Fools for Christ!

An application of the proclamation is always a difficult challenge isn't it!  One thing I can surely relate with.  Often, I've heard people say that it is foolish to drive a Popemobile and indeed it is!  St. Paul, however, calls us to be fools for Christ.  That indeed is what we are!  You can see this by our picture above!  These fools, which I have the privilege to do ministry with are living witnesses of the love the youth have in WANTING to bring Christ to the world.  This particular day, it took awhile to bring it!  After fixing the alternator belt themselves which is remarkable, they were on their way to Savannah, Georgia!  I would like to explain the theory behind our praxis of driving a Popemobile:

The Popemobile is NOT the ministry!  It is rather the form of the ministry!  You see, having a Paschal Mystery Machine or a Popemobile is not all that effective in and of itself.  What it represents, rather, is the most influential aspect of what it is!  I would rather say that the vehicles that I have put blood, sweet and tears in are more of an icon--a postmodern neo-pagan sort of icon!  You see, we must use what is at our disposal for the application of the Gospel of Christ to be proclaimed in our world today.  St. Paul succinctly put it as such, "To be all things to all people."  Vehicles in and of themselves are nothing more than means to get us from point A to point B.  However, there is something more to vehicles these days--they give us identity and venues for self-expression.  They are icons in the sense that they open us up to something deeper.  I was a marketing major and am intrigued by this thought.  Recently, I read a book entitled, "Engines of Change."  In the book, the author, Paul Ingrassia, uses the cultural impact fifteen cars had on American life.  You see, there is something important here!  Why not use the vehicle as a way of expressing the Catholic faith.  Why not have it be the form and all that surrounds it be the substance!  When we meet just one person and have a conversation about Jesus Christ because of what we are doing, and not what we are driving then it has proven effective.  I think a manifestation of this principle is being made manifest as we speak!  With social media, we are bringing the message of AD GENTES to the world!  We are traveling across the country to spread AWARENESS of the Good of the New Evangelization in the Year of faith!  AD GENTES!