36
S P I R ITUAL AR M O R
PREPARING
FOR BATTLE
APR-MAY 2024 | DENVER CATHOLIC
I
n the face of seemingly endless scandals in
the Catholic Church, a lot of non-Catholics
are asking some variation of "Why are you still
Catholic?" to their Catholic friends and loved
ones. Behind this question is often pain, anger,
or sheer incredulity, but the silver lining is that
they are asking about why we're still Catholic,
which creates an opening for evangelization.
But now what?
As Catholics, we know we're called to evan-
gelize the world, but anyone who has ever
attempted evangelization (or apologetics) knows
that it's hard to do it well. As with any craft,
one of the best ways to learn is to pay attention
to the people who do it well, so it makes sense
that we should look to the life and example of
St. Paul. He is arguably the greatest Christian
evangelist who ever lived, apart from
Christ himself. After all, he was
"entrusted with the gospel to the
uncircumcised, just as Peter had
been entrusted with the gospel
to the circumcised" (Gal 2:7-8),
meaning that if you're a Gentile
Christian, your spiritual lineage
probably goes back to someone
who was converted by St. Paul.
So how do we ensure that
we're properly "armed" for
any sort of question, dis-
cussion, or argument about
the faith? St. Paul gives
these instructions (Ephe-
sians 6:10-18a):
7 Tips from
St. Paul on
Evangelization
BY JOE
HESCHMEYER
Word On Fire
