Do You Need a Workbook?

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It’s funny, we were just having a discussion recently about today’s reading where Jesus says:  “My yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (MT 11:28-30)

Of course, we weren’t talking about “yolk” as in the egg kind, but the kind where a team of animals are “yoked” together.  Whenever two can share in the work, the burden is indeed lighter.

But more than simply lightening up the task at hand, to be yoked is to be united in a deeper way. 

I was thinking about this in two ways . . .

We are yoked to Jesus and share in his mission and secondly, we are yoked to each other.

There is a “yoking” among Christians that is easy to see.  We come together in our love of Jesus and invite others to join us—or at least we should. Sharing our faith and inviting others into it is evangelization.

I watched a video with Curtis Martin recently.  Martin is a popular Catholic evangelist who has a way of bringing the message home in funny, interesting and concrete ways.

He said that people always ask him to do a workshop on evangelization so they can learn how to share the faith.  “Give us a workbook, too,” they say, “So we can learn how to do it!”

He responds like this:

If you go to a great restaurant, you might go home and tell your friend about it so they can try it.  You don’t need to go online and find a class with a workbook to teach you how to tell your friend about the restaurant.

And if you went to this restaurant and didn’t tell your friend about it, your friend would probably be upset:  “You knew about this great restaurant and you didn’t tell me about it?”

Martin said he is convinced that it isn’t because of a lack of knowledge that we don’t share our faith, but more likely it is because we do not see it as good news.  We might be passionate about the great restaurant, but are we as passionate about our faith?

Do you think of Christianity as good news worth sharing?

If we are excited about something, we excitedly share it, and we don’t need a lesson in how to do it.

I highly recommend that you check out the Amazing Parish website and sign up for AP Online (it's a tab on the top of the site), so you can enjoy Martin’s video and lots of others at your convenience.  It’s all free and you won’t regret it, I promise. (His video is Module 7 on Evangelization.)

And while you’re at it, share it with a friend!!!

Janet Cassidy
janetcassidy.blogspot.com
janetcassidy.blubrry.net (podcasts)