Care to Share

Seeing the importance of sharing our faith with the world

04/06/2024

Mk 16:9-15 When Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. After this he appeared in another form to two of them walking along on their way to the country. They returned and told the others; but they did not believe them either. But later, as the Eleven were at table, he appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised. He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”

I will never forget one of the most striking analogies I have heard used for the Catholic religion. Fr. Benedict Groeschel, a priest in New York, said: “The twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is the underground Catholic Church.” Now, he was not saying we Catholics are a bunch of drunks – although there might be little too much truth in that suggestion. Rather, he meant that each step of the twelve steps finds a close correlation to the sacramental and spiritual life of Roman Catholics.

For example, steps one and two state: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol (or drugs) – that our lives had become unmanageable.” And “[We] came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” If you look closely at those first steps, you see a surprising similarity to Baptism. Every baby or adult that is baptized admits they are a powerless sinner in need of salvation, and only a higher Power (namely, Jesus) can rescue them and restore them to spiritual health and holiness.

Or take Step 5, which requires: “[We] admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs.” Now, can you think of a sacrament where Catholics tell another human being “the exact nature of our wrongs”? Of course you can, we call it confession. The closer you look at AA and the Roman Catholic religion, the more striking the connections and convergences.

The twelfth step reads: “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.” Again, if you step back from the narrow context of alcohol and drug addiction and see this step in the larger arena of spirituality and salvation, we suddenly discover the twelfth step is a perfect summary of Easter Sunday! How so?

Well, if there is one thing the resurrected Jesus keeps urging his apostles to do is not only believe in the power of his resurrection, but also to go tell the whole world to experience it for themselves. In other words, just like an alcoholic is not yet free from his slavery and addiction until he has shared his story with others, so we Christians are not saved until we share our story of coming to Christ with others. Addicts have not beaten alcohol or drugs, and Catholic Christians have not defeated sin and Satan, until we invite others to the salvation party. Or as St. Paul puts it in Rm 8:21, “the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

My friends, this requirement to share our story is one reason I love to see so many small groups popping up in our parish. The Ladies Auxiliary, the Hispanic Charismatic Prayer Group, Bible studies, book clubs, the Sisters of the Heart, the Council of Catholic Women, the Friday morning Men of Faith, the Saturday morning breakfast club, an on-line Bible study, and the list goes on-and-on.

One critical feature of every small group – and it is perhaps its key feature – is each person has the chance to share their story. Yes, they read and study the Bible and listen to learned and wise theologians. But at some point those voices (and my voice, too) grow silent. And then the humble and childlike in the faith raise their voices and share. That is the moment when courageous Catholics complete the marvelous twelfth step of Christianity.

When I was a seminarian and later as a priest, I attended meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. They are always happy to have priests visit. As I looked at the faces of those seated in the circle of metal, folding chairs, I could always tell which people had reached the twelfth step. Those people had an irrepressible smile on their faces. They had tasted freedom from slavery, and the surging joy that is its side-effect, and they could not wait to tell other slaves about it. They wore on their faces Easter joy.

Our faces should shine similarly, or with even greater radiance! Henri de Lubac asked with great urgency: “Do the unbelievers who jostle us at every turn observe on our brows the radiance of that gladness which, twenty centuries ago, captivated the fine flower of the pagan world? Are our hearts the hearts of men risen with Christ?” (Drama of Atheistic Humanism, 122-23). Everyone who has completed the twelve steps of AA would reply: “Heck yeah!” And so should we Catholic Christians.

Praised be Jesus Christ!