“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power: proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths. But you, be self-possessed in all circumstances; put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:1-5)

A large part of our duty on earth as Catholics is to bear witness, to live as Christ taught us, to spread the Good News to everyone we meet. We are called to evangelize, an apostolic duty that has been passed onto us from the very beginning of the Church. What does evangelize mean? It comes from the Latin, although more commonly used in the Church, ‘evangelizare’, which means ‘to spread or preach the Gospel’. It is to preach or prophesy, and in some ways to persuade or convince. In the above quote, we hear St. Paul giving St. Timothy a personal command or charge to keep steadfast to the Gospel and continue to fight against heresy, even when imprisoned or feeling as if it’s all falling on deaf ears. Paul gives Timothy an idea of what is needed to keep on evangelizing and convincing those who were listening to his preaching in the Ephesus area. We can use these words to help guide us, too. We need to proclaim the Good News, be persistent, to convince and encourage, to deal with the hardships so as to gain the ultimate prize. It’s amazing how those words are still useful today, isn’t it? Convince often seems like a negative word. Nowadays, trying to convince anyone of your beliefs as fact over opinion is almost seen as a sin itself. But we truly need to “be self-possessed in all circumstances; put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry.” (2 Tim 4:5).

Yet, on the other side of it, we are in need of convincing ourselves, aren’t we? As sinful beings, we tend to forget God’s love and mercy when life gets difficult. On this Solemnity of Christ the King, I am stuck on this word ‘convince’ and that is because Christ triumphing over sin and death is truly God’s ultimate convincement to prove that he loves us. Jesus, in today’s Gospel (Jn 18:33b-37), tells Pilate that he is being condemned to death because he is a King elsewhere. 

Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.

If my kingdom did belong to this world,

my attendants would be fighting

to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. 

But as it is, my kingdom is not here.” (Jn 18:36)

He reminds Pilate that he is willing to die because He knows what is waiting for Him. Although some may read Jesus’s conversation with Pilate as reluctant, I see this dialogue as His last chance to change hardened hearts and convince non-believers of the Good News, without using a harsh tongue. Although Jesus may not be as forward as He was when He was out preaching, He is also aware of the end and knows that this is not something to fight, but to accept. Christ’s life was focused around evangelization. He knew He needed to win eternal life for all of us, and God gave us His only Son because of that love, to convince us that we are His children and beloved.

Today, as we observe the Solemnity of Christ the King, let it be our reminder that Christ was born to save us and rule over us. He needed to die, resurrect, and ascend for us. No parent would ever want to send their child to death, yet the Father does that exact thing. It is the largest and most drastic way He can show that He loves us. However, before we can evangelize and convince, we must be convinced and believe. We need to have complete faith in all Jesus taught and lived. Without that complete, life-sustaining faith, we have nothing and cannot fulfill our ministry on earth. “To put into practice the teachings of our holy faith, it is not enough to convince ourselves that they are true; we must love them. Love united to faith makes us practice our religion.” (St. Alphonsus Liguori)