About a year and a half ago, my car’s transmission went out. After getting my car towed back to the house I started the process of calling local repair shops to see if I can get the car fixed up. Various shops were quoting me thousands of dollars to repair the car, costing more than what the car was worth. I couldn’t just jump into car payments for a new vehicle and I couldn’t justify repairing something for more than it’s worth. I felt stuck.
After a few days of reflection I got the idea of doing the repair job myself. I jumped on YouTube and watched a bunch of tutorials on replacing transmissions on cars. I then did some research on what tools and parts I needed and came up with a budget. After carefully studying a repair manual meant for pro mechanics, I took the plunge. I ordered a used transmission, bought the necessary gear, and went about replacing the transmission on my car. It was hard work and there were setbacks but I succeeded. The final cost was less than half of the repair quotes I had gotten and my car to this day is working just fine.
How did people go about such DIY projects in the days before the internet? I remember when I was a kid some pipes burst in the house and my dad fixed them. He wasn’t a trained plumber, so how did he do it? My mom tells me that he would go to Home Depot and buy DIY magazines and books on plumbing. He consulted “pro-books”.
St. Luke left us a pro-book for evangelization. It’s called the Acts of the Apostles. While many seem to regard it as just a historical account of the Early Church, I see more than that. I find that St. Luke carefully documented details that if we study them carefully we can become better evangelizers.
Jesus commanded the Apostles to go make disciples of all nations:
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matt. 28:19-20
This mission also falls on the Laity, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church points out:
Lay people also fulfill their prophetic mission by evangelization, "that is, the proclamation of Christ by word and the 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." CCC 905
We are all called to evangelize, as Pope Francis points out in Evangelii Gaudium:
"In all the baptized, from first to last, the sanctifying power of the Spirit is at work, impelling us to evangelization." Evangelii Gaudium, 119
There are scores of videos and online resources for evangelization. There are even workshops and specialized trainings. But if there’s one book in the Bible that can be seen as the pro-book of evangelization it’s the Acts of the Apostles. Interested in evangelizing? Don’t start on the internet. Read how the pros did it. Read the Acts of the Apostles.
God bless you.
-E.
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