A sacrament is a visible sign of invisible grace, of the grace of God. When we receive the Eucharist in the Mass, we are physically receiving God’s love and have that love not only in our hearts, but we consume it. Then immediately we hear, “The Mass has ended, go in peace.” You would think that something so important would necessitate a lot of time to process and pray. So why does the Church immediately dismiss us?
Check out the Gospel from today. It’s all about the light that we can be to the world and not hiding that light but bringing it to all. The reality is that the most divine we will be on this earth is right after we receive our Lord. Why does the Church immediately send us out? Because it’s at this moment that we can evangelize better than ever. We have literally become little Christs to go out and be with others and share grace and love.
Thankfully, because we have received Jesus, it does not need to be all on us. We don’t have to worry about our faults or weaknesses. We don’t need to know the Catechism back to back or memorize all the right scripture verses. We need only to receive Jesus and share with others our experience of Him. Today, people put more stock into personal experience than they do in deductive reasoning. This would seem to be negative in sharing Christ with people, but I have found the opposite.
When sharing the love of Christ with others, if we share our own personal experience of Christ, nobody can argue with that. It’s our own experience. They can’t tell us we are wrong. At most, they can just say they don’t agree. But in a world where subjective experience has become king, it can be powerful to share our subjective experience of the Lord.
This means that we have to have an experience. This means that our religion must be more than rules and regulations and just something we do. I agree with G.K. Chesterton, who said, “Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair.” Let us all receive Christ, experience Christ, and bring Christ to all those we meet. God Bless!
Tommy Shultz is Director of Marketing for Ablaze ministries as well as Director of Evangelization for the North Allegan Catholic Collaborative. In these roles he is comitted to bringing all those he meets into a deeper relationship with Christ. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. Contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.
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