There is much wisdom here, so take note. Some people think that if they are annoyed by someone, it automatically means the person annoying them lacks charity. Nuh uh. It doesn’t work that way, folks. If you are annoyed, it is better to ask yourself if you lack patience than it is to point fingers of judgment at the “annoying” person. It is the annoying people who make converts, not the “polite” people.
Via Catholic News Agency:
The Pope told Christians it is better to be “annoying” and “a nuisance” than lukewarm in proclaiming Jesus Christ.
“If we annoy people, blessed be the Lord,” said Pope Francis during his morning Mass at the Vatican on May 16.
“We can ask the Holy Spirit to give us all this apostolic fervor and to give us the grace to be annoying when things are too quiet in the Church,” he said at the chapel of the Saint Martha residence, where he lives.
He celebrated the Mass alongside Cardinal Peter Turkson and Bishop Mario Toso, the president and the secretary of the Vatican Council for Justice and Peace.
Council staff and employees from Vatican Radio were among those attending the Eucharistic celebration.
The Pope preached on today’s first reading from Acts 22 and contrasted “backseat Christians” with those who have apostolic zeal.
“There are those who are well mannered, who do everything well, but are unable to bring people to the Church through proclamation and apostolic zeal,” he stated.
The pontiff said apostolic zeal “implies an element of madness,” which he labeled as “healthy” and “spiritual.”
He added that it “can only be understood in an atmosphere of love” and that it is not an “enthusiasm for power and possession.”
How exactly does that work? Well, as a convert, I can tell you that the “polite” Catholics were the ones who never told me anything but the most superficial things about Catholicism. They never questioned me about what I believed. They never challenged me. They never pushed my proverbial buttons. For this reason, it took me many years to find the Church even though I had a LOT of Catholic friends. Unfortunately for me, my Catholic friends were all too polite to have a serious impact on me as far as making me THINK and truly consider whether the Catholic Church might actually be different from any other social institution or club.
Annoying people make you think. If you’re annoyed, your natural reaction is going to be to think through WHY that person who is annoying you is “wrong” to say what he/she is saying. People who believe it is most important to be “polite” are the people who never challenge anyone to consider that they might actually be horribly wrong about something related to their salvation.
That’s why the annoying people, provided that they are loving in their hearts, are the ones who effect conversions. “Polite” people stuff feathers into the feather pillows that people sit on, on their way to hell.
