal Opportunity Adviser to the Admiral and my direct supervisor was a salty old Lieutenant Commander. I had a few strikes against me going into the assignment: 1) I was a junior pay-grade for the position, 2) I was not a submariner, 3) I was filling a very unpopular and sometimes controversial position. Yet, my salty old boss had some great words of wisdom that helped be embrace the challenge. He said, "Before you go out to the fleet, to tell them how to be a better command, make sure our backyard is in order first." I other words, the command staff had to be practicing what I would be preaching to the fleet in the name of the Admiral.
As Jesus sent his apostles out in pairs, his order was to go only to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt 10:6). Yes, Jesus came for all humanity, but there is wisdom in starting in your own backyard, with God's chosen people first. What better evangelization training ground than with your own family of faith!? If you can't convince your own family, how will you ever convince others of the love and mercy of an unseen God?
This is the core message for us. Evangelization and conversion starts with ourselves. Do we believe what we are preaching? I am always disturbed by that statistics cited concerning the Real Presence in the Eucharist, how only 33% of the people who regularly attend Mass believe in the Real Presence, body and blood; soul and divinity of Christ in the Eucharist. We have to believe and live like God truly exists. If the Mass has become just a habit that is just the thing we do on Sunday, we will never be able to convince others to trust in God's love and mercy. Once we are transformed and experience conversion of the Lord, then we need to move on the the first community, our family. You may think it is impossible to witness to people who know you well, I get it, I live it.
Yet, those we love will be the first to admit, despite our less than consistent witness and lack of persuasive words, coupled with our devotion to and lived trust in a forgiving God, becomes a tremendous and believable witness for them. Our actions speak louder than our words ever can and when our actions and words match, it is a powerful combination of faith in action.
It's something each of us can do and we can leave the task of transforming and conversion of our loved ones and those we meet to the Holy Spirit.
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