This is one of the truest and simplest statements I have seen. It completely sums up my approach to the faith. We can spend hours and hours online debating with atheists, debating apologetics and theological nuances - but majority of the time it is a waste of a lifetime. Usually these are fuelled by pride and turn into frustrating when we depersonalise our ideological “opponent” and we become uncharitable.
When we truly live our faith, when people see us living out the Beatitudes, when people see the transformation in us that the love of Christ continuously does to us everyday - that is when we “convert” others through the witness of our live. We becoming a living witness to the power of grace and the Holy Spirit transforming us. People will naturally start to approach you with questions or with requests for prayer even when years ago they may have mocked you or attacked you. That is when the Holy Spirit is at work behind the scenes!
I know this to be true from my own experience. Don’t get caught up in online theological debates or semantics. Instead share the truth with people when and if they ask for it (1 Peter 3:15-16), pray for them and always be a person of prayer yourself. Everything else is secondary. Without the love of God poured into our hearts (Romans 5:5) and sharing the overflow with others - it is all just empty and pointless (1 Corinthians 13).
Pope Benedict XVI beautifully highlighted this in a Message for World Youth Day 2012:
“Christianity is sometimes depicted as a way of life that stifles our freedom and goes against our desires for happiness and joy. But this is far from the truth. Christians are men and women who are truly happy because they know that they are not alone. They know that God is always holding them in his hands. It is up to you, young followers of Christ, to show the world that faith brings happiness and a joy which is true, full and enduring. If the way Christians live at times appears dull and boring, you should be the first to show the joyful and happy side of faith. The Gospel is the “good news” that God loves us and that each of us is important to him. Show the world that this is true!
Be enthusiastic witnesses of the new evangelization! Go to those who are suffering and those who are searching, and give them the joy that Jesus wants to bestow. Bring it to your families, your schools and universities, and your workplaces and your friends, wherever you live. You will see how it is contagious. You will receive a hundredfold: the joy of salvation for yourselves, and the joy of seeing God’s mercy at work in the hearts of others. And when you go to meet the Lord on that last day, you will hear him say: “Well done, my good and faithful servant... Come, share your master’s joy” (Mt 25:21).”
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