Proclaiming Christ at Penn State

A few weeks ago a dozen Catholic students and one priest gathered to discuss evangelization on campus. The meeting was organized by Joe Swearman, a newly elected board member for the Newman Catholic Student Association. The problem before us was: How do we bring students to Christ? How do we live and proclaim the Gospel?

At the previous Newman club meeting Joe had spoken about how the neophytes who entered the Church at the Easter vigil Mass were enormous blessings. Yet, is this truly satisfying? Do we not want every single person to enter the fullness of God's life through Christ's Church?

At Penn State there are thousands of students who are seeking love, truth, and fulfillment. Instead, they find deafening parties, they have sex with people they met five beers ago, and they have friendships built on convenience and utility. Some of these students, after recovering from their hangovers, blindly continue the cycle weekend after weekend, semester after semester. But others ask themselves, Why am I doing this? Is there nothing more to life? What is the meaning and the truth I am looking for?

God is the answer. He is the longing in every heart, and only Christ's love will fill the void.

I am not going to tackle the entirety of what was said at the evangelization meeting. If you are really interested, you can listen to the entire session which I recorded and uploaded here. But I did want to address a few points that came up during the discussion.

One student commented that her friends feel automatically judged when they are with her. They become uncomfortable when they go to a party together, and she chooses not to drink underage or engage in other immoral behaviors. How can she witness to them when they already feel so distant? Her friends are nervous. They know she sees their actions but will not participate in them. But far from being judged by their friend, it is their own hearts that are judging them. This unease, this anxiety, is really the Holy Spirit working in their conscience to show them that something is wrong. This feeling of guilt and sin is the first step to a conversion, a turning toward Christ. Without realizing our sinfulness, why would we look for a savior?

At Pentecost, the Jews listen to Peter proclaim Christ as the Son of God and they were "cut to the heart" (Acts 2:37). Then they ask what they should do next, and Peter says, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins" (v. 38). Therefore we should not fear when our friends become uneasy in the sight of righteousness. We should never be afraid to live out the Gospel for fear that it will make people uncomfortable. Jesus made lots of people uncomfortable. Our duty as Christians is to love them and show them a better life, a truly satisfying answer for the hunger of their hearts, that which is nothing less than our creator and redeemer. Let us pray that all who feel this holy apprehension will not close their hearts, but will open them to the Lord.