Dear Darren,
Your keen awareness of your baptismal duty to spread God's word
is a major grace for you. I strongly believe He wants you to
prepare yourself to be an effective apologist. To do so, you
need two weapons:
1) prayer and 2) study.
Pray that the Holy Spirit will enlighten and guide you. Pray
that Our Lord Jesus Christ will be your Truth (John 14:6) and that
He will help you show others the truth, so that with them you
will come to the Father through Him. Pray to the Father in
Jesus' Name (John 15:16) for the skill and knowledge you need to
reach others' minds and hearts. Entrust what you do to the care
of Our Lady of Wisdom and to the guardian angels. Your prayer
should be continual and persevering in the face of discouragement
--- because discouragement is bound to come (cf. Acts 13:46).
But there will be successes, too.
You have had encounters with folks who say, "Everything happens
by coincidence" and, "Praying to God only demonstrates your
insecurity." I have space here only to glance briefly at these
opinions.
"Everything happens by coincidence" is obviously false because
anyone can see that a good many things "happen" as a result of
careful planning. But, of course, the objector means, no doubt,
that the whole universe is just a coincidence. I am skeptical of
this view because nothing in my experience (or anyone else's)
confirms it. Am I expected to believe that a tornado could rage
through a junkyard and by coincidence produce a Rolls Royce?
Frankly, it's easier to believe in a Creator God. The human mind
can at least begin to cope with Him.
Furthermore, total coincidence would make science impossible.
All science depends upon the researchers' ability to replicate
experiments. That possibility requires that things behave
predictably -- not by coincidence. No predictability - no
science.
One wishes to be kind, and so if someone thoughtlessly says,
"Everything happens by coincidence, I beg you to attribute that
statement to over tiredness, or possibly to a fondness for alcohol.
It isn't a serious view.
Now, about the allegation: "Praying to God only demonstrates your
insecurity": a very long time ago, we read, a serpent challenged
a woman in just this way:"You needn't obey God. You needn't fear
death. Just eat the forbidden fruit and you'll be equal to God!"
(Genesis 3:1-5). The result of that disobedience and
independence from God is the mess were in.
You could say to you objector: "You better believe I'm insecure.
And if you would wake up and look around you at the way the world
is, you would be insecure, too. Your imagined security is only
blindness. But my insecurity is really my strength, because it
sends me straight to God. "I trust in the Lord forever! For the
Lord is an eternal Rock. But you, my friend, have forgotten God,
your savior and remembered not the Rock, your strength (Isaiah
26:4, 17:10).
Believers have no need of personal security because our strength
is in the Name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Please,
Darren, read Romans 8:26; 1st Corinthians 1:25, 2:1-5; 2nd
Corinthians 11:29-30, 12:5, 8-10, 13:3-4; Hebrews 4:15-16.
Our weakness and need of God is a hard truth. When people
confront hard truths, some are converted -- but many turn and
walk away (cf. John 6:60, 66). That is why we must pray and
pray, so that more and more may be converted.
Sincerely in Christ,
Father Mateo
- Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit -
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