Daily Reflections ...

How often do we hesitate before sharing something of our faith? Some small snippet of our relationship with Jesus and how we have experienced his blessings or felt close to him? What if the person we are talking to isn’t interested, or worse, what if they don’t believe the same things we do? What will they think of us then?

There’s a good reason Jesus tells stories all throughout the Gospels.  People connect with them and we instinctively look for the point of connection to ourselves. When we share our faith, particularly in the form of a personal testimony – this is what happened for me, this is what I experienced – we invite others to hear the possibilities. What might they experience?

This small piece of today’s Gospel, one line that is easy to skip past, reminds us to share what we have seen and heard, even if the ears on which our story lands rejects it.  How others respond to what we share is not our responsibility, and often we will never really know what happens in the heart of another. All we can do is ‘bear witness’ and leave the rest up to God. When we do this, we strengthen our own faith and give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to use us to encourage the faith of others.

I pray today, like St Peter Chanel, we would have the courage to play our part in sharing our faith without fear of how it will be received.

by Emma Plant