As St. John recounts his first meeting with Jesus, it is a day he remembers right down to the very hour it happened ("four in the afternoon"). John the Baptist had just pointed out Jesus as the "Lamb of God." St. John and Andrew approach Jesus and ask him, "Rabbi, where are you staying?" The scene could have ended very quickly if Jesus had said, "I'm heading over to Galilee," and left it at that. But instead, Jesus said, "Come and see," and invited Andrew and John into the adventure of a lifetime.
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What follows are six guidelines to keep in mind when inviting people to make an act of faith based on the uniquely Catholic perspective that I have been exploring throughout this series. (Post 8/8 on "Inviting the Act of Faith")
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In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis states that "in preaching the Gospel a fitting sense of proportion has to be maintained. This would be seen in the frequency with which certain themes are brought up and in the emphasis given to them in preaching" (38). I believe that a fitting sense of emphasis is lacking within Catholic ministry efforts when it comes to the fundamental act of faith on which the entire Christian edifice is built. (Post 7/8 on "Inviting the Act of Faith")
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In order to talk about what it looks like practically to invite someone to faith, we need to identify something of what we mean by "the act of faith." In this context, we are speaking of a decision to follow Jesus unreservedly. It is, in the words of Pope John Paul II, "the decision to entrust [oneself] to Jesus Christ" (Catechesi Tradendae 25). It is an "all in" moment with Jesus that says, "My life is now a blank check in your hands." (Post 4/8 on "Inviting the Act of Faith")
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How does one come to the point of a personal adherence to Jesus Christ? Pope John Paul II defined the kerygmatic component of evangelization as "the initial ardent proclamation by which a person is one day overwhelmed and brought to the decision to entrust himself to Jesus Christ by faith" (Catechesi Tradendae 25). Notice what JPII is saying here - to do kerygma right means that "the decision to entrust [oneself] to Jesus Christ by faith" follows upon an experience, an encounter. (Post 4/8 on "Inviting the Act of Faith")
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