In Athens, Paul tried a new approach to bringing others to Christ. The best description I can come up with for it is the "used car salesman" approach. And it didn’t work. Normally Paul was direct, to the point of being a wild-eyed zealot. In most of his encounters with possible new converts he would say, "Here's the Gospel of Jesus Christ, take it or leave it." People then either were converted and invited Paul into their homes or they covered their ears and started throwing rocks at Paul. In Athens though, Paul became a smooth talker and waited to the very end to spring the "R" word on his audience, Resurrection! Paul's new approach was met with sneers and indifference (Acts 17:15, 22--18:1). If I were Paul, I think I would have preferred rocks. But though Paul (temporarily) lost his faith in his well-known oratorial skills, he not only went on, he became utterly convinced that Jesus Crucified was the only message that could move men and women’s hearts. Strangely, he had his greatest success in Corinth. And what a city that was! Corinth was a major port city, corrupt, libertine, known throughout the Roman empire as a wide-open city populated by the very worst kind of people. Yet here Paul preached only about Christ Crucified and found that a suffering Son of God who loved with His whole being was the transforming message. The educated and wealthy of Athens were unmoved. The suffering and outcasts of Corinth were transformed by the love they recognized in the heart of Christ.
Every day we meet people who cover a broad spectrum in their relation to Christ. Some don't know Him at all, some only vaguely and some quite well. How we present Christ to others is important. Direct or indirect. Words or actions. As Christians, we are called to be ambassadors and are held to a higher standard.
Sometimes we don't even know we are being ambassadors. One day I inadvertently left my blog up on a computer at work after showing it to one of the guys I worked closely with. Another of my co-workers (we’ll call him “Doug”) saw it after I left and called me to say he enjoyed reading it, but more importantly that he would like to ask me some questions about my Catholic faith. Doug was searching for God and my writing was—in his words, “simple enough for me to be interested in what your faith has to offer.” We did speak several times after that, having many discussions about the Bible and Catholicism in general and even attended a Mass together once or twice. I’m sorry to say that we lost touch with one another after he moved on to another company. I’d like to know if “Doug” found what he was searching for.
Another time, my friend Todd and I had to make one of our frequent business trips out of town. As was often the case, we got our work conversations out of the way first, then, we talked about our families and the daily triumphs and struggles attendant to those. He’s not a “religious” man, but he does believe in God. I have a feeling he’s “searching” for answers, but not aggressively. We talked and laughed about and prayed earnestly for our families, especially our children and grandchildren. He brought up a topic that reminded me of that day’s Gospel that dealt with forgiveness. That got me started on a 30 minute discourse about forgiveness, and how I needed to work on my lack of forgiveness to others who I feel have hurt me or my family or my friends, whether in a big way or a small way.
The next day, I was going to have to drive a truck back to Fresno and Todd was to follow me. He said, “It’s going to be a long drive back without someone to talk to. No offense, but I like your occasional “sermons”. They always get me thinking about how I can improve myself.” I didn’t respond. I didn’t think I had said anything special the day before. I had just explained my understanding of the Gospel that I received through my Catholic faith and my relationship with the Holy Spirit. I told him that any good that came out of our conversation would have to be credited to the Holy Spirit, because I was just relaying what I was inspired to say, without any foreknowledge we were even going to have the conversation.
In both of these instances, the Holy Spirit had used me to be an influence without my even realizing it. I'm a coward when it comes to witnessing for my faith, but sometimes opportunities to witness arise and we don't recognize that we've been a witness. Psalm 148 tells us simply to “Praise the Lord”. And in the Gospel of John (16: 12-15), Christ tried to explain to the disciples that the Holy Spirit would be coming to guide them when He’s gone. His love and concern for them is evident. His desire to encourage and guide them comes through clearly. The disciples never did get it until His Resurrection.
As we recall the great Apostle Paul, his perseverance in the face of defeat and his willingness to change and depend more on Christ, we pray for the grace to surrender the brokenness of our lives to God’s love, confident that through our weakness, God will bring us ever closer into His love.
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