Let your light so shine...

I so often want to share my faith with people, but don't really know how. Part of my problem is how turned off I was by the type of Christian evangelism that I experienced growing up and going to college in the South. Cheesy tracts left anonymously in public places, sermons delivered on the street corner, or well-meaning Bob Jones students proselytizing to Clemson students outside the Main Street bars on a Friday night - not effective.

Here's a nice way to look at it:

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). That is, just as people are scandalized by the indifference of some of us and direct the edge of their tongue against our Lord, so [Christ is saying] when you practice virtue and people see you, they do not stop at praise of you; instead, when they see your good deeds shining and lighting up your face, they are moved to praise of your Father in heaven. When this happens in their case, we in our turn are amply rewarded, and over and above their praise the Lord bestows on us countless good things: "Those giving glory to me I myself will glorify" (I Samuel 2:30).



St. John Chrysostom

"Daily Readings from the Writings of St. John"