“As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.” - John

                On a hot Saturday afternoon in the 1970’s, thousands of young people filled the Cotton Bowl in Dalles. At first glance, it looked like a football game but there were no players or marching bands, only a cheerleader leading the throng in a call and response.
“Give me a J,” he yelled.
“J,” hollered the crowd.
“Give me an E,” the leader demanded.
“E,” they responded.
“Give me an S.”
“S,” they screamed. And so on.

Finally, I realized that they were spelling the name of Jesus like at a pep rally.  Was this for real???? The things you find yourself doing as a reporter!
It was the grand finale of a massive Campus Crusade for Christ program to train kids to go out and evangelize.Thousands of them  were being sent forth to share their enthusiasm for Jesus with anyone they could corral into listening.  It was about the last thing a Catholic would feel comfortable doing.

I thought about this as I meditated on today’s gospel of John, “As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.” How, given our traditional Catholic reticence about proselytizing, can we do this? Good works, we do all the time but preaching, seldom or never.

However recently I’ve learned about the interdenominational Matthew 25 movement that might provide an answer. It exhorts Christians to proclaim Christ’s teachings of the Sermon on the Mount about feeding the hungry, welcoming strangers, sheltering the homeless and caring for the poor as the center of our faith and to tie our works to our belief in Jesus.

We don’t work in soup kitchens and food pantries, sponsor refugees, visit the sick etc. just for themselves but because we believe that Jesus has commanded us to do so. If someone finds what we are doing attractive, we can tell them that we are motivated by our love for Jesus without forcing ourselves on them.
We should start by reminding ourselves of  what Jesus commands his followers to do when they go out into the world, carry out the central commands to live for others and remember we do so in the name of Jesus.

Matthew 25. Even we Catholics can remember this citation and make it the foundation of our lives.