Miseri Cordis (A Poem)

There is a man who I must be
And yet I do not know his name.

Not yet his body rightly see

Though his cross for mine I claim

Oh the quest through dark night weary

Now my soul must surely claim

For it finds nothing certain clearly

Save uncertainty of name.

And now my wretched heart I know

Holds yet a pain I cannot name

And O this melancholy sow'd

What in reaping will God claim? 

That starkly nameless go I now

Flying fast from flaming claim

Of my soul as is, but how

To crack at the ice and name

The Godhead I so endow

As with life of me, my name

And so freely give up, now,

The free will that I had claimed.

O God, this wretched heart of mine
Is now a mercy that I claim
For though mercy's fogged in time
Heaven's splendor lights my name.

Evangelism: Gunfights and Boxing

My college happens to have a Baptist Campus Ministry. And while I am not Baptist, it is technically for all denominations of Christians, and since my roommates are Christian as well, and they invited me, I decided to go. 

It was alright for the first hour. There was praise and worship (of which I am not fond), and then there was a sermon on evangelization.

That's when it got interesting.

What the pastor said amounted to this: always look for opportunities to witness to someone, even if you've never met them before. Make friends with them, cultivate their acquaintance in order to share the Gospel with them. Get their story and ask them if they know Jesus. Then, if they do not, launch into the gospel. See if you can't get them 'saved'.

This may be a bad paraphrase of the man, but it is what I took away from the thing.

Now, my friends, this does not strike me as the right way of going about the thing. It is making friends, but with an agenda, which is both insincere and self righteous. I would compare it to a duel. Two men meet up somewhere, face off, and fire. It takes three, even two shots, maybe even one for one man to claim victory. In dueling, the two men never really respect each other, they never really become closer to one another. In fact, a duel was often initiated because of a perceived offense to one man or another. 

In this form of evangelization, the Christian initiates conversation because of something he sees is wrong with the other guy. 

Allow me, then, to explain a metaphor of what I think is the right way of going about the thing.

This summer my family went on a fishing trip with a few family friends, and I had to work for the first day, but got to join them for the next days after that because one of our friends had to delay driving down as well. So I got to carpool with him. He is a former boxer from Puerto Rico, and a devout Catholic.

Among the long conversations we had on the way down, I remember this the best: 

He said "Evangelization is like boxing...ya know? You circle the other guy...jab...jab...hook... and you bait him into the knockout."

Now, from what I know about boxing, this makes much more sense than the gunfighter approach. Boxing is characterized by enormous respect, and you really get to know someone by boxing against them. You could take your best friend into the ring, beat him up, and walk out and have a drink with him, or even vice versa- he could beat you up. And it's also the same outcome if the two guys didn't walk into the ring as friends. I mean, take classic boxing movies for example. Rocky's fiercest opponent was Apollo Creed, and they ended up as very good friends because of the respect they earned for each other in the boxing ring.

In boxing, the two guys walk out as friends. In dueling, only one guy walks out.

That is the way it should be: two people spend time becoming friends, circling, if you will. One begins simply referencing the little bits of his faith as it pertains to daily life, like visibly praying before meals, or dressing up for Mass on Sundays. These are the jabs. They lure the other guy in, they inspire and they pique curiosity. Then it is the other man who strikes up the conversation, not the Christian. This initiation is far preferable, too, because often, if the Christian initiates, the other guy will be put off and dismissive of the subject because of the general culture's fears and stigmas about religion. But if the other guy initiates the conversation, he does not enter in with that unwillingness to talk. And I know I would far prefer to talk to someone who actually wanted to have a conversation.

In this form of evangelization, the Christian enters into conversation because of a respect he has for the other man's honor. The Christian may have jabbed first, but he knows that this is simply the way of the game. The game is life, and to jab is natural, else one would not be active in faith. 

Therefore the Christian does not walk into the friendship with a gun and a target, but with a pair of gloves and a willingness to fight. Not picking a fight, but letting a fight pick him. Not as a competition but as a sport. Not death before dishonor, but fighting a good fight.