THE BEST PREACHER

Saturday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
Mt 23:1-12

The best preacher is the best witness. The best homily is the preacher’s life. The best pulpit is here and now. Pope Paul VI wrote, “Modern man no longer listens to teachers but to witnesses. And if he listens to teachers it is because they are first witnesses.” When we were baptized, we began to share in the prophetic mission of Christ. We are called to be prophets. To be prophets is to be agents of evangelization. To evangelize is to penetrate the world with the presence of Jesus. That presence must be our presence in the world. By what we preach, by how we live, is our presence the presence of Jesus in the world today? What we preach and how we live are intimately related with each other. The former flows into the latter while the latter flows from the former. We must live by what we preach and what we preach must define the life we lead. The challenge is for us to preserve a positive relationship between our preaching and our living. We cannot expect others to believe what we preach when our lives do not reflect our teaching. We cannot lead others by mere words, no matter how inspiring and correct they are. We lead others by the lives we lead. Shining examples, not eloquent words, announce the Good News of Jesus to the world better and louder. Once a woman came to me. She was very worried over her friend who stopped going to the Catholic Church but started to join a Fundamentalist group. “What must I do to save my friend, Father?” she asked me. “The more essential question,” I told her, “is not what you must do, my friend.” She looked at me intently, but with a rather confused look on her face. “You do not need to save your friend at all. Christ already did that for her,” I continued. “You mean to say, I should do nothing and just let her leave our Church and be a Born Again?” she asked further. “The more essential question, my friend,” I told her, “is not what you must do but what you must be.” “And what must I be, Father?” she asked. “You must be a good Catholic in word and deed,” I replied. Have you preached to someone today?