Low Sunday: Witness

The skeptic among us would likely be nicknamed Doubting Thomas.  Yet St. Thomas the Apostle exonerated himself by being the first among the Apostles to call Jesus God in his acclamation, “My God and my Lord!” (John 20:28)  Jesus’ beatitude, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe,” implies that belief is based on the testimony of witnesses.  In this day and age, the beatitude refers to all of us who believe in the Risen Christ.  We have not seen, yet we believe.  How do we know what to believe?  We rely on the witness of the Gospels.  The Gospel and the scriptures show us what to believe.  Yet, we also rely on the witness of Christians who are still on earth.  Without a living person to tell us, the words in the Bible are simply words.  It is by the behaviour of people that we ask questions and search for truth.  This is what Pope Paul VI expressed in Evangelii Nuntiandi 21 (To see what he wrote, click here and scroll down to number 21).  Furthermore, as Christians, we are relied upon as witnesses for those who will come to believe.  The Samaritan woman at the well (see John 4) was definitely a witness to the people in the village but after experiencing Jesus himself, the villagers said, “It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” (John 4:42)  Like the Samaritans, we first believe because we were struck by someone who had been a witness.  As we enter into a relationship with Christ or with God, we gain experiences that show us that He is indeed real and that Christ is indeed alive.  Armed with that experience, we become witnesses ourselves.

That is the key for being a witness: we need to enter into a relationship with Him.  It has to be a real relationship.  Christ cannot be simply an acquaintance.  Christ cannot be someone we know about.  Christ must be a person we relate with.  That is why prayer is so important.  Prayer allows us to deepen our relationship with Christ.  With a solid relationship with Christ, we become witnesses in our daily Christian life.  The witness we give will begin to elicit queries.  Most of the time, it is informal and wordless.  There will be times, of course, when we would be asked to witness formally by giving testimonies.  However, these occasions are a result of the informal and wordless witness we give.  Let us pray during the week that we can become true witnesses, helping others to come to know Jesus.