As we continue to shift from maintenance to mission and look for ways to bring our lost sheep back to the Church, we have to remember that the early Christians attracted people to Christ, they didn’t necessarily promote Christianity. In fact, promoting Christianity was a sure way to achieve martyrdom. Rather, the early Christians would live out their faith in joyful ways that attracted their family and neighbors to Jesus Christ, leading them to conversion to the true faith.
I am often asked to tell the story of my spiritual journey. Unfortunately, we do not have the time to do that this morning, but we thought it would be helpful to pull out a handful of nuggets from my story that might be applicable to many of the lost sheep in our lives. Nuggets that may be useful in attracting them to a relationship with Christ.
I have vivid memories related to the faith from when I was a young child. A whole spectrum of things like hearing biblical stories read to me, going to vacation bible school, praying the rosary, and hearing and singing songs like ”This Little Light of Mine”.
One particular memory that comes back to me was watching the Eucharistic procession after a Holy Thursday Mass. I couldn’t have been more than around six years old, but smell of incense and the solemnity and the powerful of the atmosphere in the moment stayed with me and that memory surfaced early in my conversion back to the faith.
These are all examples of faith seeds that were planted in me that would later play a role in my conversion process as these seeds began to sprout and further support my growing faith.
Don’t underestimate the seeds that may have been planted in the young lives of our lost sheep. Pray for the Holy Spirit to reveal the seeds that may have been planted. Pray for the Holy Spirit help you find opportunities to facilitate the growth of those seeds in their lives so that a conversion process may be spurred.
Another thing we can do is always live our faith on our sleeves. It is easy to be tempted to subdue our expressions of faith in order to not make someone else feel uncomfortable (or avoid making ourselves feel uncomfortable). Honestly, I fight this temptation all the time. It is a temptation straight from Satan.
Now it is true that sometimes we have to read the room and exercise prudence, but more often than not our lost sheep will respect us for being true to what we believe, and it may even spark a deeper, more fruitful conversation at some point.
Make Mass the priority every Sunday and every holy day of obligation. It shouldn’t matter if we are on vacation. It shouldn’t matter if we are staying with family that doesn't understand the importance of the Mass. It shouldn’t matter what our other commitments are. Go to Mass. Schedule the day around Mass, not the other way around. Let the lost sheep in our lives and others around us see that God is the true priority. If they don’t clearly see that God is our number one priority, He may never be any sort of priority for them.
When having meals with our lost sheep, pray before the meal…even if the meal is in a public place. Take advantage of the opportunity to witness to the faith.
Looking back, watching others live out their faith, praying openly in public, was a real source of encouragement for me as I was beginning my conversion process.
I have to admit, this is still a work in progress for me, but I am getting better at it. Learning to pray this way can be daunting, but don’t be afraid to make a mistake. Chances are, our lost sheep will be far more impressed by the prayer than we realize and they won’t likely notice any mistakes we might make.
I have come to try to avoid simply praying the standard “Bless us o Lord” prayer that we all know. I may finish with that prayer, but I always try to begin with a prayer that mentions the Eucharist or some other aspect of the Faith in order to potentially plant a seed. Praying the morning and evening prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours on a regular basis has helped me learn to formulate the words for these types of prayers.
We must also learn to overcome the stigma of being different. Lost sheep often find a “false comfort” in being part of the larger group that is of the world around them. There is a real fear of breaking from ”the social norm”. The fear is real. I lost a lot of “friends” throughout my conversion story.
The more our lost sheep can see the “great multitude” that is here in the Church to love them and support them, then it can make it easier for them to break from the world. But, they have to be able to see it…they have to be able to see the faith in action.
In my spiritual journey, I have learned there are two things that are critical to the foundation to leading a lost sheep back to the Church: Trust and Community.
Study after study reveal two of the top reasons people leave the Church because either something happened to make the person no longer trust the Church or they just didn't feel a sense of community, a sense that they were able to find elsewhere.
Finding a sense of community that I could trust has always been a difficulty for me. I always felt judged and frankly not welcome wherever I went.
Coming to to feel a sense of community here at Incarnate Word helped me in my spiritual journey. Instead of simply inviting our lost sheep to Mass, let’s invite them to some of the more community oriented events that we have, such as Advent by Candlelight/Tail light, Wordstock, and the like. The fish fries are coming up, invite them out to dinner with the community here. Invite young adults to events sponsored by our young adults ministry. Have a young mother in the family, invite her to an event held by the IW Moms’ ministry. Even something like Alpha that includes a strong community component could be just the thing to open a door to a spiritual journey. As our lost sheep begin to build a sense of community and trust, the journey to grow in faith just might begin.
Oftentimes, we don’t have to say anything. The more we can live out our faith and live it joyfully, the more the Holy Spirit will be able to create opportunities for us. In fact, our lost sheep might just ask, "How can I get what you've got?"
That essentially happened to me. I saw the joyfulness of this community, and I wanted it.
When that moment happens for our lost sheep, don’t be concerned about the correct theology or having the right answers to all the questions. All of that will come with time.
Just be willing to accompany them on their spiritual journey and just witness to how the Lord works in your life. Let them see the Light of Christ through you and your “ordinary world”. Let them see how your “ordinary world” is animated by the sacramental life of the Church.
As specific questions about the Faith come up, sometimes, the best response to a question is “I don’t know, but let’s find out together.”
Even if you do know the answer, pretending to not know can be a good way to lower defensive mechanisms that often exist in familial relationships. This can ultimately further the conversation in that we can journey with our lost sheep to find answers in ways that seem more objective to them.
As we continue to shift from maintenance to mission, and look for ways to invite our lost sheep back to the Church, the most important thing is to have faith. Abraham had faith that he would receive Issac back. So to, we must have faith that our lost sheep will be received back into the Church.
Blessed be the Lord the God of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church as He comes to His lost sheep.
Thanks be to God!
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