To be a true witness to him, an evangelist needs to be deeply rooted in his or her identity in Jesus Christ. What is this identity? Who are we? I want to use the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans to reflect upon these questions. What are some verses that we can turn to?
- “He who through faith is righteous shall live” (Romans 1:17b).
- “Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:1).
- “Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (5:9).
- “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (6:4).
- “You must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (6:11).
- “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1).
- “Although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness” (8:10).
- “When we cry ‘Abba! Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (8:16-17).
- “I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8:37-39).
In these verses, in their contexts, and in many others, I see the beautiful, amazing, glorious truth that we are the recipients of a Divine Blessing — immeasurable, continual, and given unconditionally. It is a blessing powered by eternal love. It is ours not because of anything we have done or not done but because of God’s gratuitous love for us. To receive it when it is first given, or to receive it anew at any other moment, is a simple act of faith. To keep it is at any time a simple act of faith blossoming into a simple obedience. Any required effort pales in comparison to the benefits — it is comparatively nothing.
This truth is life for us in the most fundamental sense. I know this to be true for myself with, I think, greater certainty than I know anything else whatsoever. The truth of who Christ is for me is alone capable of stemming the tide of the fear, inadequacy, selfishness, mediocrity, base desires, and the evil I perceive within myself. That is, without knowing Jesus, these things would be mostly unendurable. I would hide them within by continual distraction (particularly through entertainment) — and indeed at times the temptation to do so accosts me. But with Jesus, the love of God gives me the courage to face the painful truth about myself.
Accordingly, I identify deeply with the above verse part, “though your bodies are dead because of sin…”. All that is in me of myself, is in fact, sin. But God loved me, created me, and redeemed me (in that order). There is nothing good that I have that is not a gift. My whole life is from him. Without God and his Christ, I am nothing — and that fact is glorious joy. When I am at my best, I don’t want anything apart from him and the very thought of it is degrading, not ennobling. In that gift of Godly love, whatever personal sinfulness I am also aware of in myself, I rejoice knowing that my spirit is “alive because of righteousness.”
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Evangelists, I exhort you: live deeply in Christ Jesus. Live by faith. Do not be afraid of your fears, weaknesses, and sins. Abide in Jesus by letting the truth of what he has done for you be your daily bread. Receive the Eucharist in the ardor of this faith. Repent in the Sacrament of Penance often and repent also outside of it continually.
This is who you are. Live in this identity. Then, let your efforts to evangelize flow from it.