At my work, we sometimes have conversations about religion. We talk about beliefs and things like that. Most of the time, we stay on neutral territory. Whether people like it or not, I refuse to participate in these discussions. I always feel that my Catholicism is not something that I should peddle in front of people as a commodity. Rather, it is something that should be quietly lived. After all, someone said that more people would be converted by our example than by our preaching, teaching, or whatever else we do.
One thing that I have always done at work is bring my spiritual reading. I know that in many work place anything that smacks of religion is verboten. Personally, I bring my spiritual reading in because I have nothing better to do than read. I wonder how many people have seen the books that I have been reading and been curious about their contents. I’ve seen people that I tutor look through them. Sometimes, they even ask me questions about what I have been reading. The thing is that my reading could have converted somebody without my knowledge. That’s example.
Sometimes, people will notice a religious person by other things too. It’s not necessarily the Scapular that one wears or the Miraculous Medal. Sometimes, it can be one’s outward demeanor and the way that we treat others. Maybe there is an old lady that is always joyful and meek who never grumbles when a bus driver slams on the breaks too hard. Maybe it is that nice young man that is always smiling. Sometimes, the people that we least expect are those that impact us the most and those people could be the people that we would never have cared for if we hadn’t known them.
The Good Samaritan is an example of what religion calls us to do. The Samaritans were people that were considered the scum of the earth by the Jews because they were heretics. Nobody wanted anything to do with them. Many people thought that they were best left to themselves. However, it was Samaritan that saved the Jew on the road to Jericho. It was the person that we least expect and, to the Jews, this parable was probably one that was extremely revolutionary. After all, would they have expected a Samaritan to help a Jew and put him up with some of his own money?
The thing is that the Samaritan did what he did because he cared enough to take care of somebody that really needed. A man that is bleeding and dying on the road attracts attention, but some people just don’t give a darn. The Samaritan did. He didn’t care about factions, impurities, and things like that. He just did what he had to do. Maybe that is what we are called to do in our every day lives. Maybe we are called to help and heal those people that least expect it and to bring them to God’s love.
I know plenty of Good Samaritans. I remember I once got my car stuck in a snow drift. No matter how much I pushed it back and forward, the thing didn’t want to budge. A woman, who had been shopping, suddenly appeared and we started working together. Then a couple appeared from a neighboring house and all of us started to work on the car together. After a good twenty minutes and hefty push, the car was out and I was extremely thankful. You see, none of these people were obligated to help. They could have just left me on the road, but they didn’t. They were Good Samaritans.
You know, though, doing corporal works is one thing. But we can also be Good Samaritans by doing spiritual works. Many of you may have to counsel friends and relatives that are doubting their Catholic faith. Maybe some of them have even left the Church, while others are struggling to understand why it is that we do the things that we do. Counseling them is something that God asks of us. To not counsel the doubting can be problematic because we don’t know where else they will for help.
Yet we should know that when we counsel someone, we should be kind and understanding. We cannot be preachy and we must not be the kinds of people that think only about conversion. The only thing that we can do is plant seeds. The rest is up to God and His inscrutable ways. Sometimes, fruit can be borne the next day and there will be times when it will be born after years and years of prayer and penance. At the end of the day, however, it is not the seed that is important, but the fruit.
So leading by example is one way that we are called by God to serve others. Perhaps, it is not by being preachy or doing anything that someone else would not approve of. In fact, the only thing that we can and should do is continue to walk the road. It will only be in eternity that we will find out how many lives we have impacted and how many people have been changed by their interactions with us.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
Our Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us!
Our Lady of Vladimir, pray for us!
St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, pray for us!
St. John Baptist de La Salle, pray for us!
St. Maurice and the Theban Legion, pray for us!
