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Funding for the videos associated with Be My Witness was provided by the Catholic Communication Campaign of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
For resources related to Be My Witness, visit www.bemywitness.org
NIHIL OBSTAT
Rev. Thomas G. Guarino, S.T.D.
Censor Librorum
IMPRIMATUR
Most Reverend John J. Myers, J.C.D., D.D.
Archbishop of Newark
Cover design by Ruth Markworth
Text design by Kathrine Kuo
ISBN: 978-1-62063-108-9
RENEW International 1232 George Street Plainfield, NJ 07062-1717 www.renewintl.org
Printed and bound in the United States of America
Session 1 Seeking Christ
“I would like to ask you: Have you sometimes heard the voice of the Lord, which through a certain restlessness, invites you to follow him more closely? Have you heard it?”
Pope Francis, Regina Caeli, April 21, 2013
Focus for this Session
Christ calls each of us to seek him anew, opening ourselves once again to his divine presence, and allowing him to instill in us a deeper faith that is reflected in everything we say and do.
Gather Introductions
Allow a few moments for participants to introduce themselves and briefly share how they became interested in joining Be My Witness.
Opening Prayer
Leader: As we embark on our first session of Be My Witness, let us take a moment of quiet in order to become more aware of the presence of Christ, who promised to be with all who gather in his name.
Reader 1: Lord, Jesus Christ, be with us today as we begin our exploration of our call to be your witnesses. (Pause for reflection.)
Reader 2: Open our eyes so that we can encounter you in all that we see. (Pause for reflection.)
Reader 3: Open our ears so that we can encounter you in all that we hear. (Pause for reflection.)
Reader 4: Open our minds so that we can encounter you in all that we learn. (Pause for reflection.)
Reader 5: Open our hearts so that we can encounter you in all that we share with each other. (Pause for reflection.)
Reader 6: Lord, may your presence with us today strengthen our faith, increase our hope, and intensify our love for you, so that we can become your missionary disciples in the world today.
All: Amen.
Opening Song
“Open My Eyes,” Jesse Manibusan. Digital playlist available at www.ocp.org/renew-music.
Witness Story
’I love Jesus’—Ginny’s Story
Following a divorce, a woman became disconnected from her Catholic faith and began experimenting with different forms of New Age spirituality. Through the witness of a member of her Bible study group, she rediscovered a longing for Jesus and returned to the Catholic Church, newly at home in the faith community of her roots.
Watch the video: bemywitness.org/witness
Reflection
Living as Christ’s missionary disciples can be energizing as well as challenging, with the challenges varying from one age to another, from one period of our lives to another. We all have a variety of activities and pursuits that compete for our time and attention, such as nurturing careers, friendships, and families, involvement in sports, hobbies, exercise, shopping, and various opportunities for social networking. For some, interests such as these may take precedence over worship. Some Catholics believe that they can be good Catholics without celebrating Eucharist with the parish community on Sunday. Some of us have not felt like going to Mass on a weekend. Perhaps others, like Ginny, may have stopped going at all at various times in their lives.
For Ginny, biking had become her “religion” because it offered her a deep sense of peace and solitude. “I really didn’t want to give that up,” she said. Once she had stopped attending Mass, she said, it was easy to stay away, and by the time her marriage ended, she felt totally “disenfranchised” from the Catholic Church.
Divorce is a painful process that wounds deeply, evoking feelings of anger, betrayal, and failure. Ginny had the mistaken idea that divorce meant she could never “return to the faith of my origin.” But Ginny still felt a deep spiritual longing so she gravitated toward New Age spirituality—an eclectic collection of beliefs and practices with elements of Eastern religions, neopaganism, and secular humanism that promises healing and fulfillment through various styles of meditation and holistic health practices.
Within the Catholic faith there is a strong tradition of mystical practice, including meditation that leads to a deeper relationship with Christ and contemplation that offers an inner experience of Christ’s presence. We don’t know if Ginny was ever exposed to these kinds of Catholic prayers, or whether she ever felt the healing presence of Christ, or if she ever had a deep spiritual encounter with Christ in the Eucharist. We know only that Ginny was searching and her search led her away from her Catholic faith.
There’s an old saying that we have a hole in our souls that only God can fill. Ginny’s attempt to fill the empty spot inside of her with New Age spirituality left her feeling even emptier. Her continuing quest eventually led her to a Bible study where she heard one woman say with great feeling, “I love Jesus!” Ginny remembered thinking, “Gee, I wish I could say that!”
A CHURCH OF SINNERS
“Sinful men, sinful women, sinful priests, sinful sisters, sinful bishops, sinful cardinals, a sinful pope? Everyone. How can such a Church be holy? She is holy because Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God (cf. Mk 1:24), is indissolubly united to her (cf. Mt 28:20); She is holy because she is guided by the Holy Spirit who purifies, transforms, renews. She is not holy by her own merits, but because God makes her holy; it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and of his gifts. It is not we who make her holy. It is God, the Holy Spirit, who in his love makes the Church holy.”
Pope Francis, General Audience, October 2, 2013
Ginny could not say that she loved Jesus, because she did not know Jesus on an intimate, personal level. Instead, she had created her own system of beliefs. St. Augustine reminded us, however, that if you believe only what you like and you reject what you don’t like, “it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.” The witness of the woman in the Bible study jarred Ginny into the realization that “I was trying to do this on my own.” She began to feel drawn back to her Catholic roots.
The first time Ginny walked into a Catholic Church again, she heard God say, “This is a parish of sinners.... You’ll be comfortable here!”
Coming back to the Catholic Church made Ginny part of a community of imperfect people who were gathered around the person of Jesus Christ to worship, to witness, to ask forgiveness, to celebrate joys, to mourn losses, to serve others, to provide support, to receive strength from one another and nourishment from the Eucharist. Ginny finally found the fulfillment she had been seeking. “I have been able to sit with unpleasant memories,’’ she said, “to get to the root of where those feelings come from, and in a very gradual way, have been able to change. That change only comes through God.”
Pope Francis tells us that “when Jesus becomes part of our lives, we can no longer remain imprisoned by our past. Instead, we begin to look to the present, and we see it differently, with a different kind of hope. We begin to see ourselves and our lives in a different light. We are no longer stuck in the past, but capable of shedding tears and finding in them the strength to make a new start” (Santa-Cruz-Palmasola, Bolivia, July 10, 2015).
Ginny’s conversion makes her a powerful witness for all of us who are seeking closer union with God. After her painful journey, she knows that Christ loved her through all her years of searching and patiently waited until she was ready for an encounter with him. Ginny assures us that “there is no ‘good enough’ in a human’s life that is going to warrant you the love of God. God’s love is there.”
Invitation to Share
Take a few moments of silence to reflect on one of the following questions. Then share your reflections:
1. Ginny’s desire to fill the emptiness inside of her led her on a spiritual search. In what ways are you spiritually searching?
2. Ginny was moved by the powerful witness of the woman at a Bible study. What was your reaction when you heard Ginny say the words “I love Jesus!” Who has witnessed for you in this way? Where are you in your relationship with Christ?
3. Ginny was comforted when she heard God say, “This is a parish of sinners.” How does that statement affect the way you think about your parish?
Breaking Open God’s Story
The Word of God
Mark 1:21-28
The man with an unclean spirit
Moment of Silent Reflection
What word, phrase, or image from the scripture reading touched your heart or spoke to your life?
Invitation to Share
1. Share the word, phrase, or image from the scripture reading that touched your heart.
2. What two things about Jesus amazed and astounded his hearers?
Reflection
Today’s scripture passage occurs very early in the Gospel of Mark, which is the shortest and the most action-packed of all the Gospels. In the first twenty verses, Mark tells us about the baptism of Jesus (Mark 1:2-11). After that, Jesus spends forty days in the desert where he overcomes temptations by Satan (Mark 1:12-13). Then Jesus goes to Galilee where he calls his first disciples, promising to make them “fishers of men” (Mark 1:16-20).
In today’s reading, we witness the first public act of Jesus when he enters the synagogue in Capernaum on the Sabbath and begins to teach. Capernaum was a city of about ten thousand people on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. The synagogue was the place where people gathered to pray, chant psalms, and listen to a rabbi interpret passages from the Torah. Jesus was a visiting rabbi that day. Mark doesn’t tell us what Jesus said, but we do learn that the people were attentive to his every word because Jesus taught “as one having authority.”
The Greek word for authority, exousia, is related to the word that means “free.” Someone who speaks with exousia speaks freely on his or her own accord without having to rely on validation from others. From a worldly point of view, Jesus had no power. His authority came from doing his Father’s will and speaking his Father’s truth. The people were astounded.
Then, in the middle of this powerful teaching, Mark presents a shocking scene. An unclean spirit which has taken possession of a man recognizes Jesus and publicly acknowledges that Jesus is the “Holy One of God.” If
you’ve ever been at a lecture when someone heckles the speaker, you know how unsettling it can be—especially if you were really enjoying the talk.
SUNDAY MATTERS
Jesus handles the situation calmly by ordering the demon to come out of the man. The unclean spirit obeys, and the people see that Jesus not only teaches with authority but also has the power to expel demons with just a few words. They rush off to tell others about their extraordinary encounter with Jesus.
In our gospel passage, Mark writes that the people at the synagogue were so astounded when they heard Jesus speak that they hurried off to tell family members and friends. This story of an encounter with Christ teaches us that gathering together for worship is important.
• Our Sunday celebration creates the sacred space where all who gather enter into the depths of the paschal mystery—the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
• During our Sunday celebration, life and faith enter into a dialogue that gives new meaning and purpose to our lives.
• Sunday Mass has the potential to transform the lives of the people who have gathered together to pray as the Body of Christ.
• At Sunday Mass, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, we discover who we are and the potential for what we can be.
• Our Sunday celebration nourishes and strengthens us to become what Pope Francis calls “missionary disciples” who bring Christ’s love to the world. (The Joy of the Gospel, 120).
Who are we in this passage?
Maybe we are like the man who was freed from “an unclean spirit” during a powerful encounter with Jesus. Some of us, like Ginny in our video, may have experienced some kind of healing—spiritual, mental, physical, or emotional—after encountering Christ. Or we may have witnessed the healing of a family member or friend who encountered Christ.
Maybe we are like the disciples whom Jesus had recently recruited. Mark doesn’t tell us what their reaction to all of this was, but we can imagine some of the thoughts and feelings they must have experienced. Were they wondering what they had gotten themselves into? Who was this man who could command the attention of a crowd and expel demons? Where would all of this lead?
Perhaps we are like the people who heard Jesus speak with authority, witnessed his healing power, and were so captivated that they rushed to tell family members and friends what they
had witnessed. Jesus was like no one they had ever seen before. They were bursting with the news!
No matter which characters we relate to in this passage, Christ calls all of us to witness to his power and authority in our increasingly secular world where many people, like Ginny, are searching for deeper meaning and purpose in life. Evangelization is not a thing; it is an action. It is extending to others an invitation to a personal encounter with Christ and to share the joy and consolation of the Christian faith.
We see in today’s readings, and in the experience of Ginny, that healing and freedom can be found in an encounter with Jesus Christ. The Good News of Jesus Christ is as exciting and as challenging today as it was two thousand years ago. All around us there are people who are searching for meaning, people who need to be healed, people who long for a sense of belonging, and people who want to be loved and accepted. How will you help them to encounter Christ? How will you answer Christ’s call to be his witness?
Invitation to Share
Take a few moments of silence to reflect on one of the following questions. Then share your reflections:
1. The people in today’s scripture passage were astounded by the teaching of Jesus. When have you been astounded by Jesus? How did you witness to this experience?
2. Jesus healed the man with the unclean spirit by driving out the demons. In what ways did you or someone you know experience the healing power of Jesus in your life?
REACHING OUT MATTERS
In The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis challenges us to go out and witness to the many men and women who have drifted away from the Church because they are confused, indifferent, hurt, or angry. He challenges us to seek out people who are poor and lonely, people who feel excluded and unwelcome, and bless their lives by sharing our experiences of encountering Christ. This is the New Evangelization Pope Francis talks about, and it matters!
3. The people who heard Jesus teach and witnessed the healing of the man with the unclean spirit went out and told their family members and friends what had happened. Share an example of how someone’s personal witness influenced you. How did this personal witness bring about a turning point in your life?
Invitation to Act
Sharing and being together in a small Christian community fosters an active and personal experience in which the Good News is shared, experienced, and applied to daily life. Our communal sharing is incomplete without a serious commitment to putting our faith into practice. In this session we have reflected on what it means to seek Christ. How does this inspire us to act?
The following are examples:
1. Start a spiritual journal. Begin by writing about your own spiritual search. What were/are you seeking? Who has been important to your journey? How does your participation in Be My Witness relate to where you are now or where you are being invited to go in your faith?
2. Read the Gospel of Mark with a new awareness of the authority of Jesus and his healing power. Allow yourself to be amazed by Jesus. Record in your journal the ways in which you are changed by this scriptural encounter with Christ.
3. Pray for someone you know who is searching for deeper spirituality. Ask that person if he or she would like to talk about his or her spiritual journey. Then listen intently.
4. Make it a point to participate more fully at Sunday Mass this week. Afterward, record your insights in your journal and share them at the next gathering of your Be My Witness group.
5. Find out what ministries are available for divorced people in your parish and in your diocese. Ask what you can do to make people more aware of this ministry.
6. Visit bemywitness.org/witness and share Ginny’s Story, “I Love Jesus,” with a family member or friend.
Closing Prayer
Leader: As we conclude our first session of Be My Witness, please join me in praying together the Be My Witness Prayer. Gracious God and Father, we are your people, embraced by your love. We thank you for your presence with us throughout all time.
Create us anew through our encounter with Jesus Christ, your Son. Empower us with your Holy Spirit to be a joyful community of love and welcome a community of hope and mercy a community that announces the good news and shares the flame of faith. May all come to know through this community your extravagant love for us, so that together we may bear witness to the joy of the Gospel for the transformation the world. Through Jesus Christ, our Savior and brother. Amen.
Looking Ahead
Prepare for the next session by prayerfully reading and studying
• Session 2, “Encountering Christ”
• Luke 19:1-10
• Watch the video for Session 2: “God Is Somewhere in This”—Bob’s Story (bemywitness.org/witness)
FOR PERSONAL REFLECTION
THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL
Please read the Introduction to The Joy of the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium) by Pope Francis. Then write your responses to the following questions. The Joy of the Gospel is available online at w2.vatican.va/content/Vatican/en.html (click on “Apostolic Exhortations”) or by typing “The Joy of the Gospel” in your web browser.
Introduction
• What is your response to Pope Francis’ invitation to embark on a new chapter of evangelization marked by joy?
• Pope Francis warns about letting one’s interior life become caught up in one’s own interests and concerns, leaving “no place for others, no place for the poor.” What preoccupies you in your interior life?
• How can you, on a daily basis, open yourself up to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ?
