Steve Ray: "Spreading the Gospel Back Then and All Over Again"

let me say a word and offensive reason in dialogue with it because faith is that proof faith unites us to that substance a reason in order to realize its full potential meets the horizons revealed by and truths contained in the faith and not just any sense but the Catholic I want to just talk about the evangelism of the early church and how we can learn from them today and I want to start out with my father's own conversion my father and mother were pagans basically they had never gone to church never been taught to pray and they were in Detroit Michigan in the 1953 Billy Graham came to Detroit and my mom heard him speak and fell on her knees on the kitchen floor and started to cry and ask Jesus to come into her heart and the Baptist kind of tradition and my dad thought he was having cancer he thought he was dying so he went out one night on the front porch of our house and he looked up into the stars and he said if there's a god I don't even know if you're up there but if you are I ask you to help me I need your help he went to bed got up the next morning went to Ford Motor Company and the first thing in the morning a man came up to my father and he said charlie ray can I talk to you and my dad said yes what he says I have to tell you something you need Jesus Christ in your life less than 24 hours later and my dad became a Christian I have a question for you do you think that man that talked to my father was a Catholic why not why do you all just assume no isn't it funny isn't it sad that you all assume and just nonchalantly figure out it wasn't a Catholic I'm going to get back to that in a little later but why should we Evangel IX why should we evangelize why are we comfortable with not talking to people about Jesus I'm a convert from evangelical Protestantism and you're not going to get me stuck in that rut I like to talk to people about Jesus and we'll get to that in the second part of the talk my wife said I have way too many notes for my few minutes that I have but why don't we evangelize you know you could actually say why should we life is short let's just go out and eat drink and be merry let's just have a good time go to the vacation house let's just spend time watching football and getting involved in sports and have a good beer why waste our time embarrassing ourselves and getting in tough situations and telling people about Jesus let's just live life and let them live their life but the reason that we can't do that is because life there's a real reality out there and there's a reality of heaven and hell and the reason that I think besides all these things but one reason I think that we need to evangelize is because we need to know what a human being is what is a man what is a woman why should we tell them about Jesus why are they important our generation with abortion and all the other things going on has treats people like they're really not that significant they're just people are dispensable there are so many of us we have too many out populating the earth anyway we could do with a few less but why do we as Catholics think it's important to evangelize because we understand what a man is they are made in the image of God and they are made for eternity and can you imagine that one soul every single soul here is an eternal being and this eternal being will live forever do you have any concept of what forever is and how important that what is forever eternity just think you were going to live for eternity God made you in His image to live with him for eternity and those who don't live with him for eternity will live in eternity in hell dr. Hahn yesterday said how there's no escape we're all going to die is 100% mortality but after that were also 100% still alive in one of two places do you know who understands the value of human life and the value of being infinitely made in God's eyes more than anybody but God himself the devil the devil knows how important to soul is that's why his whole campaign of Rage against God is to destroy even one human being if he can destroy one human being he has done something in his mind that's good because he hates God more than anything else and he can't touch God because God can't be touched by the devil the only thing that devil can do to hurt God is to destroy what God loves and what God loves is the human being made in his own image if we understand how much Satan hates one soul we will understand why it's important that we evangelize why we tell people about Jesus we must be devoted as Satan is don't tell dr. Hahn I said that we have to have every bit as much devotion as the devil himself because he's out to destroy and we're out to save and one human soul lasts forever but let's go back in time and learn from our first brothers and sisters in Christ why should we recreate the wheel we talked about the New Evangelization as though we're starting something new like we're reinventing something we're starting or okay we have to evangelize how do we do that I think why the church is called it the New Evangelization is because there's already been an old evangelization and you learn by looking at the past you don't have to recreate the wheel but we live in a parallel universe with our brothers and sisters in the past look at just a quick timeline if you look at the first three centuries of Christianity they lived in a pagan culture they had gods and sacrifices and infant sacrifices they had all kinds of things like this the paganism this is what the Christians reacted against in order to bring Christianity and sanity into the world the Roman Empire with its cruelty disregard for human life you were only a value and as what you could do for the Emperor the Roman Empire was pagan and the first Christians for the first three hundred years lived in that pagan culture and what did they do they converted that whole culture and then what happened is it became Christian the whole West starting in Israel moving up through Europe and then to North American South America the world was Christianized most of it not that everybody was carrying Bibles around but that we were all Christian we had the same morals we all believed that you don't have homosexual marriages and by the way go to chick-fil-a when you get home and eat there and then and we opposed abortion and this whole 1700 years has been marked by Christianity in the church and then a hundred years ago paganism started creeping back in it raised its ugly head and now you and I whether we like it or not we live in a neo-pagan culture my mom and dad are just 93 and 90 and in September they will celebrate their 73rd wedding anniversary and my parents like my parents tell me Steve if you clap all the time we're never going to get done with us because I don't have applause lines timed in here and my parents say to me even before I came here Steve we don't recognize the world anymore not the world we were raised in we can't believe it that our government even makes it legal and is promoting through my tax dollars Planned Parenthood and abortion who can believe that that people are now promoting and governments are not only saying it's okay to be homosexual but we're going to marry you and that anyone who opposes it it's a bigot you bunch of bigots intolerant aren't you no we're not the intolerant one so it will get all to that later but so the first 1,700 years it was a Christian culture and now we're back in paganism and we're going to have to learn to realized anew pagan culture we're going to have to start over again but we don't have to begin from zero somebody's already created the wheel they've already given us the blueprint who the early Christians and that's why I want to go back and take a look at them but who were these early Christians that they know more than we do were they smarter than we are were they richer than we are what were these people how could they change the Roman Empire turn it upside down the that Caesars that all of the armies all of the people across this whole diverse Roman Empire how did these people convert and turn the world upside down for Jesus Christ in 300 years without Facebook and Twitter and email and texting how did they do this Paul says in first Corinthians consider your call brother ninnies writing this to us as well not many of you were wise according to worldly standards not many were powerful or of noble birth but God chose the foolish in the world to shame the wise God chose the weak to shame the strong how did these simple people walking around in robes and sandals minding their own business raising families how do they turn the world upside down for Jesus Christ I know they had door-to-door evangelism right they had big arenas full of Billy Graham's speaking and teaching they picketed the Emperor's Palace no they didn't because the Christians then had to be quiet they had to be private they were a subculture a despised subculture they lived underground in many ways not literally but you know what I mean keeping their nose to the grind wheel keeping their lives private the mass during those times was not celebrated in great basilica's and churches around the Roman Empire the mass was celebrated in private in personal homes called the include Dominus ecclesia the home churches they did it privately sometimes in the catacombs with any moment of fear that there's going to be a knock on the door and they'd be taken away the mass was a private thing no one was allowed in for the first hundred and fifty years no one outside of the very initiated Catholics knew what even happened in the mass they thought that we were committing incest because we loved one another they thought that we were eat cannibals because we ate human flesh and drank human blood and you could be executed or arrested just for talking about Jesus or confessing that you were a Christian it's coming in our country you may be arrested or executed just for saying that a marriage is between one man and one woman how do a version share the truth they did talk about Jesus one-on-one with their neighbors with their friends and family the early Christians talked but they didn't do it in public like we think of as at stadiums churches and televisions it was a private thing one-on-one and they live self-disciplined lives the Romans didn't live they were debauched they didn't live self-disciplined lives but the Christians lived lives of self-governance with the fruits of the Spirit and they cared for the poor and the disadvantaged they went out of their way to take care of the sick the Romans didn't do this and people don't do this today you go to Muslim countries they don't take care of their own people in Israel when I take my group's we go to Bethlehem and you see who among all of these Arabs take care of the sick and the mentally handicapped it's the Christians even though there are only 1.5 percent of the population the only hospitals and schools and Nazareth and in Bethlehem and all these other areas that predominantly Muslim all of them are by Christians so the Christians of the first century they gained the respect of people around them because they live their faith and they took care of the poor and disadvantaged and here's a quote I found regarding the early church it's very interesting here's what affected the Romans when the Romans threw their unwanted newborn babies under the bridges it's a girl I don't want a girl take her and throw her under the bridge we'll try again for a boy when the Romans threw their unwanted newborn babies under the bridges leaving the infants to be carried away by the wild dogs the Christians waited in the shadows and they took the children home and they raised them as their own this testimony over a period of time won the hearts of many in the Roman Empire they condemned contraception and abortion and immorality and homosexuality and every other kind of evil and perversion they did it without compromise because they were Christians they refused to burn incense to the gods too many Christians today are quite willing to burn incense to the gods of the secular culture you know in the old days they had gods called Qi mosh in Moloch and they were gods of fertility and harvest and people would come to the Great God Moloch for example and he was a potbelly stove God it was a big belly was open in his hand they had hands of iron reaching out and the goal a big open eyes where the smoke would belch out of his eyes and they'd build a fire in Moloch this big God and they would come and they'd say all Moloch we pray that you will give us a good harvest the rains the shear Moloch we pray for a good harvest and then they bring their firstborn son or daughter and by this time Moloch has the fire burning in his cast-iron body until the whole thing is red-hot even the arms reaching out like this up at an angle like this were red-hot and they would bring their sons and their daughters and they would lay them in the hands of Moloch like a steak on a barbecue and then the baby would roll as it screams down into the belly of Moloch and burn and the father and mother would step back and say oh God Moloch we've given you our best now we pray that you will give us your best a good harvest this year God Moloch do you know we still have the God Moloch in America we don't call him Moloch anymore we call this evil God his name today is abortion where we in America are willing to give up our children for our own pleasures for our own peace of mind and for a few more dollars in our pockets we're willing to take our children and burn them in the belly of Moloch how long can God tolerate a country that has these gods remember what he did to the countries in the old times it had these gods I fear for America mainly because I have 10 grandchildren but they refused to comply and many because of this suffered martyrdom the first 30 Pope's died as martyrs when the first 30 Pope's were elected to the office of Pope they knew what their end would be and yet they did it when Christians became Christians they knew what their end would be and yet they still bowed down for the water to be poured on their head in the name of the Father Son and the Holy Spirit knowing that a bull's-eye was being put on their chest the book of Revelation refers to these great Saints they have conquered the devil by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives even unto death jesus said you will be my witnesses in Acts chapter 1 we think that means like a witness in court we're going to tell people what we know and certainly that's it you'll be my witnesses first in Jerusalem and Judea Samaria and the ends of the earth all the way to Steubenville and you will be my witnesses but Jesus used a word there that we don't know because we don't read the Bible in Greek in the word Jesus used is martes and what English word do you think we get from Martucci my witnesses and the Catechism says that maybe even with your lives you will witness if that all scares you it's time to leave go it's okay but what we need in our country is courageous people today for Jesus anyway imagine the government in the time of the Romans I was going to do something I change I change them as I pretend like I got a phone call that the building was surrounded by federal agents but I want to take you back to the early Christians what their life was the price they paid can you imagine that the early Christians had enough emails in their database showing that they had protested the government against abortion and homosexuality that they were trying to affect the election this coming November lord have mercy do you realize it that they're back in those days the Roman Empire investigated they went to those early Christians email accounts and to their websites and they saw what they were doing and maybe with a group like this they saw there was a concentration of them all in one room and they surround the building and they come in the Romans with their read help their silver helmets with a big red brush of the Centurion and they draw their swords and they surround us and they tell you come up here we now have an altar all of you are going we heard about you by the way now you're going to have a chance to make up for it come up here and we will burn incense here on this altar and you will pledge your loyalty to Caesar who is the Lord and the Prince of Peace and divine all titles that the Emperor held and you will all come up here this is the glue that holds our empire together you have to agree with the federal government of Rome and you will come up here and you will make your declaration that you agree by burning incense to the Emperor how many of you are going to come up and so I am the Roman centurion everybody up out of their seats right now come in here and sign get up here in burn incense nobody's getting up oh you're a stubborn lot you must think you're able to withstand the might of Rome or the United States you think you might be able to withstand us you think you're going to fight for your freedoms did a parent stand in line and if you're not willing to stand in this line Brutus Brutus the executioner steps in with his four foot hundred pound sword with his tattoos on his arm and a ring in his nose and Brutus steps up and they set up another stay at line over here with a chopping block and now you have five seconds to get out of your seats and in get in one of these lines you make your choice oh and by the way you can get in the line over here to have you to burn incense cross your fingers it doesn't matter we don't care if you believe it or not you just have to do it you have to vote properly even if you don't believe it so cross your fingers and come up here and get in line when some of you say well that's a good deal I'll cross my fingers I don't really believe it I have to be responsible with my head I can't just be throwing it away I have and children in a business I'll go to confession next Saturday and so some of you get in line here and then there's a good elderly lady who knows the Lord or a priest or someone here young person had just converted and says wait don't do that because the Bible said if you deny me before men I'll deny you before my father that's in heaven and what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his own soul and then all of you get up and you come over in this line and by the end of the next hour there is a pile of heads here that will take dump trucks to carry away this is what the early Christians suffered so that they could have an july's the world you and I are here today because they had their foot spa and the courage to do what they did then Tertullian said in this end of the second century the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church in the arenas and the word arena means sand white sand because when the deaths took place the red blood splashed onto the red sand and made a great spectacle for the crowds in the audience and Tertullian said you bring us in and you kill us in the arenas and in the theaters but for every one of us you kill ten more will spring up from the seed you just planted in the sand and agustin he expands on it and he says the earth has been filled with the blood of the martyrs as with seed and from the seed that's been cast out upon the earth have sprung up crops for the church the martyrs have asserted Christ's cause more effectively when dead than when they were alive they asserted even today they preached Jesus today from theirs from the ground their tongues are silent yet their deeds echo around the world they are arrested bound in prison brought to trial tortured burned at the stake stoned to death run through with swords fed to the wild beasts in all kinds of death they were jeered as being worthless human beings but precious in the sight of the Lord of the death of his godly ones and also precious in the eyes of many others who looked at the Christians and in a bankruptcy saya we have nothing to really live for except our own pleasure to eat drink and be merry but these people know something we don't know they have something we don't have I want to end this tought this section about the early Christians by reading a story I usually don't read things but this is so good I couldn't help but doctor doctor of the church Saint Basil in the fourth century read this as a homily not these exact words but he told the stories a homily about 40 heroic soldiers in Armenia in the year 320 the story only 50 years after Emperor licenese did this to these people and he did it in a church already dedicated to these martyrs the twelfth Legion called armed with lightning was the best and the bravest warriors of the Roman Empire and when the great Roman army was sent to fight far away Armenia no soldiers or braver or more loyal than this band of soldiers but news reached Emperor lice in iasts that many Roman soldiers had accepted the Christian faith the decree was dispatched if there are any among your soldiers who cling to the faith of the Christians they must die the prefect called the soldiers together and asked are any among you Christians together 40 soldiers step forward and stood at attention the prefect had not expected this especially such select soldiers he demanded that they deny Christ offer sacrifices to the pagan gods and they refused not a single one would deny the Lord even though they knew their repercussions finally the prefect said the decree of the Emperor must be obeyed i order you to strip off your uniforms and march out on the lake of ice the 40 soldiers were stripped of their uniforms and they were marched out to the center of the lake to spend the last moments of their hours of their life on the ice naked they broke out into a chant 40 soldiers fighting for the oh Christ to win for the the victory and the victors crowned in the night overcome by cold one out of the 40 crawled back to the shore where the Romans had built a fire from the darkness came the chant in the night 39 soldiers fighting for the yoke Christ to win for the the victory and the victors crown this is a true story one of the guards that was in charge of watching them while they froze to death in the night was amazed when he saw a brilliant supernatural light overshadowing the men at once he announced I too am now a Christian and he threw off his uniform he cast his sword aside and he disappeared into the darkness the next thing they heard 40 soldiers fighting for the yoke Christ to win for the the victory and for the the victors crown at daybreak they were all dead and their bodies were burned and her ashes cast over the ice but one eternal soul was saved that night and in the whole scheme of eternity was it worth it they all saved their own lives too because they gave up what they had here to gain it my father told me when I was a boy a man is no fool to give up what he cannot even his own life they gained that which he can never lose what do we do today to share the gospel all over again what can we learn from them how do we practice it how do we bring it into the world today our job is more difficult in some ways do you know why our job is more difficult because back in those days nobody knew what Christianity was no one had ever heard of the Catholic Church it was all new and it says Paul says in acts 17 now when he went to speak to the Athenians all of them along with the strangers in Athens came and spent time listening to nothing but new things they spent all their time discussing things new things ideas and so on and here comes Paul with something new and they said we will listen to you again about the strange deity Jesus and the resurrection they were interested because they'd never heard about it before they didn't know but I give you an experiment today go out and tell someone you believe in Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church and they should be believers to tell them you believe the Catholic Church is the only truth and you're going to hear and try to tell them about Jesus and you know what they're gonna do lalalalalalalala don't I don't want to hear about it people think today they know everything about Jesus they know everything about the church and they've rejected it it makes it more difficult because when I go up to someone and try to tell them about Jesus they interrupt me as if I used to be a Catholic altar boy not and they tell me their whole story and I don't want to hear about it it's more difficult the new evangelism you and I have a more difficult job in some ways in the early Christian so how are we going to preach to a world that hates us and don't kid yourself it does there are people that hate us so much that they would love to just get vaporize us Muslims kill Christians and countries that's why I'm so afraid of what's happening in Syria and Egypt because the Christians will be the first to go and if you disagree with me see me after because I spent too much time in those countries the Christians are the first to go so is it hopeless it's not hopeless it's no more hopeless than it was for the early Christians but we have our challenges but we also have our benefits we'll get to the benefits in a minute so what can we do first I would say the first thing that we do is prepare ourselves soldiers do not go out into battle without preparation Olympics champions do not go to Great Britain to London without preparing hard for four years so the first thing we need to do to be evangelists to be worthy of those first Christians who pass the baton unto us is to prepare ourself a good place to start is in confession get our life straight get our lives clean get them right I have on my desk a human skull I know that sounds strange I did it because all the times we take groups to roam into Israel I see everywhere Saints with skulls on their desk st. Jerome in particular because he wanted to remember his mortality and my kids their friends think that I'm a little strange why does your daddy have that on his desk my daughter goes well you want to go ask him they come and ask me I said well I got that skull on my desk because every morning that skull talks to me they look at my daughter what does the skull say to you the skull tells me every morning when I get up Steve ray you think you're so important in 50 years you're going to look just like me so mr. Steve Ray what kind of choices are you going to make today how are you going to live your life today how are you going to treat your wife and your children and how many people will you tell about Jesus Christ the only thing that matters in the end and those hollow eyes look straight at me and they look straight through me we need to prepare ourselves and be holy because there's nothing we can do better to evangelize the world we need to educate our self in other words go to a Steubenville conference learn study get prepared because evangelism goes hand in hand with the ology and apologetics and apologetics does not mean you go around apologizing for being a Catholic it means that you go around defending from first Peter chapter 3 verse 15 be ready to give a defense apologia for the faith that is in you you know why Peter wrote that to those in both Ania and Asia and Galatia where he wrote because they were all undergoing a severe persecution they were being slaughtered Christians were arrested and being killed and Peter said they're going to wonder why you're smiling why you are stalwart be ready to give them an explanation and a defense so we need to be ready as well we need to learn we lead to live as the with the Lord Jesus as the Lord of our life and too many Catholics have him the Lord of their life for one hour on Sunday mornings but if Jesus Christ is the Lord of anything Jesus Christ is the Lord of everything that means your economic life your job your family your sex life your moral life how you vote if Jesus is Lord of anything he's Lord of everything another thing we have to do is be different and don't be afraid to be different I have it easy I've always liked to be different I was always a rebel it's easy for me to do that but it's not for everybody but we have to be willing to be different to stand out from the crowd to be countercultural I see people with tattoos and rings and their noses and everywhere else that don't show and I say way to me weird you know why do you want to get these tattoos to be different to be noticed if you want to be different to be noticed to be a Catholic if you really want to stand out and be different be a Catholic today in America my son when he was 16 years old was sixteen he'd been saving he bought his own car an SUV four-wheel drive any first thing he did was with his five buddies who had pledged virginity he went and bought big plywood and built big signs and put him on his car pro-life signs and drove all around an Arbor Michigan or if you know that you know he's lucky he came home alive and he said dad we never had more fun in our life teenage boys we went around with these pro life signs everybody's flipping us the burden we were yelling dog dad it was great you gotta raise your children to be different to raise them to be rebels rebels with the cause against a pagan culture jesus said you are my witnesses Cardinal George if Chicago said not too long ago I expect to die in my bed but I expect that my successor will die in prison and his successor will die in the open air as a martyr this is why I tell my children that I want them to raise my grandchildren to be martyrs but grandpa why do you want us to die I don't want you to die but you see I'm your grandpa I now have a big family Nana and I started up with two we are now 20 and I want all of you in heaven with me for all of eternity I want you to be ready to the seminarians and the priests who walk around with collars telling the world that you are countercultural and to the seminarians and there's a lot here at Steubenville who are discerning their vocation beware if you're cowards leave now what we need in the church is heroes not cowards we need courageous men and women as religious as well and remember that when you are confirmed a Catholic and especially if you are ordained as a priest or you take vows as a sister when that oil is put on your forehead that Bishop also puts a bull's-eye on your chest because you are now going to stand out as the target of that despised Catholic Church the ones that tell everybody else what they should do and what they should believe if you were on trial today for being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict you wake up in the morning every day and ask yourself am I going to live my life today if someone looked at the websites that I visit if someone looks at the emails that I send if someone looks at the life that I live is there enough evidence to convict me of being a Catholic and a Christian I wear this crucifix everywhere I go even in Muslim countries when I went to communist China when I go to Israel I wear this because I want people to know I'm not as fortunate as a priest who can walk around with his collar he doesn't have to say a word everybody knows what he believes a sister in her habit and that's why I love sisters when they still wear the habit because they're telling the world that they are believers in Jesus and I want to ask you to do something with me I made up my mind when I became a Catholic especially with the priests the scandal that came along that there was never going to be a priest go by me without me stopping them to say thank you for being a priest it happened yesterday I was walking through the airport and I saw a bishop coming towards me and I went over and I stopped him and I said thank you for being a priest and especially for being a bishop he says you're welcome I'm on my way to Steubenville to give a talk it was bishop carlson I stopped I stopped the 20 sisters at an airport they were all in their habits and I think they were cloistered because they were all in a little circle like they didn't know what to do in the real world and I walked up to him and I said sisters and they said yes I said I want you to know I'm a Catholic and I think you're the most beautiful women I've ever seen I encourage you to do the same thing when you see them set aside your shyness people do something do something anyway I wear this crucifix everywhere is a testimony to what I believe and people think it's just a nice piece of jewelry a guy got on a plane with me the other day end up sitting next to me I didn't notice we're getting on a plane he's oh that's that's very nice-looking I said thank you I wear it proudly as a Catholic he goes oh well you mean you really believe it I said I believe it enough to die for it I guess you do and he went and said no I ended up sitting down next to him halfway into the flight I feel a tap on my shoulder he says do you have a few moments I said yes he said I'm an atheist but I would love to believe what you do can you talk to me why because I was willing to wear a testimony that happens by the way almost every day if they don't want to hear about it I drop it if they do I'll talk to them but this is what the Christian life Israel is like we're going to be under attack more and more don't think it's going to get better in America my grandchildren don't live in the same place that I live in the same way but this is what the Christian life is all about jesus said if the world hates me it's going to hate you with the implication that if it doesn't you're doing something wrong can you have your leader be hated and you be loved he was hated we have to teach our children this at confirmation when we raise our kids in the Catholic faith they have to know and understand these things for example I had a young boy that wanted me to be his confirmation sponsor and I told him we had helped their family come into the church they are very anti-catholic we spent time with them they came into the Catholic Church and they said would you be our son Matthews sponsor I said no and they said why not I said because I travel too much I'm right next for example I'm not even going to be home this year once one weekend between now and Christmas they said can you be a sponsor I said no and they said please just meet with him once I said ok I'll do that one time we set up a date and I said I have to make this memorable I had just finished filming our documentary on the Apostolic fathers called Apostolic fathers handing on the faith and I had bought a big Roman helmet with a red brush like the Centurion and I had bought a 4-foot sword it was the real deal you could kill someone with this thing in a scabbard and when that heard that boy was coming I went and put a big red blanket over my pinned it over one shoulder I put that helmet on I put the scabbard on in the sword and I hood hid in the shadows of my front porch and that young man named Matthew he gets out of the car and you know diligent parents never leave until they see the Sun in the front door you know and your babysitter your son and so he's kind of shuffles up through the front door like this you know and I'm standing in the shadows and right when he gets to me I pull this sort of I pull the shirt off and I run at him inflate Kapus flying and I put the sword right at his chest I pushed him against the wall and I said Matthew are you ready to die for Jesus Christ right now if not don't waste my time I'm a busy man I said Confirmation a serious business when you become confirmed you're saying that I'm ready to be a Catholic not because mom and daddy are a Catholic you used to say I go to Mass cuz mom and daddy make me go to Mass well now you're going to go to Mass because you're a man you're taking Jesus Christ for yourself and you have to be ready to die for him right now because I'm not going to waste my time with you otherwise and he said I really really will and it and his parents were in the car their eyes were big an old man and they said that boy told everyone he talked to for the next six months about that experience I think every parish should have a sword but X but but the fact is if you're not raising your children in this way if you're not teaching them what this is about they're not going to stay Catholics will lose half of our kids by the time they're out of college because we haven't taken the time to impress upon them no pun intended the reality of what we're doing we also have advantage I'm rushing it clock is my enemy we also have advantages today though what are they there's millions of us a billion actually and we include all of the Orthodox and our evangelical brothers and sisters we've got two billion of us nobody can touch us even the Muslims next in line or only a billion we're two billion in the Catholic Church alone is one where's our muscle why are we doing something why aren't we stomping around the earth so we are numbers we have to the troops I do have to say by the way that is long you all know how I'm going to vote in November and but I do have to thank Obama for some things I really do he has done what we've been trying to do for 20 years get all the bishops on one page and get all the Catholics raised up Thank You President Obama he's also waking up the giant you don't think he's not waking up the giant Catholics who have been afraid to say anything are saying something afraid to do anything or doing something and it's only at the beginning we also have communications which they didn't have in the first centuries and our culture is just as bankrupt as those people saying there's really no meaning to life suicide rates are up alcohol drug use because there's no meaning to life but what do Catholics say by our self disciplined life of joy there is meaning and we're even ready to die for it and the world looks at us and they see that what can we do Oh lastly about we not all martyrs died by the way for preaching the gospel John the Baptist why did he get beheaded not for preaching the gospel he got beheaded for criticizing the government the king was acting immorally and he condemned the king publicly for acting immorally off his head st. Thomas More whose feast day is only one day away from st. John the Baptist did he get executed for preaching the gospel no for criticizing the King off with his head we need to use our freedoms while we have them we have a window of opportunity use the windows they lived in a tyranny they lived under the Roman Empire we live under a democratic republic the United States of which I am proud and I say let's use our freedoms while we still have them and turn it around every day evangelism now I'm going to jump down to just on a personal level every day evangelist and what can we do with the new evangelism I say first of all my wife and I would get up every day we talk about how our antennas go up who can we talk to today where does God want us to go today if you have your antennas up all day thinking about who God is bringing in your path you know that God is like a great chess player he's moving the pieces around on the chessboard and he's saying Steve ray is going to be at this Airport on Tuesday and this atheist in California how am I going to get the two together because there's a lot of Catholics over there and they're not going to talk to him but I know Steve will so he shuffles these pieces around on the board and then all of a sudden all saying there comes the meeting there comes the meeting and I don't do anything I'm shy or too big of a hurry that day or my antennas weren't up right and I walk away God says oh and the Angels all say start over again god we have to be ready every day fought was God bringing to us to talk to us what are we supposed to do my wife she's funny she at the grocery store I've heard her do this some elderly lady had her arms full of girl and my wife is shy she's not the outgoing type a lady had her arms full of groceries and my wife said here I'll open the door for you she go thank you very much my wife says you're welcome I'm a Catholic but you know you don't just go up to someone and say you need Jesus Christ in your life you know it's called relational evangelism Protestants are good at it you build a relationship this is what we have to do much like the early church they didn't go out and preach in the streets necessarily they built relationships with their neighbor and then they talked to them they earned the right for example if I were to just walk up to you on the street and say hello how are your kidneys today what would you say my kidneys are none of your business get away from me but if I made friends with you and your wife was sick and I brought food and we got together and I helped you and I gave you money to help you pay a mortgage payment and I made friends in any year later I hear you're in a hospital for kidney surgery and I meet you at the same corner of the same street and I say the exact same words hello how are your kidneys today how is my response going to be different they're going to say thank you for asking what's the difference I earned the right to talk to them about a personal thing all of you have friends and family that you've earned the right to do this we have to build relationships so that we can tell them about Christ I'm running out of time and I did want to get to one last thing two last things the new evangelism spoken by the Vatican and documents and talked about its Steubenville sounds so grandiose it is but it also isn't it's as simple as your Christmas dining room table but that's also the hardest isn't it how many here for example have family members are close friends who have left the church and are no longer Catholics or Christians I should have said how many don't I would have been able to every almost every one of us has family and friends who have left the church who think they know more than the Catholic Church who have dyslexia nity or whatever and Christmas is always an argument it is in my home not with my immediate family but when I'm with my older brothers and sisters everybody else everybody knows it's going to be an argument and everyone's going home mad at Steve it just happened last week we always leave friends because I never leave any bridges burned whoever I argue with I go hug him in front of everyone said it was good discussing with you I'm glad that we can discuss things that matter and we just don't talk about the weather can't wait for our next argument and we all leave friends but the new evangelism though it is grandiose and big it's also as small as your dining room table where it really counts and where it is the most difficult family members are the most difficult I try to tell my mother she should become a Catholic and she says listen here young man I was a Christian before you were born I changed your diapers who are you to tell me what to do and I should believe but I come up with six rules for family members and friends six rules that I developed in my own the hard way how to evangelize and work with my own family because all of us believe it's our job to convince them to become Catholics to convince them it's our job as though God has nobody else in the world and here's my six rules I'm going to do them quickly don't argue with them family members and friends that don't argue even if they come at you and put their finger in your face don't argue with them you only push them farther away number to pray and make sacrifices God will answer your prayers third love them more than you've ever loved them before this especially goes for a husband and a wife because too often a wife becomes excited about the faith and starts going to church every day and her husband begins to see the church as his competition don't ever set the church up as a competition love your husband love your wife love ever these people who you're dealing with more than you've ever loved them before they can't resist love study and learn so that you're ready to answer their questions when they ask them show the joy of the Lord in your life so when you go to Mass they come back and say where were you I was at Mass why are you so happy because I was with the Lord and the sixth one I think is the most important ask God to bring somebody else into their life because they're not going to listen to you we had a family member that would not even talk to us for a year totally rejected us I prayed for them every day that God would bring someone else into their life I knocked on the gates of heaven jesus said knock every day even the unjust judge will open the door and answer you if you do that so every day and knock the drug when I drive you crazy Lord I'm here again and I'm not letting you off the hook on this one a year later this family member was camping with a friend and the friend happened to be a Catholic but my relative didn't know it and the friend said to my relative they're both bookworms I just read the best book in the whole world as my and she said well what was it she said it's a book called crossing the Tiber and my relatives said who wrote it and she said a guy named Steve ray and she said you liked his book and the next thing you know she read it and now there's no more animosity not Catholic yet but I haven't given a hope but now there's no more this was the answer to my prayer see if you pray God will answer bring somebody else into their life and then you stand back and trust God lastly since evangelism we started out I'm going to conclude with this since evangelism is so important we started out with the weight of a human soul and should we talk to people like that baptist man came and talked to my father I want to close with a scenario that I've thought about many many times I imagine the day when I stand before God and I him waiting in the waiting room outside the throne room and I hear my name Steve Ray and the angels say it's your turn and I walk over and I stand in front of the throne and he says I am checking the book of life for your name ah here it is Steve ray welcome into the joy of the Lord thou good and faithful servant who got here by my grace and not your own efforts by the way I know Lord okay and these a door opens on the side and these beautiful creatures angels come and they begin to escort me in and I hear sounds from there that I had never heard of before couldn't have comprehended with these years and I smell sounds and hears singing and oh they're escorting me over to the door and then I hear the next name Joe Smith and I said that's my neighbor that's the guy I worked with every day that's the guy that I barbecued with across the fence I say to the angels wait wait wait wait that's my neighbor I want to see what happens and Joe comes in and they say God says Joe I'm sorry but I do not see your name here in the book of life and a door opens on the side and these evil creatures come out with hooks on their wings and stench that my nostrils can't even bear my eyes begin to water and screams of horror and they grab Joe and they start to lead him off but Joe sees me going in that door and he says wait a minute Steve ray why are you going in that door and I'm going in this storm I said Joe it's because I was a Christian I believed in Jesus Christ I was baptized I lived in the heart of the church I tried to obey I was a Christian Joe I live for Jesus Christ Joe says you knew this and you never told me when we barbecued you never told me about this and you know but Joe you had your own ideas I didn't want to be politically incorrect I was trying to be ecumenical II sensitive if I would have told you about this you would have said Steve I've got my own opinion so Joe I just let you be Joe's last words as his way out that door is going to be damn you Steve Ray and he will go to hell to spend eternity with the devil and his angels in torment separated from God for all of eternity one human soul lived next door to me and I did nothing the devil Cheers he got one more because of my silence so we have to ask Lord what do you want me to do evangelism will take many shapes and many colors and sizes for all of us because we're all different God's not going to ask all of you to come up here and do this but all of us if we seek God will tell us what he wants us to do and we are a big body of Christ and if a body is each member is doing what the brain tells it to do the body works well and accomplishes its goal all of us our fingers and toes and hands and ears and organs of this big body of Christ and if we listen to the head who is Jesus Christ and we obey Him like a body should all the bases are covered and everything is accomplished but we have to do it Lord what do you want me to do and our responses Here I am Lord send me you you

Channel: Franciscan University of Steubenville

Views: 124,751

Keywords: Franciscan University, Steubenville, Ohio, Catholic, college

Id: sV_MsGUzN_I

Length: 57min 57sec (3477 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 17 2013