| We are enchanted once again with one of the world's greatest conversion stories. The charm whereby Jesus draws the Samaritan woman to faith is at once an inspiration and a motivation for us to renew our call to share our faith with others.
What should be our attitude and strategy when trying to draw others to Christ?
The philosopher Pascal puts it well: "There are two kinds of reasonable people. (1) Those who love God with their whole hearts because they have found him. (2) Those who search for God with their whole hearts because they have not found him."
Begin with the conviction that everyone you meet is seeking God, at least subconsciously. This will help you to be more sensitive with those who appear uninterested, and even rebellious. People can be hungry, yet still live on the wrong kind of food. A person can yearn for God and still mistake where the Lord can be found.
Assume that everyone you meet is searching for God. You will be amazed how different everyone appears to you when you approach conversion from this aspect. Be assured the assumption is perfectly sound. Just as the eye needs light and the stomach food, so also does a human being need God.
There is not a human being alive who does not crave God at some level of his or her existence. St. Thomas writes, "The whole is loved before the part, and the part is loved only because of the whole." All the excitement of human love and desire is but a symbol of the secret passion for the absolute - the divine.
Never be discouraged by the attitude of anyone with whom you deal. Don't worry about their hostility, their materialism, their apparent total commitment to the swinging lifestyle. God showed his creative power by drawing the world from an unlikely source – nothingness. So also can God's redeeming power draw sinners into the Communion of Saints.
To despair of succeeding is to act too humanly, to rely too much on the cleverness of oneself, and not enough on the power of the Spirit. Approach a sick person with the conviction he will not get well and you will do little good for him. Approach a sinner with the faint hearted feeling he is unconvertible and you will fail. Bring a sinner hopelessness and you will drive him to despair.
When the Sower in the Gospel sowed seeds among thorns, it meant he believed there is hope of reaping even among rocks and thorns. Never forget that people without God are more anxious to have God than you would imagine. Granted, there may be some perverse people who will never respond to God's love, but they are comparatively few in number.
In the work of conversion, do not try to dazzle people. Don't sweep people off their feet. Don't be a proselytizer. Be an apostle. The word proselytize comes from the Greek meaning "to come toward." It implies outward pressure. The word apostle means "to send away." The apostle is sent by another, but to share love and truth and let Christ work inside the other person.
Be on fire with love and God. Let the Spirit create the flame in the hearts of the other. This means you must let Christ re-create you into his likeness. Make sure your bread is the Bread of Life and your wine the Wine of Christ. Share with one person at a time in a loving and affectionate way. Your pleasure will be the love that lights up in another's eyes. That's your reward. That is quite enough, isn't it?
PRAYER
Holy Spirit, changer of hearts and converter of people to Christ, infuse our attitudes with the belief that all people are born with a hunger for God. Help us to realize that we must begin with the assumption that each person we meet has an inborn drive to the infinite. Then give us the humility to witness a message of Christian love and affection that draws to the surface this desire for the Lord. Amen.
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