Are you willing to die?

     Yesterday I was commissioned as a Catechist at Franciscan University, in the words of Professor Bolster, "the finest Catechetical institute in the United States."  We were asked to make a profession of faith before receiving a blessing to be sent out to teach and preach the good news of Jesus Christ.  But the priest said that he only wanted us to stand up if we were willing to shed our blood for the faith.

     Pope Paul VI said that "modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he listens to teachers its because they were first witnesses."  It's not all about knowing the facts and quoting scripture, I need to be a witness.  I need to be living out what I'm teaching.  In Greek, the word for "witness" and "martyr" are synonymous.  So if I wanna be a witness then, well,  I have to be willing to shed my blood for the faith.  I thought I was ready to be commissioned before I realized this  - dang, I have a long way to go.  I hope that if it was necessary, that I would really be able to stand up for Jesus Christ even if it meant my own death.  But the good news is that Jesus called his disciples to go out and preach the gospel even though they all abandoned Him at calvary.  "Jesus doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called."  I am called to be a witness, and so are you.  Are you willing to die? May we be instruments and vessels of God's grace, love, peace and joy!