These words ring as true today as they did when they were published in 1975 by St. Paul VI. He shared these words, in which he is actually quoting himself, to emphasize the importance of witness in the life of the Church. At first it may seem that the pontiff was insulting teachers, but on closer examination, we see that he was telling us what true teachers in the Church do.

As we have walked the Via Fidelis together, we have reflected intently on various aspects of the Gospel message, including God’s loving acts of creation and redemption and the gift of the Church and her sacramental life. More recently we have talked about the act of proclamation and how both our words and our actions are a part of how we Proclaim the Faith.

All of this sounds like a great recipe for success in evangelizing. After all, we have a clear message to proclaim, the message of salvation in Christ (kerygma), and a method for proclaiming it: word and action. But, like many great recipes, there is a secret ingredient.

Maybe it’s not so much a secret, but it is essential, and that ingredient is authenticity. This whole evangelizing apparatus only works if we are truly communicating our own beliefs. Nobody wants to listen to someone who is not convinced that what he or she is saying is true, especially when it comes to something as important as faith. Furthermore, we live in a relatively savvy society. People can usually spot a phony quickly. Not only that, but in our current media climate, people are looking for phonies and are all too eager to call them out.

For this reason, evangelization must begin with introspection. Before I ask others to believe, I must, in fact, believe. Sharing the faith is not about giving a “sales pitch.” While there are things that we, as the Church, can learn from the world of sales and marketing, sharing Christ is not the same thing as pushing the latest fad, fashion or delicious dessert “that you just have to try.”

All of these things are ephemeral, that is, they are short-lived. Trends change, dessert is gone before you know it (especially my dessert) and the satisfaction that earthly goods give us soon wanes. Christ, by contrast, and the life he calls us to are eternal. All this means that sharing the Gospel is sharing what matters most. We can only hope to effectively evangelize if we really know that to be true.

This might make sharing the faith seem like something that can only be done by elite Christians or scholarly theologians, but there is a big upside to this for the rest of us. If we truly believe in the Good News and our faith is really a part of us, then to share it, all we must do is be ourselves.

This naturalness of a life where we are striving to live for Christ is what can make our lives into testimony and witness. Even our failings can be part of the authenticity of our witness if we allow them to be. After all, the message of salvation is one of reconciliation. And isn’t it easier to find common ground with someone who’s messed up but learned from it?

Evangelization is not just for the elite or for God’s special forces. Rather, evangelization is for all of us, for what is real and true. For this reason, in the quote with which we began our reflection, St. Paul VI felt it necessary to remind us that the most effective way of teaching, particularly teaching about Christ, is to be real.