In my last post I spoke about how to prepare for evangelization if you haven’t really tried it before. If that inspired you to begin evangelization efforts of your own, then that’s great! Most likely, however, you still have some lingering doubts that are keeping you from speaking out about your faith. A variety of reasons exist for why people avoid evangelization; most that I have encountered (and struggle with myself) stem from a fear of awkward conversations or just talking to people in general. This fear leads us to create excuses, and these excuses keep us from action. Addressing every excuse is beyond the scope of this post, so instead I will focus on naming and refuting three of the most common ones in order to help you overcome them.

One excuse that comes up often is thinking that the witness of our life is adequate, and that we don’t need to verbally share the faith. You may have heard the quote attributed to St Francis, “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary”. However, St Francis never said this, and the quote is false and misleading. How we live is certainly important, firstly for our eternal salvation and secondly for our witness to the world, but living a holy life cannot be our sole evangelization effort. Even if you live the happiest, holiest life imaginable on Earth, people won’t know why unless you tell them!  In the Gospel, Simon Peter tells Jesus, “You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). Jesus has shared these words with us, and given us the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill His command to share them with the world. St Paul writes, “How are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14). As enticing as the witness-of-life excuse sounds, we cannot hope to share the faith if we aren’t willing to use our words to do so.

Another common excuse that people fall into is not believing that evangelization matters. It is easy to deceive ourselves by thinking that the person we would have evangelized is going to be fine. We think that someone else will take care of it, or that they seem like pretty good people already so they’ll probably go to Heaven without our help. But what if the “someone” God wanted to “take care of it” was us? It’s not our place to assume who’s going to end up where; God is the judge, and He alone can read a person’s heart. What God tells us, however, is that “He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life” (1 John 5:12). If this is a scary thought, let it scare you into action. Despite what the world tries to tell us, Hell is terrible and very very real. Each one of us has been born into a spiritual war, and we are on the front lines. You are only a single soldier in the war, but you are still called to do your part to fight against the evil of the world and save souls for God. Yes, conversations may be awkward. Yes, some people might hate you for speaking the truth, but they could hate you for an eternity for not sharing the truth when you had the chance. 

One of the most common excuses to avoid evangelization is that we don’t feel ready. I discussed this in part in my last post, but I believe it is important enough to mention again. You may be legitimately not ready; if this is what you have discerned, refer to the previous post for tips on how to prepare yourself. Most of the time, however, the excuse of not being ready is just that–an excuse. You may be asking yourself questions like, “What if I don’t know what to say? What if I say something wrong and it doesn’t work?” The fear that lies on your heart is the same fear on the hearts of the Apostles in the Upper Room after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Yet, on the feast of Pentecost, God sent the Holy Spirit to set their hearts on fire, and gave them the power to speak to the nations. Filled with the Spirit, the apostles ran into the city streets, speaking in tongues and glorifying God. When the people of the city questioned what was happening, Peter stood up and preached to them, and three thousand people were baptized that day! (Acts 2). While your own evangelization efforts will probably not be as dramatic, if you have received the Sacrament of Confirmation, the same Holy Spirit that set fire to the hearts of the apostles resides in your own heart as well. Say a quick prayer before you begin any evangelization effort, ask God to help you, and trust that He will give you the words to say. Even if they don’t feel particularly inspired, trust that He is still using them for good. It’s natural to be nervous, but don’t let your anxiety and doubt stop you from taking action! Whether you fall into the excuses above, or have completely different ones, take all your fears and excuses to prayer, and ask God to help you overcome them. Don’t let fear paralyze you; place your confidence in God and go!

I hope this post was helpful to you! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, let me know in the comment section. And remember to fill out this survey if you haven’t yet! I am praying for you all, and I hope you have a blessed week!