Sharing the gift (we are obliged to help bring others to Christ)

Pause for a moment and think carefully: what thoughts and feelings emerge when you think of the word obligation?

As Catholics, it is a word with which we are familiar.  We are obliged to go to Holy Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of obligation; we are obliged to abstain from meat on (virtually all) Fridays of the year; we are obliged to fast and abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday; etc.

There is a temptation to view these as actions imposed upon us by an external force, against which we are inclined to resist.  But I cannot be the only one who sees this as a very negative understanding of our obligations.

What if the word obligation has different connotations?

For example, if we say to someone, “I'm obliged,” we are expressing gratitude for a favour or a service; it is a more formal way of saying, “Thank you.”

Seen from this perspective, our Catholic obligations should be an instinctive, internal response to the endless and lavish love that God has for us.

Evangelisation - the spreading of the Good News of the Christian Gospel to others – is also an obligation for all Christians; though I wonder how often we view it as such.  The Church is not some sort of holy social club, but a mystical body charged with the sacred responsibility of spreading Christ’s message of God’s love and salvation for all.  Indeed, Bishop Patrick has urged us all to become a missionary Church. 

The desire to do this should come from within, but does it really?

Cardinal Ratzinger wrote that the Saints in heaven pray for us so that their own joy is made complete when we can share it with them.

The Saints in heaven rejoice in the beatific vision unfiltered, undimmed; and are themselves so pure, so free from the stain of sin, that in charity, they wish only for others to share in that vision of God.

Is that not how we all should feel about our faith?  That it fills us with such joy and holiness – ie we are made whole or complete in God – that we instinctively yearn to share this treasure with others.