Evangelization

Here is one question (and answer) from an interview on the New Evangelization: 


BRANDON: If you had thirty seconds to share the Gospel with an unbeliever, what would you say?


Dr. RALPH MARTIN: When people die two very different kinds of things happen. For some, death is truly an entryway into a higher form of life where we share in immortality and experience resurrection and infinite love and joy. For others death confirms an alienation and separation from God rooted in unbelief and unconfessed sin. The doorway to the glory of heaven passes through God’s gift to suffering humanity – Jesus. The doorway to eternal isolation is clinging to the illusion of an autonomy that proudly refuses to surrender to the offer of love. Time is short and only one decision is significant. The decision to humble ourselves and accept the love with which we are loved in Jesus, or the decision to reject that love. Let’s talk.

Marriage

Marriage is an archetype of the covenant between God and His people.  Just as husband and bride are linked so is Christ with His Church.


Yet marriage can be a struggle.  It would seem that there are at least four fundamental factors that contribute to our current difficulties regarding marriage and family. Lets look at each of them in turn:


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The Cross Holds Us Together

'Laminins are a family of proteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding of basement membranes in almost every animal tissue.' You see....laminins are what hold us together....LITERALLY. They are cell adhesion molecules. They are what holds one cell of our bodies to the next cell. Without them, we would literally fall apart. And I knew all this already. But what I didn't know is what laminin LOOKED LIKE.

Colossians 1:15-17: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities -- all things have been created through Him and for Him.

"He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."

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Religious Life

Traditionally young Catholics entered religious life to reject the world, embrace suffering, overcome it through grace and thus attain holiness.

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Padre Pio is a good example:

Life is nothing but a continual struggle against one's self, and it does not open to beauty without the price of suffering.

A good way of dealing with our own suffering is allow it to transform us.  Jesus taught this specifically suggesting the more difficult path while carrying the cross. 

Relationships

A good way to overcome depression is to stay active, especially through Christian service.  The Holy Father recently stated:

"We cannot keep ourselves shut up in parishes, in our communities, when so many people are waiting for the Gospel! It's not enough simply to open the door in welcome, but we must go out through that door to seek and meet the people."

We encounter the love of God through human relationship.  That love can be healing both emotionally and psychologically.  Jesus gives us graces when we share the Gospel with others.