Random Access - Our Readers

Hopping Aboard the Jesus Boat
Readers share their experiences of random opportunities to share the Catholic Faith with others.

Leading with Tommy Lasorda
On Ash Wednesday, while clothes shopping, I met an older couple who were looking through the same pile of shirts as I. Upon noticing the man's face, I commented, "You look just like Tommy Lasorda!"

His wife laughed, "People say that all the time." I told them Tommy attends a local parish. This brought the conversation around to the Catholic Faith. While both were Catholic, neither had been active in the Church for some time. I answered a few of their questions and doubts about the Faith, and encouraged them to return to Mass. The wife, a recent immigrant from Poland, had been looking for a Polish Catholic community. When I told her about the Pope John Paul II Polish parish, she was sold. She vowed that she would return to Mass that very Sunday.
Joan Lauer, Anaheim Hills, CA

Analogy Attack
A while ago, I had a telephone conversation with an old friend from school. Although we are both Catholic, our friendship had been mostly secular and academic. Since high school graduation, I became more interested in my Faith, and now attend Franciscan University of Steubenville. He opted for a state university. I was pleasantly surprised to learn of his new passion for Christ, which he gained through involvement in a well-known "non-denominational" Christian fellowship program on his campus. He was enthused about the Bible studies, the outreach activities and the new friends he'd gained. Unfortunately, he spoke as though this were his first exposure to real Christianity.

I sensed my friend was losing his Catholic identity and sliding down the slippery slope to Protestantism. When I reminded him he was a Catholic and cautioned him not to be led astray, he commented that "all the Christian religions are basically the same." I spent some time explaining Catholicism from a theological and historical standpoint. My friend, while polite, was clearly not swayed by my reasoning. You see, my friend is a mechanically oriented guy, not given to long theological discourses. I obviously needed another approach. Suddenly, I got an inspiration from the Holy Spirit. My mind flashed back to a homily I'd heard recently, and I recounted it to him.

Our life is like a journey across a vast lake. Heaven, our goal, is on the opposite shore. Jesus has given us a boat, the Catholic Church, and He has given the boat a push. The waves may be rough and the rain may pour down, but our boat is guaranteed to eventually reach the other side. If we become discouraged along the way, we have the freedom to abandon ship. We can try to swim to the other side on our own, and sometimes it will work, but more likely, we will get fatigued and drown. And once we take the dive, we are more likely to fall prey to sharks, since they have easier access to us than they did when we were in the boat. While on board, we will be offered rides by people in other vessels. These crafts may or may not get to the other side, but ours will, since it has the official "Jesus Guarantee."

My friend seemed to understand this argument better. Sometimes, we can spend tons of energy explaining the fine points of the Faith, when often, a simple analogy will do the trick.
Matthew Falcon, Battle Creek, MI

Not Afraid to Pipe Up
I share my beloved Catholic Faith in an unusual way. As a plumber, I get the opportunity to visit a great number of homes. Almost every house I enter has a Bible somewhere in view. I'll often point to it, and ask the homeowners if they know how the New Testament came about. This gives me a great opportunity to share the truths of Catholicism in a non-confrontational way. I've even created a Web site to aid in this kind of evangelization. This way, I can leave customers the Web site address, in case they're interested in finding out more about the Faith. This approach is very successful. Recently a customer told me, "I have been thinking about God and praying a lot lately, because I was confused. Look what happened! God sent the sewer man to fix more than one problem in my life!" As I left her house, I smiled to myself and thought, "Yep. Only the lowly." We all have talents and abilities, and I'm very happy God made me the Catholic plumber that I am.
Randy Rogers, Lee's Summit, MO

A Bump in the Night
It was night, and my train arrived in Rome too late for me to get a room, so I sat in the shadows of St. Peter's basilica waiting for dawn. I was stationed with the U.S. Army and had visited Rome a number of times.

As I sat, a man started to walk across St. Peter's Square. I could see that he would pass within a few feet of me and was afraid he might be startled by my presence in the dark. So in my best English, I called out "Hi!" As it turned out, he was a fellow U.S. Army guy from my barracks at Camp Darby. We spent the next day visiting all the Catholic sites, which gave me a great opportunity to talk about the Faith. It was a chance made in heaven to share the Gospel.
Tom Anderson, Brookings, OR

Pub-Hopping for the Lord
During a recent trip to Ireland, I decided to visit a local pub and get a taste of the Emerald Isle in the form of a tall pint of Guinness. While there, I struck up a conversation with a young man named Ken. We began by talking about the relationship between the government, the Catholic Church and the people in Ireland. This quickly moved to the subject of divorce. His position was that people who marry should be allowed to divorce and, if they wanted, remarry. While Ken said he believed marriage was forever, he nevertheless said that sometimes, divorce is necessary. I pointed out the inconsistency in his position, saying that if marriage is indeed "forever," then there shouldn't be a way to bail out. We further discussed how, in Catholicism, marriage is a sacrament — a union created between two people by God Himself. Such a union can never be broken.

As the evening wore on and we became more comfortable with one another, Ken revealed something else about himself: He did not believe in God. When he visited his parents, he would go to Mass, but that was only to please them; it was part of the family tradition. According to my new friend, many young people in Ireland feel the same way. They go to Mass, recite the creed and have a Catholic wedding, but reject the teachings of the Church. For Ken, real belief in God made things "too easy." He felt it was a cop-out chosen by the naive. I told him that, in my opinion, the life of the believer is much more difficult than that of the atheist. The Catholic has to live according to the teachings of Christ. That's a very hard thing to do in a tempting world like ours. He had no answer.

From there, he shifted his argument to science, saying that with the "big bang" theory, there was no need to believe that God created everything. I pointed out that the "big bang" theory didn't tell us Who caused the "big bang." It couldn't have come out of thin air. Again, he had no answer for this.

As the evening drew to a close, Ken confided that he really wanted to believe in God, but just couldn't seem to make himself. I suggested that he pray to receive the grace to believe. I told him if he honestly seeks God, I know he'll find Him. We have the Lord's guarantee. As we parted, we exchanged e-mail addresses, and I look forward to continuing the conversation we started that night in Galway. It's amazing how the Lord can bring you across an ocean to share the Faith with someone who desperately needs it.
Steven Simpson, Washington, D.C.

Send your Random Access encounters with friends, coworkers or family members to: Random Access, Envoy Magazine, P.O. Box 1840, West Chester, PA 19380, or e-mail us at brianpl@erols.com.