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They are overly preoccupied with converting others and less on serving the needs of others.

According to Metareligion, Jehovah Witnesses attend 5 meetings each week are as follows:

Please note that at least one of those five meetings per week is to “practice giving talks and witnessing”. When we had a friend who was married to a man in The Way, we began evangelizing her by answering her questions on child rearing, life and even how to repair things when they broke down and her husband was not available. We didn’t do these things because we wanted her to become Catholic; rather we did them because she needed answers and some help. In the same way Catholics build hospitals and schools so people have places to heal, not for converting more Catholics. We are to spread the Gospel through our actions of love and leave the conversion to the L-rd. This doesn’t mean that we never speak, but we should keep in mind the words that are attributed to St. Francis, “Evangelize always, speak only when absolutely necessary.”

Cat. 905: “Lay people also fulfill their prophetic mission by evangelization, “that is, the proclamation of Christ by word and testimony of life”. For lay people, “this evangelization…acquires a specific property and peculiar efficacy because it is accomplished in the ordinary circumstances of the world. (LG 35 paragraphs 1 and 2)
This witness of life however, is not the sole element in the apostolate; the true apostle is on the lookout for occasions of announcing Christ by word, either to unbelievers…or to the faithful.” (AA6 paragraph 3; cf. AG15)

When Catholics are supposed to share the Gospel: “the true apostle is on the lookout for occasions of announcing Christ by word”. This isn’t a license, as some interpret, to hand out tracks, going house-to-house, or even becoming rather pushy in our faith. Rather it is a calling far more challenging that requires us to listen to those we serve through love, and in time those special “occasions” do present themselves if we wait for these (see Cat.854).

For example, Jehovah Witnesses have been coming to us once every year for the last six years and we’ve always welcomed them and talked with them. Yet three years ago during one of these conversations, the man who was questioning Carol stated, “You Catholics don’t spread the Gospel,” he said, and as proof he point out Carol had never been to his house. Carol had praying during this time and suddenly words came in as a response and she said them as she heard them, “I didn’t have to because the Spirit sent you to me.” At this point he “had to go”. The following year there were two different people with him and it was a fruitful conversation. About a week later he returned again, this time with a copy of the Watchtower publication we had seen before entitled, “What Does G-d Require of Us?” He had asked Carol to pray as she read this and answer these questions herself, then read their responses and see if their responses match hers. She agreed to do so, but added that it will be with Corey (her husband) and they agreed. So at this point of time we are preparing that response and so far it is approximately 18 pages of Scriptural studies in support of our Church, and is likely to get longer.

The call to evangelize takes patience, as our Church teaches (Cat. 854), and we have seen it from our experience above, as it took about six years of “respectful dialogue” (Cat.856) to get this door open. However we are not in charge of bringing in disciples, but rather we are to be witnesses of His love and allow Him to bring in disciples. This may sound contradictory but it really isn’t because we do not have any control in the conversion process; rather we “obey the prompting of the Spirit of truth” for those “already on the way of salvation”, something only the Holy Spirit knows. We must “go out to meet their desire, so as to bring them the truth”.

Through this love of serving, we also allow people the time to “digest” and accept the truths in their hearts. This is a huge difference from cults as well who usually want you to have a “good feeling” about your experiences. We suspect this is why we believe our Church slowly brings in those who seek conversion into the RCC; for this allows the catechumen to reason, question and then understand the teachings of our Church. Therefore, unless we posses perfect hearing (for most of us we do not) this means we serve the greater humanity and let the Spirit show us, through how people react to us, who is being prompted and who is not, Cat.851. Our Church explains:

Cat. 852: Missionary paths. The Holy Spirit is the protagonist, “the principle agent of the whole of the Church’s mission”, John Paul II, Rmiss 21. It is He who leads the Church on her missionary paths. “This mission continues and, in the course of history, unfolds the mission of Christ, who was sent to evangelize the poor; so the Church, urged by the Spirit of Christ, must walk the road of Christ Himself walked, a way of poverty and obedience, of service and self-sacrifice even to death from which He emerged victorious by His resurrection.” AG5 So it is that “the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians. (Tertullian, Apol. 50, 13; PL 1, 603)

Yet there is another important element in proper evangelization; the heart of the would be evangelist:

Cat. 853: On her pilgrimage the Church has also experienced the “discrepancy existing between the message she proclaims and the human weakness of those to whom the Gospel has been entrusted.” (GS 43 paragraph 6) Only by taking the “way of penance and renewal,” the “narrow way of the cross,” can the people of G-d extend Christ’s reign. (LG 8 paragraph 3, 15; AG 1 paragraph 3; cf. Rmiss 12-20)

Our L-rd and Savior warned the dangers of seeking coverts while in sin:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisee, hypocrites! For you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte you make him twice as much a child of Gehenna (Purgatory) as yourselves” Matt.23.15.

Too often cults take advantage of people, especially when vulnerable. Again, contrary to that, the RCC allows people to learn first before committing into the Church. However, she is not the only religious group who tries to help people without seeking conversions. The Jewish community will often seek to help people without the price of conversion. In fact, the Orthodox Jewish community has been known to turn away potential converts three times before accepting them on the fourth. Though this may be moving to the other extreme, it still serves others first without shutting people out.

However, the missionary aspect isn’t just interested in bringing in more Catholics, though this may not be our greatest legacy of this missionary call. Nonetheless, we are also called to promote Christian unity as well, both within own Church and also with other Christians who share our faith but lack full communion with our Church (see Cat.855). By doing so, we help others better understand our Church, thus promote tolerance. Through this tolerance and understanding those people can further reach others in their environment that were like themselves. We ourselves have friends who love our Catholic faith and will even challenge those who oppose Catholics, yet they do not presently feel a calling to join the RCC. We do not become offended or even push for them to join, but rather we keep them current with what we have learned from our Church and allow the L-rd to guide them. For only He knows what role in the Body they need to hold.

This leads us to the ecumenical dialogue, a respectful dialogue, which calls us to appreciate the “secret presence of G-d”, found in Non-Christians, even non-Jews, Cat.856. An example of this came ironically on a Jewish site when we came across a Muslim man looking for someone to interpret his dreams. We explained, and other Jewish men concurred, that all interpretations of dreams come from G-d; yet he wanted more. So we prayed and then looked into his dream, and its meaning began to open up to us. It seemed that he was being sent by his father I’brahim, as the dream said, to this Jewish site to learn about the Gan PRDS (Torah study). While there he would meet a Gentile with a bright shining light, which we understood to be a good Christian witness. This encounter would be brief, but it would please him. Also, this brief encounter would cause confusion in him when returns to his Muslim brethren who would give silence. In another dream he was warned that when he tried to take the hand of Mohammed his hand would burn, and this we suspect was because Yeshua was speaking to him. Though we may never see the fruit of this encounter, we trust our part was necessary as well as presently done as our dreams suggested we would only be there a short duration. As previously mentioned, it is apparent that another will help him complete this call the L-rd put upon him.

Therefore, in conclusion we believe all these teachings would agree that the Catholic form of evangelization must be less interested in judging by the numbers we bring in, and more interested in the love we leave behind. A fine example of such love is the legacy of Father Baker of Buffalo, who through his acts of evangelization and our Blessed Mother’s blessings, had built an orphanage, school, hospital. He also started the first baby amnesty and spearheaded rights for black women, even before he began to place the first stone on Our Lady’s Basilica in Lackawanna, NY.

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