Fostering Curiosity About Christ
I'm just finishing up a presentation that I'll be doing next month at the Evangelical Catholic Institute.
I'll be speaking about charisms (naturlich!) but also about recognizing pre-discipleship levels of spiritual maturity. Since this last subject involves all new material, I went over my presentation with Fr. Mike (in CS for 36 hours between missions).
One of the issues that I address is how to foster curiosity about Christ in the unchurched or non-believing. Not first curiosity about the Church or the Catholic faith - but about the head of the Church and the center of the faith: Jesus Christ.
I started with this list of suggested ways from the work of Doug Schapp:
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- Seeing the faith lived out in a concrete and practical way (work with the poor, etc.)
- Speaking of our struggles and sharing how Christ has responded
- Asking good questions, raising spiritual topics
- Telling stories of Christ’s work in our life and the lives of others
We don't ask about and we don't talk to fellow practicing Catholics about our relationship with God, so what are the chances we'd look for ways to ask someone who is unchurched about their spiritual journey? We are developing a simple process to teach Catholics how to do so in a non-threatening manner but it isn't the norm, for sure.
So 3 - 5 are unlikely except in very specialized groups or settings (we routinely ask in our gifts interview process and find people ready to talk, but so often they tell us this is the first time in their life that they have ever shared X with another person).
We knew that 1 & 2 would be much more comfortable ideas for Catholics, but how practical are they? Lay Catholics seldom experience genuine Christian community that transcends the family. And how many of us live such radiantly Christ-like lives that just being around us in daily life generates curiosity about Christ?
The remaining possibility on the list was serving the poor which many Catholics do through groups like St. Vincent de Paul.
Any ideas? How would you seek to foster genuine curiosity about Jesus in someone who was truly unchurched?
posted by Sherry W @ 6:38 AM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Sherry W.
Thank you for posing this problem!
Fr. Giussani liked to quote Reinhold Niebuhr's statement that "nothing is more unbelievable than the answer to a question that is not asked."
But this question is only secondarily a concern of evangelization. Primarily, it is a concern for me as a Christian: how do I have a curiosity about Christ every day? Because if I'm not seeking Him, then my life will not radiate His presence; if I'm not seeking Him, then Christian community falls into formalism; if I'm not seeking Him, then I'll never recognize Christ teaching me in my struggles. I may be pious, orthodox, and efficient, but I won't be radiant, charismatic.
Who is Christ? "Christ is the answer to the man who consciously puts himself in front of this immense, unperishable, unexhausted quest that is the heart" (http://www.traces-cl.com/Mar2001/ptn.htm).
The challenge, then, is to awaken the heart, the innate desire for totality, in myself - and also in others. There are many events in life that stir this intensity: adolescence, falling in love, beauty (so that's why you're holding Making Disciples in the mountains!), having children, loss. The workplace and school offer many problems on a daily basis for me to seek Christ and help others to see the need for Christ (your #3).
Fred
Well, I can suggest something that has worked for me. People are very interested in history and biography. And young people are very interested in super heroes. I've found that people sometimes develop a curiosity about Jesus Christ via hearing about a person who lived during his time and actually knew him or knew an apostle who knew him. Many people don't realize that letters exist from that time. And how people lived amazing lives based on their first or second hand knowledge of Jesus Christ in life. I've gotten people interested in Jesus Christ first by telling them about historical facts of people around him and the amazing lives they led.
It's a small step between someone who knew someone who knew Jesus Christ, and then being curious about Jesus Christ, and how he inspired that person to become Christian. People love History, Discovery channels, etc and there's a hunger for reality, and then they end up listening to garbage wrapped as reality because we don't get enough history oriented information out there, the writings of people who lived in that time. I've gotten conversations and interest going that way, especially through discussing St. John in Turkey for example, or the first generation Church fathers and what they wrote. My brother was struggling through some 16th century Protestant intellectual writings, and I sent him some Athanasius, which was incredibly more readable to the contemporary eye. People find that surprising, that they can "relate" to the thoughts and experiences of people who actually knew Jesus Christ first, second, or third "generation" of knowledge.
So sometimes we can develop interest in Jesus Christ by first speaking of a historical figure around him or subsequent to him, who is part of the Church history, especially if they have information about their struggles and courage.
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