A Growing Tree

Spiritual multiplication; what is that? Spiritual multiplication is a term I first heard during my time in college when I was involved in discipleship with a FOCUS missionary named Kyle. The way he described it to me was the way he was taught to teach it so that I could easily teach it to others. How it works is that one person lives their life with radical virtue, they step out and invite a few others to live the same way, learning and growing in the faith and, most importantly, learning how to teach others how to live that life, and then they go out on their ways. Before long, each of those individuals gathers a few others to live like them, in heroic virtue, forming themselves in line with the teachings of the Church, and, most importantly, learning how to teach others how to live like them, and so on and so forth until the whole world is transformed.

He outlined this whole process and I, like a clever Catholic collegiate man, said, "Oh, so it's like a holy pyramid scheme." And he essentially agreed.

Most pyramid schemes are out to get you, sell you on something, or rob you of your identity. But this "holy pyramid scheme", or rather this holy growing tree, isn't. This tree, or rather the God who established it at its trunk, is out to form you, give you everything, and restore your identity as a son or daughter of the Most High Father.

Another way to think of this process is just to look at what Jesus did. During my time as a FOCUS student leader, I learned the most basic principles of evangelization and the thing that was stressed the most was that what we are called to do, more than anything else, is to live like Jesus. And living like Him means teaching and discipling others how He did. In the time of Christ, a Rabbi wasn't just a teacher with whom you spent half your day with and then departed to attend to other duties. Rather, you were expected to follow your Rabbi so closely day to day that the dust he kicked up from the road would cling to the skin on your shins. This image is a powerful reminder for us to check where we're stepping. Are we following close behind our Rabbi? Are we falling behind? Have we left the path altogether? Where do we stand? Are we running after Him? Because He's running after you.

Living like Jesus means teaching the way He taught; so how did he teach? He invited 12 men to accompany Him. They entered into His life, day to day, the simple and complex, witnessing by who he was in addition to what he said to them and to the crowds. He invited them to learn how to imitate Him. So too, we are called, through the Apostolic Tradition passed down to us through the apostles, popes, bishops, and priests, to live like "little Christs" in the world. God became man not just to save us from sin and death, but also to establish His Church so that He might remain with us through the grace of the Sacraments. God desired, from the beginning, to live in relationship with us. He died for us and gave us a way to remain in His Love through the life of the Church.

Sometimes you'll hear those who oppose the Church use this line: "Jesus didn't establish a church, he established a relationship." While this may be true that Jesus came so that we might enter into a relationship with God, he also did establish a church, the Catholic Church, in fact. The Catholic Church is the only global religion where the founder claimed to be God Himself. Every Protestant denomination has a human founder. But the Catholic Church's founder is Jesus Christ. 

On the birthday of the Church, Pentecost Sunday, those who had been walking with Christ most intimately, following close behind Him on the path, the Apostles and holy women, including the Blessed Virgin Mary, experienced what Jesus promised would happen. And this is key to understanding how we are called to live as missionary disciples.

Shortly before Pentecost, the Apostles witnessed the Lord's Ascension into Heaven. He left. Christ had lived, endured His Passion, Death, and Resurrection, remained for 40 days and then departed. Suffice to say that the Apostles would've felt terrified and horribly alone. So how is it that only a few days later, they would break out of the upper room, full of power and joy, to preach to masses of people and convert 3,000 people in one day?

The short answer: the Holy Spirit. But what needed to happen in order for the Holy Spirit to arrive? Christ departed. He returned to His place at the Father's side, awaiting the proper time when He will return to judge the living and the dead at the end of this age.

So too, discipleship includes departing.

One of the key steps that Jesus showed us in walking with others is the departure. When Jesus appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, after He opened the Scriptures and broke the bread, he disappeared! And it was only after He disappeared upon breaking the bread that the two disciples recognized Him and recognized what they had to do. They ran back to Jerusalem immediately and told the Apostles what happened. Jesus had to disappear so that they would be moved to get off their butts and set out on the path of missionary discipleship.

Now, what I'm not suggesting is that Jesus has left us behind. In fact, in the story of the road to Emmaus, one interpretation of the passage sheds a deeper light on the reality of the Eucharist. Jesus' physical human form disappeared, certainly. But when was that?

It was immediately after He broke the bread and gave it to them. That was when they recognized Him.

You see, Jesus didn't go anywhere, but rather He gave these two disciples a foretaste of what was to come: men and women gathered together to open the Scriptures and break bread. That day in Emmaus looked a lot like how we continue to celebrate Jesus' presence with us. Could that have been the first Mass?

As human beings, most of the time we seem to be able to recognize our shortcomings more than our capabilities. Of all the commonly-heard statements by Catholics, the one "I couldn't possibly convert the whole world!" is certainly true. That would take centuries, millennia even for one human person to do. If only we had that much time. But what if that's not what the plan is?

Not even Jesus set out to claim the whole world in one human lifetime. But 2,000 years later, there are billions of Christians who claim the Name of Jesus. What might the world look like in another 2,000 years?

The secret of evangelization is not that we are called to disciple many, but rather that we are called to disciple a few, and those few intentionally.

I can speak to this method firsthand. As I mentioned, throughout my time in college I was involved with the FOCUS missionaries in Detroit. I started off participating in a bible study, then in joining discipleship, then being commissioned to start my own bible study, then leading others in discipleship. Now, two of the three men I discipled are leading bible studies of their own, one of which has nearly 10 men, and the other of the three is in the seminary.

One man invited me. I invited three to join me. One of them invited 10. How many will each of those 10 accompany?

This is missionary discipleship in action.

"But what do I do? What does leading discipleship look like?"

I recommend two books on the foundations of discipleship, but the bottom line is accompaniment. One of these books is aptly titled Foundations of Discipleship by FOCUS founders Curtis Martin and Dr. Edward Sri and is extremely well-organized and is geared toward young people, namely college-age individuals. Forming Intentional Disciples by Sherry A. Weddell incorporates a vision for parishes and may be more helpful for that apostolate.

More than anything, discipleship stems from who you are and where you want to go. You are a beloved child of God, striving for Heaven. Allow His hands to do the heavy lifting. Your job is to set the stage. He's the director.

Meditate on the following Scripture passage and listen to where the Lord may be calling you to sow the seeds of His Word.

"A sower went to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered away. Other seeds fell upon thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." (Matthew 13:3-8)

Who will you plant in good soil?