No one is going to die to his or her wants and desires because it is a rule! When one studies the life of the apostles and subsequent disciples, they can’t help but recognize that they all had something in common. No matter where they lived, what language they spoke, or what country they called home — they all had a relationship with the risen Christ. Until that relationship is established, no one will take growing in faith seriously.

Being Catholic doesn’t just mean you understand the biblical stories and hope they are true. It is a religion where faith is the only means by which one can enter the life of God. Without this essential component, you only generate a group of people who live out their own pursuits and intellectually acknowledge the possibility of God’s existence. They have no real experience of his life.
Why?
Because they have not died to all those things that keep them from freely loving and trusting the Lord!
If faith in God’s Word, through the active work of the Holy Spirit, has not led them to give themselves to Christ out of love, they will not spend their lives trying to lead others to him.
Why?
When we lack certainty about something, we will not try to sell it to another person. We lack conviction and do not want to lead a friend to something or someone who will only embarrass us in the future. This is the current dilemma we encounter today among our parish membership. We ask them to rise up, participate, and help and wonder why they don’t. If there is no death in the sacrificial hearts of disciples, there will be no conviction to promote the Church or her teachings.

In other words, the Apostles did what they did out of their profound love for Jesus — not out of obligation. We, however, have been using good old “Catholic guilt” as a means of manipulation to get our people to do what we want. We have sought to control them rather than give them the encouragement to grow as disciples. Yet the growth that must be done is in authentic faith in Jesus. While Catechesis is an essential element within this process it is not the only thing. A person must get to the place where they are prepared to give all they have (die) to Jesus and in return we gain his life in us. That life is the Holy Spirit pulsing through our veins, encouraging us to grow closer to Jesus through his word, prayer, Sacraments, and the body of the church, His people.

Until a person achieves that death of self-donation, they will never grow to the place where, trusting in the God of all provisions, they will step out and evangelize. The greatest weapon of Satan that prevents us from doing that is fear. Only love will motivate us to move through fear. Rule or obligation will certainly not! Only love.