October 12, 2025
We can be pretty sure that the 11 remaining apostles of Jesus were not running around talking about him after he had been brutally killed via crucifixion. Scripture gives us many episodes of them hiding behind locked doors and keeping to themselves. Surely they must have been afraid of meeting the same fate as Jesus. Plus, confusion and distress would have left them pondering the future. But that all changed when they received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Acts 2 gives us the account of those 11 apostles coming out from behind locked doors and engaging the crowd in discussion about Jesus.
It was Peter who stood up and began to proclaim to the crowd the explanation for all that had happened in Jerusalem regarding Jesus over the course of the prior seven weeks. Specifically for the Jewish audience, Peter linked the events to the words of the prophets and to King David. Peter’s speech must have been very powerful since many took it to heart, accepted his message and were baptized that day. This is all the more astonishing considering this is the same Peter who bolted when Jesus was being interrogated and tortured by the Roman authorities, leading to his death. No matter how committed we are to Jesus, we all need additional opportunities to strengthen and demonstrate our commitment.
October 5, 2025
Chapter 20 of the Gospel of John recounts the first appearance of the Risen Christ to his disciples. But Thomas just happened to be absent that evening. When he returned, the other disciples told Thomas (in verse 25) “We have seen the Lord.” But he didn’t believe them! Hadn’t Thomas been traveling with this whole group for about three years, learning from Jesus? Did he seriously not trust his spiritual companions to tell him the truth? If they had been messing with him, that would have been a terribly cruel joke.
But we can’t fault Thomas for wanting to personally experience an encounter with Jesus, especially after Thomas knew Jesus had died. Thomas wanted concrete evidence that the Lord was indeed alive. After all, Jesus’ appearance did seem pretty far-fetched. But Jesus returned a week later and Thomas was present. He received the assurance he so desired. And after that, he was able to publicly and personally declare Jesus to be “My Lord and my God!” (vs. 28). Are you willing to publicly share your personal declarations regarding the Risen Christ?
September 28, 2025
Not everyone Jesus encountered was opposed to him. He did have devoted followers and friends who believed he was God’s revelation to the world. But even those friends needed help in strengthening their own discipleship. Two such friends were the sisters, Martha and Mary. Chapter 11 of John’s gospel gives us a lengthy interaction between Jesus and the two sisters. When their brother Lazarus was sick, Martha and Mary sent for Jesus. But Jesus did not arrive until after Lazarus had died. Martha went out to meet Jesus as he was coming into their town of Bethany. She ultimately expressed her complete trust in Jesus by declaring him to be “the Messiah, the Son of God” (vs. 27).
Mary eventually also went out to meet Jesus with a crowd of mourners accompanying her. Both women expressed to Jesus their belief that he could have saved their brother from death. And when Jesus did raise up their dead brother, they recognized that they were witnessing the glory of God. But they were not the only ones. All of those friends and neighbors who had come with them to the tomb of Lazarus were also witnesses to the glory of God. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!
September 21, 2025
In Chapter 9 of John’s gospel, Jesus restored sight to a blind man. Jesus was taking an opportunity to educate his disciples so they would know that works of healing in Jesus’ name were actually works of God. Once this man, who had been blind from birth, regained his sight, he recalled his healing story to his neighbors. They weren’t sure what to make of that, so they took the matter to the religious leaders. The man repeated his story to the Pharisees, then declared Jesus to be a prophet. But the Pharisees threw him out of the synagogue, which meant he would be separated from his Jewish community. And that was avoided at all costs by faithful Jews.
Yet, this man courageously clung to his story and his healing. He stood up to his neighbors who offered all sorts of interpretations for his cure from blindness. He stood firm during the interrogation of his parents. And he refused to waiver from the truth while his situation was investigated by the Pharisees. The formerly blind man came to both believe in and worship Jesus. And he stood boldly behind his story. We should be willing to do the same with regard to our stories.
September 14, 2025
Sometimes the greatest evangelists are those you would least expect to fulfill that role. The Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 would fall into that category. Due to her reputation, she stayed away from other members of her community, coming to the well to draw water at the least desirable time of the day. It is there that she had an encounter with Jesus. A prolonged interaction with Jesus opened her eyes and her heart to more important matters. Simply through dialogue and perhaps her own receptivity, she evolved in her understanding of who Jesus was.
As a result, she went through her town to the very people she had been actively avoiding and proclaimed Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. As a female in her time and place, she was not considered to be a reliable witness to anything. As a Samaritan, she was looked upon as an enemy of the Jews. And yet, she boldly pointed people to Jesus. The townspeople took the bait and spent two days listening to Jesus. Then they proclaimed him “the savior of the world” (John 3:42). She only needed to do her part by sharing her story. Jesus took it from there. He will do the same when we share our stories with others.
September 7, 2025
In Chapter 3 of John’s gospel, a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus paid a visit to Jesus in the dead of night. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, most of whom were opposed to Jesus and his interpretation of Jewish laws. But Nicodemus had recognized that God must have been working through Jesus, due to all the remarkable teachings and signs he had performed. Jesus rebuked Nicodemus for his lack of understanding of the ways of God, especially since he was charged with teaching those ways to his fellow Jews.
Nicodemus shows up again in John 7:50 when he questions the other Pharisees for seemingly condemning Jesus before they even knew his full story. And Nicodemus took the rebuke for speaking up. Nicodemus would later redeem himself after Jesus’ death by assisting Joseph of Arimathea in preparing Jesus’ body for burial and placing him in a new tomb (see John 19:38+). Nicodemus’ journey of faith seems to have been a gradual one. It started with receptivity, was followed by a simple inquiry, which in turn led to a very tangible act of love. We don’t know the rest of his story, but we suspect he was changed forever by his encounters with Jesus.
August 31, 2025
Chapter 24 of Luke’s gospel gives us a post-resurrection account of Jesus. Two of Jesus’ disciples leaving Jerusalem after the crucifixion were walking and talking about all the latest events. Jesus happened to draw near to them, but they did not recognize him. And isn’t that often the case for us as well! After journeying together, the two arrived at the village of Emmaus, and sat down to eat since it was evening. When Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it in front of their eyes and gave them some of it, they finally recognized him. So they immediately headed back to Jerusalem. Why?
They went to find the 11 disciples and all those others who were with them lamenting the death of Jesus. And they were rewarded with the testimony of Jesus having been raised from the dead and appearing to Peter. So the two in turn recounted their own story, attesting that the Lord had indeed risen and had made himself known “in the breaking of the bread.” This is still one of the primary ways that the Risen Lord makes himself known to us today. But even committed Christian disciples need to tell their stories of encounters with Christ to others. Evangelization must be ongoing.
August 24, 2025
Luke 19 offers us the story of Zacchaeus, a rather wealthy chief tax collector. Because of his status, it was likely that he was especially despised by his fellow Jews. It was common for tax collectors to garner their wealth by extorting their fellow Jews, collecting more money than the tax amount imposed by the Roman authorities. The likes of Zacchaeus would have pocketed the excess, thus causing even more suffering for their fellow countrymen, while becoming personally all the more rich. But when Zacchaeus encountered Jesus, he had a change of heart. And that’s why encounters with Jesus Christ are so important.
Jesus spoke to him personally and rather boldly invited himself to be a guest at Zacchaeus’ house. Luke tells us Zacchaeus received Jesus with joy. That’s not the first response we would imagine on the part of Zacchaeus, given the depth and duration of his sin of greed. Yet, joy points to the kind and depth of response that is possible as a result of an encounter with Jesus Christ. Zacchaeus promised restitution for the error of his ways. And although many who witnessed this exchange between Jesus and Zacchaeus would have found the idea of Jesus eating with a sinner rather repulsive, they ended up being witnesses to the formerly “lost” tax collector being saved and redeemed by the Son of Man. And that would have resulted in considerable conversation among the townspeople as to who was within the reach and the mercy of God.
August 17, 2025
In chapter 10 of Luke’s gospel, Jesus sent 72 out to become missionaries. They were to travel to a variety of towns and places, cure the sick and proclaim “the kingdom of God is at hand.” Although Jesus was a stellar evangelist, in the limitations of his humanity, even he needed others to help spread the message of God’s presence, divine power and healing love. But Jesus warned the 72 that he was sending them “like lambs among wolves.” And doesn’t it feel that way today? Those who believe in God and who are vocal or demonstrative about it often encounter opposition and persecution. In spite of that, Jesus told the missionaries to just keep moving forward to the next location.
Jesus continued to invite the people he encountered to follow him and to “go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” He continues to invite people today to do the same — including us. But perhaps we come up with excuses as to why we’re not ready to do that — just like some of the people of his day. Jesus recognized that if people rejected his missionaries, they were really rejecting Jesus and God. All disciples have the responsibility to be missionaries in their time and place. If we Christians are not willing to be proclaimers of the kingdom of God, then who will be?
August 10, 2025
Luke 7 gives us the story of a seemingly unqualified candidate to be evangelizing others about God. A Roman soldier had heard about Jesus and he must have taken that to heart. When one of his servants got sick, he turned to Jesus for help. The centurion believed in Jesus’ authority to heal and simply asked that Jesus speak words of healing for his servant. And that’s what Jesus did; he helped without even seeing or touching the servant, who regained his good health. Jesus was quite impressed with this show of faith from a pagan soldier.
Luke 8 offers us another unlikely candidate for proclaiming the good works of Jesus. A man who lived in pagan territory was possessed by demonic spirits. You can imagine that he would have drawn a crowd wherever he went, though people would have kept some distance out of fear. He declared Jesus to be the “son of the Most High God” (Luke 8:28). Even demons can recognize and name Jesus. Witnesses to this incident shared the story of how this possessed man had been saved. Jesus instructed the healed man to return home and recount what God had done for him — which is evangelization. He went off and proclaimed it throughout the whole town. Would you be inclined to believe such an astounding story without personally seeing the evidence of the before and after?
August 3, 2025
Let’s continue to revisit familiar stories of New Testament characters whose words and actions evangelized others around them. Luke 5:17-26 gives us the story of an anonymous sick man. We are not told the name of this man — just his condition. He was paralyzed and immobile, to the point where he had to be transported by others. Another thing we learn about him is that he had some awesome friends. The large crowd prevented them from entering through the doorway where Jesus was. So they lowered their friend down through the roof in order to bring him into the presence of Jesus. Did they want their friend to hear the life-giving words of Jesus? Did they hope that Jesus could and would heal him? Ultimately, Jesus did just that.
After his healing, the formerly paralyzed man picked up his mat and started to walk away. Luke tells us he went home, glorifying God. And all who had witnessed this miraculous healing were seized with astonishment and declared “We have seen incredible things today.” So they also glorified God publicly. Have you ever witnessed “incredible things” that moved you to a state of wonder and awe, after which you openly attributed them to the work of God?
July 27, 2025
John’s gospel gives us a different twist on the call of Jesus’ first disciples. According to John, Peter’s brother Andrew and an unidentified friend heard John the Baptist refer to Jesus as “the Lamb of God” (John 1:35+). So they followed Jesus and engaged in conversation with him. After spending some time with Jesus, Andrew went to find his brother Simon Peter and declared that he had “found the Messiah.” Andrew then introduced his brother to Jesus, who personally invited Peter to join him in his mission.
Similarly, Jesus invited Philip to follow him. In turn Philip found his friend Nathaniel and told him he had found “the one about whom Moses wrote in the law” and about whom the prophets had written (John 1:45). And isn’t this how evangelization works? One person has a memorable encounter with Jesus Christ and feels compelled to share that with another person. That’s exactly what we are called to do as modern-day Christian disciples — to share our life-changing divine encounters with others.
July 20, 2025
We know very little about Jesus’ childhood, so let’s fast forward to his adulthood and the beginning of his public ministry. All four gospels include an account of Jesus calling 12 disciples to assist him in his work as news of his healings and teachings began to spread. Let’s take a look at Luke’s account. Luke 5:1 notes that a crowd of people were pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God. What a great place to be! Jesus ended up getting into Peter’s boat, as the water would have helped to amplify his voice so it could be heard by all. But then Jesus told Peter to head out into deep water for a catch. Peter, and his fellow fishermen, complied and they caught a massive number of fish. Peter was awestruck at this and fell to his knees before Jesus, who then gave him a new commission to go out and catch people. And Peter, along with his business partners, left everything and followed Jesus.
Each of the men Jesus pursued had their own story of being called to discipleship. They then detached themselves from their former life in order to travel with and learn from Jesus. What must it have been like to get up close and personal with Jesus? Did they even recognize at the time that they were being fed the word of God every time he spoke? They of course had no clue as to what their lives would become by accepting Jesus’ invitation to discipleship. But accept they did. And they all stand in our history as courageous souls whose faith helped to change the world. This of course begs the question: Is my faith impacting the lives of others in my corner of the world?
July 13, 2025
We turn now to Simeon and Anna. Simeon’s story takes place in the temple in Jerusalem, about 40 days after Jesus’ birth. Mary and Joseph took their newborn baby to Jerusalem to be consecrated to the Lord as a first-born son. Simeon was at the temple that day. He is described in Luke 2:25+ as righteous and devout and filled with the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit that had revealed to Simeon that he would have the privilege of seeing the Messiah before he died. When Mary and Joseph arrived at the temple with Jesus, Simeon knew the salvation of the people of Israel would happen through Jesus.
In response to this privilege, Simeon blessed and praised God out loud. He wasn’t the only one. The elderly prophetess Anna was also there and she too recognized this special child and his role in the redemption of Israel. Like Simeon, Anna’s response was to publicly thank God and speak about this child to all who were within earshot at the temple that day. We are fortunate to have within our faith ancestry such spirit-filled and bold witnesses to the awesome works of God. Are we likely to be remembered as bold witnesses to the works of God?
July 6, 2025
We’re continuing to explore stories in the New Testament of those who witnessed to God’s Presence through their words, their actions and their lives. Today we’ll take a look at Joseph. Joseph’s story gives us a premier example of the strong, silent type. Scripture does not include a single word uttered from his mouth. But we can tell he was a really good listener and a man of action. Matthew 1:19 describes Joseph as a “righteous man.” Mary was his betrothed, yet she ended up pregnant and he knew the child was not his. Apparently, he was also a compassionate man, because he was “unwilling to expose her to shame.” So, he decided to sever the relationship quietly. But God had other plans.
Through divine intervention, Joseph was instructed to wed Mary, to raise the child and to name him Jesus. And Joseph obeyed. When God asked him to protect the family from Herod and flee to Egypt, he obeyed (Matthew 2:14). And when God willed him to return to Israel and settle in Nazareth in the region of Galilee, he obeyed (Matthew 2:19-23). Joseph recognized God’s revelations to him and rather than talking about them, he chose to act on them. Joseph’s cooperative actions allowed God’s will to become reality. How and when has your cooperation with God helped to bring about God’s plans?
June 29, 2025
We’re all familiar with the brunt of Mary’s story. God intervened in her life in a big way, as described in Luke 1. And she believed the divine message that she was to bear a child whom God would claim as his own beloved Son, sent into the world to save his people. Mary followed through with her pregnancy, even though she was a young, unmarried girl who by law could be stoned to death for becoming pregnant outside of marriage. As we might expect, Mary is a major player in the infancy narratives, given to us in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. She herself had to ponder and wrestle with all these events in order to come to some wisdom and understanding of what they meant for her and for others.
We don’t hear much more about Mary during Jesus’ public ministry. She primarily factors in at his birth and at his death. John’s gospel (John 19:25) places her at the foot of the cross during Jesus’ crucifixion. Even though she likely would not have understood why that happened, she resolutely stayed with her beloved son during his time of greatest anguish. Acts 1:14 tells us that she could be found among the disciples in Jerusalem, praying with other members of what would become the first Christian community. Prayer is a sign of active belief, witnessing to Divine Presence. Even after Jesus’ death, Mary must have known that his life was of great importance and she would always be a part of his story.
June 22, 2025
Today we’ll address the stories of Elizabeth and Zechariah. Luke 1 introduces us to Elizabeth as the barren wife of the priest Zechariah, who had his own dramatic experience of God. A divine encounter while serving in the temple rendered Zechariah mute. And when Zechariah left the temple, all the people who had been outside praying realized he had had a supernatural encounter. Zechariah completed his priestly service and went home to Elizabeth, who then conceived her first child in her old age.
We catch up with Elizabeth six months later when she is paid a visit by her young relative, Mary, as we mentioned in last week’s column. Three months after that, John the Baptist was born. And when Zechariah affirmed in writing that the baby’s name would be John, he regained his speech and immediately evangelized, using his voice to bless God. Luke 1:65-66 tells us fear then came upon all their neighbors as a result. No doubt they stood in wonder and awe of this marvelous event! And that raised their expectations as to what God had called the child to become, because “surely the hand of the Lord was with him.” And indeed it was!
June 15, 2025
Let’s take a look at John’s story. According to Luke’s gospel, John the Baptist was already revealing the identity of Jesus while in utero. When a pregnant Mary went to visit her pregnant relative Elizabeth, John leapt for joy in the womb of his mother. These two expectant women shared the “good news” with each other. Elizabeth recognized and publicly declared that Mary was the mother of her Lord (Luke 1:42-44). How could she have known that? Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth testified to the Messiah and declared Mary blessed among women. Some 2,000 years later, we can testify that Jesus’ mother Mary continues to be honored and remembered as blessed.
All four gospels offer us an account of John the Baptist preaching in the desert, calling people to be baptized in the running water of the Jordan River as a show of repentance for their sins. As a faithful Jew from a priestly family, John was awaiting the coming of the Messiah. He was trying to prepare people for that event. And when Jesus arrived at the river bank, willing to undergo baptism, John somehow knew that Jesus was the one who ranked ahead of him — the one he would come to call the Lamb of God (John 1:29-30). So John baptized Jesus and spent the rest of his life pointing people to Jesus.
June 8, 2025
Fr. Jim Sichko, our Mission speaker, reminded us that we each have our own personal experiences of Divine encounter. And in keeping with the St. Thomas goal to enhance our evangelization efforts, we’re going to be offered opportunities to share our own stories. This column will revisit that at a later date. In the meantime, our sacred scriptures are filled with stories of our ancestors in faith and their personal encounters with the Living God.
Our faith ancestry includes the Jewish figures of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, as well as Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Ruth. But we’re going to start with the stories of the people of Jesus’ time, including the 12 men called into discipleship, Mary Magdalene, Paul and Lydia. In the weeks to come, this column is going to highlight some of those stories in order to plant seeds for us to think about the simple or dramatic ways that God has worked in our own lives. While their experiences with Jesus Christ are their own, their stories are also an invitation for us to consider our own stories. Meet us back here next week as we begin exploring Divine intervention in the New Testament era.
June 1, 2025
According to our upcoming Mission speaker Fr. Jim Sichko, compassion rarely makes the news. And yet, ordinary people are constantly doing extraordinary things. But do we even notice when people are being bearers of Good News through their words or through simple acts of love and kindness on behalf of others? Pope Francis commissioned Fr. Jim to be 1 of 100 people to serve as a Papal Missionary of Mercy during the Jubilee year of 2015. And Fr. Jim has spent his time and energy bringing the mercy of Christ to people ever since.
So you are invited! Come to St. Thomas starting the evening of June 2 at 7:00 pm. That’s tomorrow night, folks! We’ll be meeting in the sanctuary to engage in “60 Minutes 4 Jesus.” Fr. Jim will use personal stories to help us recognize the good in ourselves and others. He will teach us how to discern God’s movement in our own life. He will challenge us to do our part to make the world a better place — because each of us can. So come to learn — to laugh — and to be inspired. Hope to see you there.
May 25, 2025
This column has just wrapped up a series on evangelization. And according to a recent insert in our Parish Bulletin, one of our St. Thomas goals for a vibrant future is a greater focus and emphasis on evangelization. With that goal in mind, its begs this question: “Where in the world is Fr. Jim?” We’re not sure where he is right now, but he will be here in Naperville at St. Thomas June 2, 3 and 4. Perhaps the first question then on your mind is “Who the heck is Fr. Jim?”
Fr. Jim Sichko is a priest of the Diocese of Lexington, KY. He stays busy traveling 300 days each year evangelizing through preaching, storytelling, engaging in random acts of kindness and generally spreading joy. This ministry has taken him to all 50 states as well as to 6 continents. For us, the timing will be perfect. We’re working our way toward Pentecost, which is the official end of the Easter season. And that gives way to a long period of Ordinary time during which we are called to mature in our Christian discipleship. Nothing like a Mission to give us a good kick-start.
May 18, 2025
Our faith calls us to be engaged in the world we live in — to be the change we want to see. We all have our own personal experiences with the Divine. For those of us who are Christian, Jesus Christ is how we best experience and understand God. Are you willing to share some of the stories of what God has done in your life? Or will they never again be heard or have any impact beyond your death? If we consider ourselves to be believers, if faith is a foundational part of our life’s journey, if God factors into our worldview, are we bold enough to make sure others know that about us and see that in the way we conduct our lives? If so, we are doing our part to keep the stories alive. And that is evangelization.
It’s on us now to keep the all-important message of Christ alive and moving forward. Might you be willing to share the good news of God’s love and truth in order to invite others into God’s world and extend the reign of God on earth? After all, introducing someone to Jesus Christ could monumentally change their life for the better. Pope John Paul II believed the Good News of Jesus Christ was capable of renewing the human race. It has in the past. It can again. No time like the present to be a bearer of Good News!
May 11, 2025
Do you have in your jewelry collection a cross necklace? Do you wear it as a fashion statement or as a purposeful faith declaration, especially outside of the church building? Do you have a tendency to support charitable organizations that support Christian principles or that represent the long-standing charitable efforts of the Catholic Church? Might you be willing to discuss with others why those are important to you and why you support the good work those charities do?
Do you intentionally schedule social activities around a priority of church activities? If someone invited you to join them for breakfast, would you be bold enough to declare your availability only after you attended morning Mass or an hour of adoration? Might you be willing to get involved with ministries that allow you to take “church” to the wider community and share your faith with those living in nursing homes, or those who are hospitalized or those who could use a home visit that includes prayer and communion? All of these are acts of evangelization.
May 4, 2025
We often segment our lives, keeping our faith separate from our other views, beliefs and actions. How might we bridge those divides? Our actions and the way we live can be forms of preaching. If the Risen Christ has impacted your life, then your life can be a testimony to God. To be a disciple is to live in conformity to Christ. If you are a parent or a grandparent, talking about God or teaching your family about God is evangelizing. Another thing you can do is attribute things of beauty to God. When you see a beautiful sunrise, sunset or landscape, do you recognize and credit God’s role as Creator in those? If you are willing to express that out loud, you are evangelizing.
Might you be willing to read a spiritual book or magazine, such as a pocket New Testament or a prayer book in a public place, like on an airplane or waiting for an appointment in your doctor’s office? If so, you are publicly declaring that you are a person of faith, without saying a word. Our St. Thomas library makes numerous books, magazines and resources available for our use. Do you display holy objects — sacramentals — in your house where they may be seen by guests and visitors? If not, are you willing to hang a cross on the wall, add a Mary statue to a shelf or put a Bible on a coffee table? These are ways to evangelize without words.
April 27, 2025
As we said last week, prayer is an action of evangelization. When you speak blessings on your kids or others, you are invoking God and witnessing to the presence of God in everyday life events. Our parish offers holy water which you can take home and use for blessings. Do you pray before family meals at home? If not, might you be willing to start? Are you willing to do so even with guests present? If you are really gutsy, you might even conspicuously pray at your table when your meal arrives out in a public restaurant. That’s definitely evangelization.
If someone asked you how you might handle a difficult situation, would you be inclined to immediately act as a healing presence and lend them a listening and compassionate ear? Would you tell them you would pray for them in their struggle? Would you pray over them right then and there? If not, what would you need to do to get comfortable doing that? How might our parish help you boost your confidence to become a prayer warrior?
April 20, 2025
Our focus in this column series remains on evangelization. Prayer is an action of evangelization. And there is no greater prayer action in our Catholic tradition than the Mass. Every Sunday we gather to celebrate as if it’s a mini-Easter — because it is! But today we celebrate the original Easter. The events of Easter Sunday are indeed the Good News of Jesus Christ. Today caps off the Greatest Story Ever Told with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Not only did God break into our lowly human condition, but God transformed our plight by bringing life out of death.
The numbers of people who typically show up for an Easter Sunday Mass is a witness to the impact of the story of Jesus’ life. All the bells and whistles that make up the Easter Vigil testify to the magnitude of this annual remembrance. We proclaim the Exsultet! We hear more of the story of our salvation history through additional scripture readings. And we welcome new members through baptism into the Body of Christ; members who evangelize the rest of us through their demonstration of courage and commitment to become Christian disciples. May we all be so bold! A very Blessed and Happy Easter to all!
April 13, 2025
Let’s explore more ways to evangelize. Every attempt to cultivate a more ethical conscience, to see how God sees, or to work for the common good can stand as a proclamation of faith. God is eternally present. There are endless possibilities for professing, living and celebrating that Presence, all of which are acts of evangelism. For example, if you personally participate in adult faith formation activities and programs such as ALPHA, retreats or missions, you’re demonstrating interest in your own spiritual growth, which can enhance your relationship with God. The internet offers online programs to help us learn the teachings of our Church, including the Catechism in a Year podcast.
Participating in a bible study, either in-person or online, is also a good way to grow in faith. Perhaps you’ve heard of The Bible in One Year podcast. St. Thomas offers bible studies in person on Wednesday and Thursday mornings and via Zoom on Thursday evenings. Mentioning to someone that you are part of a bible study is a statement of personal faith. Adding spiritual books to your reading repertoire is another way to grow in faith. And growing in your own faith can make evangelization easier. Perhaps you could find someone to read those books with you and discuss them. Have you ever considered forming your own faith-based book club?
April 6, 2025
How can we show others that God is present and active today and every day, especially in our own lives? Perhaps it’s easiest to start right at church. When you show up for Mass and participate in communal worship, you are acknowledging that God plays a role in your life and you are physically witnessing to a desire for spiritual renewal and conversion. When you partake of the gift of the sacraments that our Church offers, especially those that are repeatable like Eucharist and Reconciliation, you are demonstrating your belief in the tangible gifts that God makes available to you and in their capacity to change you for the better.
If you are involved in ministries of service or education or administration here at St. Thomas, you are engaged in active evangelism. As Christian disciples, your acts of service on behalf of others are a personal witness to your faith in Christ and the Christian way. Helping the parish by serving as a catechist is a great way to evangelize yourself — to grow in your own relationship with Jesus Christ and to learn about our Church. Plus it’s a built-in opportunity to share all that with others.
March 30, 2025
The Catholic Church is not just an institution; it’s a living being — the Body of Christ. We are the living, breathing members of that Body. We are the Church — the public continuation and manifestation of Jesus Christ’s presence in the world. That means we are part of the evangelization process. And members of our Church throughout all these centuries felt inspired and compelled to perpetuate our Catholic Christian customs, scriptures, traditions and teachings in order to feed their own faith and the faith of those who would come after them.
So now it’s our turn. We are modern-day Christian disciples. We are players in the ongoing Great Story of Jesus Christ. Will we do our part to keep the legacy of Jesus Christ alive? How might we do that? Many of us find it a challenge to speak of God in a world that is becoming more and more hostile to God. But that’s why it’s all the more important that we do so. And the fact is, we can show the work of God in the world even without explicitly talking about it. How? Think about it — and we’ll offer some of our ideas starting next week.
March 23, 2025
The angels evangelized by announcing the coming of Emmanuel — God with us — at the birth of Jesus. Jesus himself evangelized with his life, especially through his public ministry of life-giving words and sacrificial actions. The apostles evangelized by keeping Jesus’ story alive — the Greatest Story ever told. And for the next 2,000 years, the Church Jesus Christ established evangelized and continues to do so. St. Pope Paul VI said “The Church exists in order to evangelize.”
Our Church evangelizes by proclaiming the gospel — the Good News of Jesus Christ captured in scripture — during the Liturgy of the Word at every Mass she celebrates daily, worldwide. She further evangelizes by preaching Christ and his sacrificial acts of love in every Homily. She evangelizes by teaching the life, death and resurrection of Christ to her members and to the larger cultures in which she exists. She evangelizes by offering all the sacraments instituted by Christ to confer graces upon her members. And Mother Church evangelizes by bearing witness to Christ through her actions of charity and social justice throughout the world. What good is knowing something important if you’re not willing to share it? Every gesture and action of loving kindness toward another, in imitation of Christ, is essentially an act of evangelization.
March 16, 2025
St. Paul not only preached the gospel, he also lived the gospel. Throughout the past 20 centuries, our Church has amassed a whole slew of saints who birthed Christ into the world in their time and place as a result of Christ’s transformative presence in their own lives. They were evangelists in that their lives witnessed to the life of Christ. We could not call ourselves Christian today without the 2,000 years worth of Christian ancestors in faith who preceded us and evangelized — keeping the good news of Jesus Christ alive.
We all seem to agree that the world we live in needs more virtue, hope, compassion and mercy. But who is responsible for bringing all of those things to the world? All of us are. We can’t really leave that up to our political, social and economic leaders. They have certainly fallen down on that job. But so have we. Our world needs a good and beautiful message — an “evangel.” The world received such a message 2,000 years ago at the birth of Christ and it was so powerful, it profoundly changed the course of human history.
March 9, 2025
Because the witness of Jesus’ words and actions were so compelling, his disciples kept the stories of him alive. They continued to travel and speak about Jesus and to practice the actions they had seen him do. Some of them put those stories into writing, which eventually became what we know as the New Testament portion of the Bible. We have four gospel accounts composed by four writers we call “evangelists.” The word “gospel” means good news. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John made sure they proclaimed their faith in Jesus as the long-awaited messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ, because to them, that was indeed good news.
Christianity could not have spread worldwide if only those four disciples had been willing to witness to Jesus Christ. The stories would have ceased to exist at the time of their deaths. Fortunately, Jesus hand picked disciples, who then commissioned other successors to follow their lead. They in turn did the same, so the tenets and the practices of the Christian faith would continue into future generations. In his first letter to the Corinthians (9:16), St. Paul, talking about the gospel, wrote that preaching the gospel was an obligation and “woe to me if I do not preach it.”
March 2, 2025
So how was Jesus the best evangelizer ever? To “evangelize” means to witness to the good news of Divine Presence at work in the world. And Jesus did that in spades. It was his life’s mission. Jesus was a dwelling place for Divine Presence. From that stance, he preached about God, taught about God and lived according to the nature of God. Jesus spent his public ministry pointing to God, which revealed who he was in relation to God. And he accomplished all that in spite of traveling on foot and rarely leaving the boundaries of Israel in his short 3-year ministry.
Jesus, in his humanity, dealt with the same limitations and struggles we all do. Yet, he managed to live out the fullness of the depths of a human life. He showed us how to live a fully whole, holy and loving human life by inviting others into his mind, toward transformation, toward humility and compassion, toward love and hope, toward forgiveness and mercy. And he tried to teach his disciples how to do the same.
February 23, 2025
So what do we mean when we say the word “evangelization?” We’re talking about the willingness to witness to the reality of God’s presence in the world. The Jewish prophets were evangelists; they spoke truth to power, sharing God’s words and intentions with the people of Israel in order to bring about faith and conversion. In Jesus’ time, John the Baptist acted as an evangelist when he said he “came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” (John 1:8-9) So who was the greatest evangelist of all time?
It wasn’t Billy Graham, even though he preached to millions of people across the globe throughout his decades of public ministry. It wasn’t even St. Paul who went on three mission trips over the course of eleven years to bring the good news of the Risen Christ to thousands of people living in the ancient Near East in the early first century. It was Jesus. Think on that for a bit.
February 16, 2025
We refer to our four Gospel writers as “evangelists” because they wrote about the good news of Emmanuel, God with us. If you look at the words evangel and evangelist, at their root is the word “angel.” The English word angel comes from a word that means “messenger.” So the angels in Luke’s gospel were deliverers of good messages. They were acting as evangelists when they were sharing the good news of God’s presence in the world in a newborn named Jesus. Our recent Homily Series here at St. Thomas focused on evangelization and the responsibility of each one of us in the process. If you are a baptized Christian, then you personally have a responsibility to evangelize. Does that scare you?
What does the word “evangelization” stir up in you? When you hear it, does your mind go to someone standing in the middle of a public square or on a street corner or in a large auditorium, preaching about Jesus and the gospels? Depending on your age, you might be envisioning Billy Graham or Joel Osteen. And most of us could never imagine ourselves doing that. It’s so — public! It seems to automatically invite criticism and critique. Plus, many of us have a fear of public speaking.
February 9, 2025
Luke 2:10 described Jesus’ birth as “good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” Those same shepherds who received that good news then headed to Bethlehem to find the infant Jesus. And after they found him, they “made known the message that had been told them about this child.” (Luke 2:17-18) News that noteworthy should not be kept a secret. So the shepherds shared this good news. And “all who heard it were amazed.”
The shepherds were so taken with this event that they headed back to their communities, “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.” Shouldn’t we be willing to praise God for all the amazing things that we have heard and seen? The dictionary defines any good news or glad tiding as an “evangel.” Ponder that word for a bit. We’ll come back to it next week.
February 2, 2025
This past December, the celebration of the Jewish feast of Hanukkah overlapped with Christmas. Hanukkah is a remembrance of the miracle of light. Jewish law promotes “publicizing the miracle” to let the world know about the power of light. Jewish communities around the world are encouraged to display candles in their windows and to process with lit candles through the streets. We Christians consider Jesus to be the “light of the world.” Shouldn’t we be willing to promote that publicly?
Those who were major players at the beginning of Jesus’ life certainly did. Scripture (Luke 1-2) tells us it was an angel who announced to Mary that she would bear a son, she should name him Jesus and he would be called Son of the Most High. After Jesus was born, it was an angel who announced to shepherds in the fields that the Messiah had been born. It seems angels played a big role in sharing the good news of God’s Presence through the birth of the Anointed One into the world.
January 26, 2025
Last week this column wrapped up a 6-month series on the contributions of the Catholic Church to civilization. Our intention was not to brag on our Church. The motive was to remind us about the many good things that impacted human history because of those who were personally transformed by faith in Jesus Christ. Christian disciples, over the past 2,000 years, made many advances in the fields of philosophy, psychology, science, art, education, law and economics, all with a desire to help humanity thrive.
The goal of Christian discipleship is to more closely imitate Christ. Through our thoughts, our words and especially our actions, it’s our mission to make Christ known to the world around us. We’ve recently wrapped up the Christmas season — one of the major events on our annual liturgical calendar. Mary factored heavily into the story; we give her credit for birthing Christ into the world. But it’s our job as modern-day disciples to continue to birth Christ into the world. How can we do that? Stay with us — and together, we’ll explore some ways.
January 19, 2025
As we come to the conclusion of this series on Catholic contributions to civilization, we leave you with some words of the great second century saint and martyr, Justin, writing to defend the Christian faith to the opponents all around him. Here is the gist of Justin’s letter: We (Christians) beseech him in prayer that we may rise to life everlasting because of our faith in him. Our teacher of these things is Jesus Christ, who was born for this purpose … we worship him with reason, since we have learned that he is the Son of the living God himself … we (Christians) have separated ourselves from demons and have attached ourselves to the only unbegotten God, through his Son. We who once reveled in impurities now cling to purity; we who devoted ourselves to the arts of magic now consecrate ourselves to the good God; we who loved above all else the ways of acquiring riches and possessions now hand over to a community fund what we possess and share it with every needy person; we who hated and killed one another and would not share our hearth with those of another tribe because of their different customs, now … live together with them, and pray for our enemies, and try to convince them that they should live according to the good commands of Christ so they may have a firm hope of receiving the same reward as ourselves from God who governs all.
We face the same opponents today — yet we are still called to cling to the original Christian ideals which, as we know, is no easy task. May we modern-day Christian disciples continue to transform the world for the better.
January 12, 2025
Being a Catholic Christian is still a high calling. We live in the midst of a secular world that continues to over-emphasize human reason and technology, as if those represent the height of wisdom. The world continues to attempt to push God out of the equation of our life journeys. We humans continue to generate ideologies that denigrate the human person. Modern philosophies continue to attempt to suppress the influences of family, of religion and church, of long-standing traditions and of charity.
And yet, our Church continues to doggedly promote the dignity of all human persons, to teach that all we do has lasting value and to abide by the philosophy that love, humility and peace will endure to the end and eventually prevail. All this is evidenced by the legacy our Church has left the world, especially through the contributions of the long list of saints who have gone before us. They exemplify the best of humanity and point to the enduring benefits that can come from taking the high road. The saints are among the greatest fruits of the Catholic Church. Their lives testify to the fact that trying to conform our lives more closely to the life of Christ is worth the effort.
January 5, 2025
As we begin our wrap-up of this series on Catholic contributions to civilization, we are reminded that Jesus often spoke of the Kingdom of God which he said was not of this world. And yet he called disciples to himself to teach them how to manifest God’s kingdom to this world. Those early disciples gathered in community to keep alive the thoughts, words and actions of Jesus. That small first community of Christian disciples grew into the global Catholic Church, intended to be the visible representation of what God’s Kingdom could look like on earth. Christianity is the most pervasive social movement that ever happened worldwide. No one changed the world or had the global impact that Jesus had. His life, death and resurrection re-formed intellects, motivated social welfare actions, raised the bar on human morality and pervaded every aspect of life across global geographies, cultures, languages and customs.
Over the centuries, members of the Catholic Church have gifted the world with an enduring legacy of benevolence, educational institutions, artistic and aesthetic masterpieces, scientific advancements, humane legal practices, philosophies regarding human rights and protections, spiritual practices and devotions, and theological explanations. The Catholic Church has indeed made innumerable contributions to the civilization of peoples across the globe. And the world we live in seems to need that now, as much as ever.