How important is the need to give witness? In Acts (20:17-27), Paul asserts that he will have no guilt with respect to the people of Ephesus, since he gave witness. He told the people all he knew about Jesus. He fulfilled his mission. Jesus, in his last prayer with his apostles (Jn 17:1-11a), talks about the witness that he has given to his followers and to the world. He prays that they will be strengthened in their future ministry to witness to his message and deeds.
The power and duty of witness.
I know of a dog. Her name is Mindy. Mindy resides in a parish. She sits and listens to Christian radio all day long. She listens as the lay and ordained ministers discuss the readings for the upcoming Sundays. She is present when different issues of faith are discussed. She has heard it all. Mindy has certainly been exposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But, Mindy will never be a witness to that gospel. She will never lead one person to Jesus through her discussions of the Gospel. She never will. She can’t. She just doesn’t have the proper equipment.
But we do. And we have to do it. It is our Christian duty. In fact, we will be found guilty for our failure to witness to our faith if we fail in that duty. Paul recognized that. We need to recognize it as well. We also need to know how significant our witness is.
Consider, for example, the story of Dr. Boris Kornfeld.
Dr. Boris Kornfeld was a Jew who lived in Russia. And for some reason (maybe a slip of the tongue where he referred to Stalin as finite), he was dumped into the Gulag and was destined to live there for the rest of his life.
Since he was a medical doctor, he was to keep practicing medicine and keep the slaves alive, so that they could die with all the right things said on their records. Dr. Kornfeld was to rewrite the records to say, “This person is healthy,” whether that person was or not. The slave was then put back into the slave block and expected to do the work. If slaves died out there of starvation, that was fine—but they were not to die in the hospital.
Slowly, the physician began to see through all of his misapplied politics and philosophy of life. He finally decided there must be another way. And through the influence of a fellow inmate, he heard of Jesus Christ and ultimately came to know the Messiah. Dr. Boris Kornfeld became a true believer of Jesus Christ.
The transformation was slow but steady. On one occasion, he worked on the very guard who had beaten slaves. He had a chance to tie an artery loosely so that the man could bleed to death and no one would know it. But now Christ lived in his life and he found himself unable to kill. He even mumbled to himself on occasions, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Strange words to come from the lips of a Jew in a Russian prison camp! I’m sure he didn’t realize what a model he was and I’m sure he didn’t think much about the cycle. But on one occasion he was working with another inmate who had cancer of the intestines. The man looked like he wouldn’t live.
Boris Kornfeld was so concerned for that man’s faith that he leaned over and spoke quietly to him as the patient drifted in and out of anesthesia. He told the man about Christ and explained God’s love which was demonstrated in the Savior’s death and resurrection. When the man would come to, he would tell him more. At one point, the patient awoke, and in his groggy state, he heard a noise down the hall. His surgeon, Dr. Kornfeld, was being brutally murdered.
When the patient finally did regain consciousness, he realized what it meant for Dr. Kornfeld to have given his life for a cause, and the patient himself personally came to believe in Christ as well.
Because Boris Kornfeld had a vision of Christ’s kingdom, he used his influence to shape a life that did not die, but lived on to challenge and exhort the thinking of prosperous and materialistic societies. His patient’s name—-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Now, most of us will not die as a result of witnessing to our faith in Christ. But each of us will have an impact on those to whom we do communicate it. A prisoner told Boris Kornfeld about Jesus. Boris Kornfeld told a patient —Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Who can tell how many people were subsequently impacted by the testimony of Alexksandr Solzhenitsyn?
Who can tell how many will be impacted by you?
You are not Mindy. You are Boris. You are equipped to witness. You have a duty to witness. And you have the Son of God himself praying for your witness.
How can you possibly go wrong?
practicalcatholicblog 