Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to make a pilgrimage to Prague in the Czech Republic. During my four short days in that traditionally Catholic town, I found myself being given literally dozens of opportunities to evangelize. Please indulge me as I share a few examples to highlight the many different forms that authentic evangelization might take. I hope to show also how easy and rewarding this activity can be.
Air travel almost always provides several ready-made opportunities for sharing the love of Jesus with others. From the very moment we reach the airport we come into contact with many strangers. I like to strike up conversations, simply to open the door for the Holy Spirit to work His magic.
On the trip home from Prague, after sharing simple courtesies with the check-in attendant and proceeding to security, a security officer who recognized that I am a Catholic priest proceeded to inquire about some rules Catholics have to follow. He left very satisfied for having received an authoritative and sensible explanation regarding his query.
One lady boarding the plane enjoyed a short exchange with me after voicing a typical comment, "Oh Father, I feel so much safer with you aboard." I often reply by teasing that I’m not a pilot or a mechanic, should something go wrong, so I just pray for safe travels like the rest, including those who aren’t doing it for themselves. I usually have at least one stranger sitting to my left or right and I test the waters by introducing myself and inquiring about the nature of their travels. More often than not, they are disposed to conversing a bit and it isn’t difficult to bring religion gradually into the discussion. I often ask the Holy Spirit to provide and guide these significant one-time encounters. We should never underestimate the impact such a chance meeting might have.
During my group’s familiarization tour of Prague, the guide admitted to me that he used to practice the Catholic Faith, but had drifted away. A young Irishman in the group poured out his heart to me about his relationship problems and asked me for a priestly blessing once a rapport had been established quite simply by making myself available to him; by being approachable. A blind lady whom I helped onto a bus and into an empty seat struck up a conversation with me and ended up relating that she had stopped practicing Catholicism in favor of her own self-styled religion. A man I met at a classical music concert relayed that he left the Faith after marrying a non-Catholic. Each of these instances opened up the door to help a person who was confused, misinformed, feeling guilty, or simply was ignorant about the Catholic Church and her teachings. And all of us are capable of doing this, even while we continue to work at becoming better informed ourselves.
While it would be easy to write an essay about each of these encounters, they would likely be interesting to only a few. They are put forth here simply to emphasize how frequently such opportunities to evangelize present themselves and how important our conversations potentially can be.
Evangelization begins simply with a friendly disposition and often develops further when we have in our heart the real desire that each and every person we meet will eventually spend eternity in heaven. Start there and see what happens. The Holy Spirit has many exciting exchanges in store for each of us. We merely need to give Him permission to use us as effective cooperators in His divine plan.
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