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"All of these Martyrs were killed for the faith by the Indians because they preached Christ." - Fr. Hardon: On the North American Martyrs: Suffering and Martyrdom
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Yet today, in our age of the New Evangelization, it seems that Roman Catholics are many times discouraged from proselytizing - to proclaim the Gospel and to make converts - and not just by the groups they are hoping to evangelize either.
Good point.
ReplyDeleteIt's something of a sin to seek to convert others.
Under this administration especially, it may be that all Catholics (especially) will soon have a little too much persecution (at the least) in common with the Blackrobes, who were convicted sans trial of what were considered "hate crimes" against peoples..
ReplyDeleteBut Jesus said He was sending out His followers as sheep among wolves.
I never stood on a street corner expounding on the Gospel (I don't want to be target practice, but mostly, I wasn't Sent to stand in that kind of public) but we all are sent to share the Good News in some way. As best I could, I always expanded upon any careful, proscribed evangelization, but as St. Paul said (without charity, we're clanging cymbals), none of us get far in inviting without proffering the Heart of the Gospel first: "God is love; God so loved the world..; you, the Prodigal son, are thirsted for. Home..come home. Christ's all was all to get us safely home."
It has consistently been my experience to find that those who are Pope-slaying sure that there is a severe case of bad theology or bad catechesis swirling round the post-conciliar hearth have never actually stepped up to the Cross of teaching children and tweens every Sunday morn or teens every Sunday eve for a year or many years-- nor was there any glut of them humbly sitting at the foot of the Cross with inquirers for a near-year of RCIA journeying. It's not St. John Vianneyism these days, no (except maybe in Trad churches where current reality of need never outweighs pride), but these hands-on efforts --and our every selfless loaf and fish given, actually -- ripple outward way beyond where we can see anymore, a veritable God's-pond kind of ripple.
LOVE the North American Martyrs...Saint Isaac Jogues is in a stained glass window at the Parish at which we are presently living.
ReplyDeleteWhat horrendous tortures they endured. All for love of Jesus and His Church.
A good meditation for us all in these days.