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Truth in Advertising Part 2
The nature of goodness is that it cannot be contained or kept quiet. When we find something good, we tell other people about it. If nothing particularly good happened to you yesterday, do you tell people about it? It was just an average day. If someone asked what you did yesterday, you’d say, “nothing.” But suppose you got some kind of good news--you’d tell about it.
We’ve all read a book and thought it was the best book ever. What did you do? You told someone, “this book is great!” Haven’t we all gone to a restaurant and thought it was great? We tell our friends, “you’ve gotta try this restaurant we found. The food there is so good.” Or your friend tells you he’s having back pain. And you tell him, “you should see my doctor.” Oh yeah, why? He’s the best.
It’s the nature of goodness to tell about it when you find it. We all do it. Advertisers do it because they’re convinced that what they have to sell is good. We tell others about something good that we’ve found.
Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, had been listening to John the Baptist. Andrew was also there when Jesus came around. John declared to everyone Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Andrew was one of the two disciples of John who, upon hearing this news turned and followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and tell him, “we have found the Messiah”. Andrew had encountered such an overwhelming goodness in Jesus that he couldn’t keep it to himself. Evidently it didn’t take Andrew long to know how great a good he had met in Jesus. He knew it right away. It was immediately present and recognizable. Andrew didn’t come to his brother Simon Peter with an argument meant to persuade him to see things his way. He came to tell his brother about the goodness of Christ that he had come to know. He wanted his brother to know Jesus too.
That is the essence of evangelism. It’s not about winning someone to your point of view. It’s not about persuasion. God’s nature is pure goodness, a goodness that flows from Him and spreads out into all His creation. God’s goodness transforms anything and anyone who comes to know and love Him truly. This is what Andrew did.
This tops any book you’ve read, or restaurant you’ve gone to. That the Messiah has come, that Christ takes away your sins, that God loves you is the best thing you can know about. If you’ve found the Messiah as Andrew did, you can’t help but tell someone else. This is shows us what the Church is all about. The Church does in the world what Andrew did with his brother Simon Peter. The Church declares and proclaims to the world, “we’ve found the Messiah”. We’re not trying to sell you something. We’re not trying to get you to see things our way. We want you to know the same goodness we’ve found in Jesus Christ. Why would we ever want to withhold this goodness from anyone?
That’s what it’s all about. Tell someone about the Lord Jesus Christ. Not necessarily about your religion, not necessarily about your church, or even your parish, at least not at first. Those things are mixtures of good and not-so-good. But Jesus is pure goodness. You can’t go wrong telling someone about Him. Amen
Blessings In Jesus,
Fr. David