Sometimes, it seems to be "good form" to speak coldly about the great truths of life, or not to speak of them at all. They call those who speak enthusiastically about a noble cause—the defense of life from conception, freedom of education...—"fanatics," or they attempt to disqualify with various adjectives those who hold deep convictions about life and its ultimate destiny and strive to live by them.
Without intemperance, which is foreign to the kind example Jesus Christ left us, we shall try to live, with the help of grace, a life full of deep and firm Christian convictions. We know well, for example, that indifference toward the wonders of God is a great evil—the consequence of lukewarmness or of a dead or dormant faith—no matter how much one tries to disguise it as "objectivity."
Through Baptism, the Christian has received the grace that saves and gives meaning to their earthly journey. Faced with such an excellent good, it is only logical to be joyful and to seek to communicate that happiness to those nearby through unceasing apostolate.
Jesus always did good. "I ask you," Jesus once said to some scribes and Pharisees who were spying on him, "is it lawful to do good or to do evil?" And then he healed the man with the withered hand. In all environments, we must do good and communicate the joy of having known Christ; we feel the need to win souls for the Truth, for love, for Christ. "And this is called, in correct Spanish, proselytism. Here, too, the manipulation of words intervenes. The term proselytism has been burdened by some with the pack-saddle of selfish interests, the use of dishonest means to fascinate, coerce, or deceitfully enlist those to whom it is directed. Such an attitude deserves serious condemnation; but what is condemnable is sectarian, deceptive, mercenary proselytism—the kind that takes advantage of the ignorance of others, of their material misery, of their emotional loneliness."
"But are we Christians, for that reason, going to renounce apostolic fruitfulness, the communicative fraternity of genuine proselytism?"
The certainty of the truths of our faith—only he who is convinced convinces—and our love for Christ will lead us to a fruitful communication of what we have found; it will lead us to a loyal proselytism. And this, in all environments.
HCD