Pointing to Signs and Wonders: A Way to Evangelize within the Eucharistic Revival

This month, we continue working through The Four Ways Forward: Becoming an Apostolic Parish in a Post-Christian World, in creating evangelizing parishes, especially in light of the parish year of the Eucharistic Revival. Last month we focused on the power of small group spiritual multiplication. This month we focus on how paying attention to signs and wonders in our midst is an evangelical act.

Often, I do not think we pay enough attention to the Book of Acts. The Acts of the Apostles is an absolute barnburner of sacred literature, as the Holy Spirit raced like wildfire through the people of Israel and beyond, beginning with Pentecost. It is, I would argue, our first handbook for evangelization.

If you read the Book of Acts, it is replete with the phrase “signs and wonders.” Entirely through the power of God, the apostles drew people to awareness of the power of God through signs and wonders: the descent of the Holy Spirit in the gift of tongues and Peter’s anointed preaching that resulted in 3000 getting baptized that day; “silver and gold I have none, but I give you what I have: In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, walk” (Acts 3:6); Philip sharing the gospel message with the Ethiopian on the road, baptizing him, and vanishing; Peter in chains, delivered by an angel hours before a public trial (Acts 12); Paul and Silas imprisoned but divinely released through an earthquake - where they walked out of the prison rubble and then converted their jailer (Acts 16); the witness of Saul, who had zealously thrown Christians in jail and consented to Stephen’s murder, now claiming Jesus Christ as his own (and everyone’s) Lord and Savior to all of Asia Minor (Acts 9). Now, if you are thinking, "Yikes! THAT’S parish evangelization?" Well, in general, yes. But what parishes should focus on are two things: the power of God in the resurrected Christ is real, and just as real today as it was in Acts. “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever,” amen! (Hebrews 13:8) When we see the power of God in our midst, we need to point to it, honor it, and share it. THAT is what they did in Acts, and there are two ways to do that today.

1. The power of witness. Every adult Christian disciple has a story of God’s goodness in their lives. Maybe it was the felt presence of God at the birth of a child. Maybe it was a powerful experience of sacramental reconciliation. Maybe it was an experience of being a child of Abraham and awed by God’s promises, while stargazing in the desert. Maybe it was an answered prayer when you were in deep need. Sharing that story – with your children, your family, your friends, your parish – cracks the cultural lie that God is not real. It speaks God’s truth into the public world. It is evidence that God loves you and his creation. Your witness, in a small group or larger venue, is a sign to the world that God is love.

2. The power of the Eucharist. The mystery of the Eucharistic Lord is deep, and challenges us to faith and reliance on his word: this is my Body, broken for you; do this in remembrance of me (Luke 22:19). The more we believe, and act like we believe, that this is true, the more God’s power is made manifest. The reality of the Eucharistic Lord - the consecrated bread and wine is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ - is true whether we act on it or not. But, as disciples, we are called to worship, receive, and carry the reality of the Eucharist into the world. Through right worship, adoration, and service, we embrace the wonder that is the Eucharistic Lord in private and in public. This translates into intentional worship in the Mystery, striving for liturgical excellence, Christ-centered and Spirit-anointed preaching, greater opportunities for sitting in the rich silence of God’s presence at adoration, and serving others by giving out what we have received.

In the end, people outside of our faith should say, “Those Catholics act differently, and seem like different people, based on what they believe. They say God is real. Maybe…he is?” And we should recognize that the power of God is not held by us, it is wielded by God – so when we invite people to pray at adoration, or offer to pray with someone for a miracle, etc. - we can hope and expect that our good God will work in the open heart of that person and give him or her what is needed. We are simply opening a door for that person to see with new eyes what God can do. That is why God works through signs and wonders in Acts and today. God is, in fact, truly wondrous, and our experience of him is a hint, or sign, that points to the fullness of God’s presence in heaven. And parishes, of all places, need to be places where people openly rejoice in that truth and share it outside the parish walls.

Susan Windley-Daoust is the Director of Missionary Discipleship for the Diocese of Winona-Rochester