“Where’s The Beef?”

In a Pew Study that came out prior to the Covid Pandemic, it was reported that less than 20% of Catholics attend Sunday Mass every week. In my diocese the numbers were more dire. Since Covid, the numbers are even more alarming. Wow, you hear the church is dying, the numbers are declining…we need to evangelize. We need a new strategy. Hmmmmmm. 

What attracts people? Is it excitement…. “signs and wonders”…new things… providing solutions to problems, etc. It seems that the answer is yes; all that does attract. Yet, it’s a temporary attraction. After awhile, all this can wear out, the “newness” is not so new any longer. You often hear, “what have you done for me lately.” It’s like a magnificent fireworks display… initially it elicits WOWS and GASPS, but after a bit, it loses its punch…people get bored… it’s time to go home.

The classic Burger King Ad, pictured an old lady looking at her hamburger saying, Where’s the Beef?” So when it comes to evangelization, “where’s the beef”.  What attracts and ultimately holds us close? Well, when it’s all said and done, it’s the love of Christ that rescues us from disaster and holds us close; love stands the test of time. When the “excitement” begins to wain, it’s love that continues to hold us. This love expresses itself in the fact that we are precious to the lover, …. we receive ongoing care and concern and provision from the lover. Love touches our greatest need…. the need to be loved. 

One of the greatest aspects of God’s love for us is the forgiveness of our sins. Our unforgiven sins are a cancer that continually gnaw at our soul. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.Blessed is the man to whom the LORD imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.When I declared not my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.” (Ps. 32:1-3)

God is the only source of love. When we are transformed by God’s love, we are able to communicate God’s love to others. This is the love that brings peace and freedom… freedom from fear and doubt and discouragement and despair. It’s the freedom that each of us is longing for. It’s the freedom that attracts.

So Dave, is there a point to this BLOG? Why yes there is…a huge point. God is love and it’s all that matters. To have joy and happiness and peace, we need to fall into the arms of our loving God. Seeking this joy from anywhere else does not work and it only leads to disappointment. The rich and powerful and beautiful are miserable without the love of God…. ”if only I had a little more money, a little more power, a little more praise, and little more time….then I’d be happy.” NOT TRUE!

So what is the key to evangelization? Is it a new technique, some more excitement, better music, better teachings, power point presentations? Hey, I’m all for doing things better, but it will all wear out like the fireworks display. We need to be transformed by the love of God and allow it to overflow to others. See how those Christians love one another. “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends….. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1Cor. 13:4-7)

The love of the Lord is the key to evangelization… the key to our own evangelization and the key to this love overflowing to others. God’s love….the very best news.