Bearing witness

Earlier this month, Bishop Matthew H. Clark of Rochester wrote a column for his diocesan newspaper on the ways that each of us can bear witness to Christ and proclaim the Easter message of hope and love.

So we can bear witness to Christ through the way we live our lives -- by practicing the virtues of Christ so that others see his radiance in our lives. We can bear witness to Christ through our attitude of hope: by trying to see the hallelujahs in the music of life rather than in the sour notes.

We can bear witness to Christ by our daily behavior, by treating, as Christ did, our children, our family members and people we meet truly as the precious jewels that they are; by daily committing ourselves to treat each other with compassion, respect and, yes, forgiveness.

We can bear witness to Christ through tolerance of those different from us, seeking not to judge others but looking for the Christ in them.

We can witness by acts of faith and belief both public and private, through our prayers for others in need, and by attending Mass every week to be part of the community of believers that Christ wants us to be. "Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I shall also be," he said.

Jesus reached out to the downtrodden among us, those in the throes of poverty, those mourning over a loss, those incapacitated and disheartened by illness, and those enslaved by addiction.

Do we reach out to people in need as Christ would?

The rest of the column is here.