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A Father's Role in Evangelizing the World
by Brian
In the 1943 movie Watch on the Rhine actor Paul Lukas plays "Kurt Muller" a husband and father who is part of an underground organization that is fighting against the fascists and Nazi's. In the most climatic scene of the movie Paul Lukas' character, with great courage and conviction, explains that there is something greater and bigger than him and his family.
What is bigger and greater than him and his family? The future of the world. Kurt Muller was fighting for a world that lived freedom, justice and charity. He realized that in order to change the world he must be willing to sacrifice himself and even his family for the common good. This may sound harsh, but I believe it is dead on. Anything worth fighting for requires sacrifice.
There is no father worth his salt that does not want to see a better world for his children. And there is no Catholic father who would not want to see his children grow up in a world that was founded on truth, justice and love. The only way to bring about a world where Christian virtue is the norm is to sacrifice oneself for the Kingdom.
Sacrifice seems to be an ugly word these days especially when our materialistic culture is constantly developing ways and means to make life easy and care free. And yet in order for us to change our society and world sacrifice must be part of the equation. All we need to do is look at the saints, those heroic men and women who sacrificed their time and lives to bring Christ into the world.
Like Kurt Muller, all husbands and fathers are faced with a choice. We can either raise the draw bridge of our homes and defend our stronghold against the invading barbarians or we can go out and meet the enemy head on. Or to put it another way - we can either be like King Theoden from The Lord of The Rings who led his people to the supposed safety of Helms Deep or take the advice of Aragorn and Gandalf and ride into battle.
In Chapter 4 of Genesis, Cain slays his brother Abel. God questions Cain as to where his brother is, which prompts Cain to respond, "Am I my brother's keeper"? The answer to this question is "yes". We are our brother's keeper. Therefore we are responsible for the physical, but more importantly spiritual, well being of our neighbor. What this means is that we cannot share Jesus with just those members of our immediate family, but must also share Him with others.
There are many ways to bring Jesus to others. Ways that do not take a lot of time and effort, but are effective. For instance: one could be a Eucharistic minister to the homebound, help with CCD, start a prayer group, start a boys club, distribute good Catholic literature, participate in evangelization missions or help at a soup kitchen. The list could go on and on. What's important is not the amount of hours or minutes you spend doing an apostolate/ministry or even what the apostolate/ministry is. What matters, what really counts, is that you get involved.
All of us, each husband/father has a role to play in the new evangelization. This role should first and foremost start at home. And from the home it should spread out to the local parish and neighborhood. It will mean sacrificing our time, energy and getting involved. But like Karl Mueller, if we truly want a better world for our children it will be well worth it.
Jesus said, "Go and make disciples of all nations."
God bless.