Fr. Thomas M. Pastorius
September 28, 2014
Spiritual Ponderings
7 Deadly Sins of Evangelization

One of the ways in which the Mass ends is with the celebrant encouraging the congregation ?To go announce the Gospel of the Lord? and the people respond ?Thanks be to God? for the chance to do so. This month we have been looking at seven ways in which we are not supposed to go forth because instead of proclaiming the Gospel of the Lord, we lead people (and even sometimes ourselves) away from the Good News of Jesus Christ by our words and actions Let us return then the Seven Deadly Sins of Evangelization and Apologetics according to Catholic evangelist and apologist Mark Brumley. We will once again use his book: How Not To Share Your Faith: The Seven Deadly Sins of Catholic Apologetics and Evangelization. Quotes from his book will be in bold and my reflections will be found in the normal font.

6. Winning at all Cost
In the game King of the Hill, children struggle to capture and hold the top of a hill, using almost any tactic they can get away with. The objective is to win, not to help others to the top. The Sixth Deadly Sin of Catholic Apologetics involves trying to ?win the argument? ?to be King of the Apologetic Hill?even at the expense of brining people the truth.

God always refused to use force to get His way. He created the world out of nothing and not in a violent struggle. He asked Moses, Joshua, Mary, etc. to be his servants. Jesus never called down a legion of angels to take care of his enemies. God is love and therefore we know that He can do nothing that is not loving. We his followers therefore should never do anything that it is not loving. Winning at all cost therefore is not an answer.

An overweening desire to win the argument can lead apologists into other mistakes, such as using any apologetical stick to be an opponent. The man out to win at all cost never met an argument against a non-Catholic position he did not like. He may even misrepresent facts in favor of the Catholic Church or against non-Catholics. Winning is the most important thing to him, and if the facts make it harder to win, then the facts be damned.

The Church is a ?hospital for sinners not a hotel for saints? and so there are parts of our history that we are not necessarily proud of. As Catholics we cannot pretend these events did not happen. We have to acknowledge our sinfulness so that we can ask for forgiveness.

7. Pride
We come at last to the final Deadly Sin of Catholic Apologetics, one that should be familiar enough to all of us. It is the great capital sin of the moral life, pride. Pride is undue love of oneself?undue because it conflicts with reality. You and I may not be as good as we think we are. We may love ourselves too much. We can distort the legitimate appreciation we should have of the good residing in us or in what we have accomplished. WE can fail to see or acknowledge that good as God?s gift. This is where the sin of pride enters.

Pride is the most deadly of the seven deadly sins because it distorts our reality the most. Instead of placing God at the center of the universe and the goal of our life we place ourselves at the center of the universe and our physical pleasure as the goal of life. Instead of loving the person we are trying to convert, we become more focused on receiving the good feeling of the praise we receive for others for vanquishing a foe to the faith or converting another soul to Christ. Pride though blinds us to the fact that without God none of our accomplished would happen.

Pride, for an apologist, involves thinking more highly of one?s apologetical abilities than one should. The more effective an apologists someone becomes the greater the temptation of seeing himself as ?The Catholic Answer Man.? ?I have the arguments mastered,? someone may think, ?I don?t have anything to learn.? He may forget that it is the Holy Spirit, not his cleverly crafted arguments, who reaches minds and hearts and brings people to faith.

Peter was gifted by the Father to be the first to recognized and proclaim Jesus as the Son of God but in the very next moment Peter, filled with pride, tries to lead Jesus away from the Cross. He is no longer concerned about what Jesus was trying to teach them for he knew better. We must be careful that we never lead people away from God?s plan and if Peter was guilty of this sin how much more are we capable of it.

Someone once asked Archbishop Fulton Sheen how many converts he had made over the years. The usually good-natured Sheen said, stern-faced, ?I don?t keep count.?

Let us remember that in the end it was the Lord that gave us the gift of faith that we hold dear. He did so out love. When we approach others about the Catholic, let us do so out of love for them and in a loving way.