Daily Thought For February 23, 2018

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Daily Opportunities To Share Our Faith
  
We have to show everyone that Christ is still alive by living heroically the events of our daily lives. The apostolic vocation which we all received at Baptism means giving witness in word and deed to the life and teaching of Christ. People said of the early Christians See how they love one another. The pagans were really edified by this behavior and those who conducted themselves in this way had favor with all the people as the Acts of the Apostles tell us. As a result, the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:47)  Those who were converted to the faith made good use of every opportunity to explain the reason for their hope, (cf. 1 Peter 3:15) and in order to spread their joy to others: Those who were scattered went about preaching the word. 
 
Many gave the supreme witness of martyrdom to the faith they professed. We too are ready to go to that extreme if Our Lord asks for it. In his apparent madness the martyr becomes a powerful attractive force that leads people to Christ: many conversions are the result of having beheld a martyr's example. Hence the name martyr, meaning witness, signifies having given testimony for Christ. 
 
Normally Our Lord asks us to give a Christian witness through our ordinary lives, engaged in the same ways of earning a living, tackling the same concerns as other folk. We have to act in such a way that others will be able to say, when they meet us: This man is a Christian because he does not hate, because he is ready to understand, because he is not a fanatic, because he is willing to make sacrifices, because he shows that he is a man of peace, because he knows how to love.
 
from In Conversation with God by Francis Fernandez Volume 4 pp.438-439

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