Making Disciples: Be a Disciple First.

Part Two: Why evangelization begins with personal conversion and encounter with Jesus Christ.

(Photo: Lightstock)

By Tanner Kalina

My dad loved baseball, but he had no experience actually playing the game. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it didn’t bode well for my Major League aspirations as a kid.

The proper mechanics for hitting a ball had to be imparted to me by other men. Same thing with throwing and fielding. I had to find other sources to help me advance past a basic, rudimentary understanding of how to do these things.

This is no knock against my dad. You just can’t pass down what you don’t know. You can’t give what you don’t have.

The same is true with making disciples.

Jesus calls each of us to go and make disciples. This call, of course, implies that we have hands-on experience as disciples.

So, do we?

We can love Jesus. We can be his biggest fan, but we ultimately cannot give what we don’t have. If we’re not disciples of Christ, first and foremost, then we cannot effectively make disciples.

As Pope St. Paul VI once wrote, "The Church is an evangelizer, but she begins by being evangelized herself” (Evangelii nuntiandi 15).

In my last column, I discussed the ancient discipleship system that Jesus invites us into and how the heart of discipleship is imitation of one’s rabbi. In this column, I want to go a bit further and explore what a disciple actually is and how we can deepen our discipleship with Jesus so we can be more effective disciple-makers.

The Difference Between ‘Catholic’ and ‘Disciple’

I think many people assume that if someone is Catholic, then they’re automatically endowed with the title of “disciple” — as if “Catholic” and “disciple” were synonymous labels.

Yes and no.

Yes, someone who has received the sacraments of initiation into the Catholic Church is a new creation. Yes, they have received the great honor (and responsibility) of making disciples. Yes, “Catholic” and “disciple” should be synonymous.

But to re-emphasize a point I drove home in my last column, disciples back in the day left everything to follow their rabbi. They very intentionally chose to follow that rabbi, and they very deliberately emulated that rabbi in all that they did. Their discipleship was at the forefront of their minds every single day. It wasn’t something they stumbled into or went about haphazardly. They weren’t disciples one day and then normal men the next.

You and I both know Catholics who go through the motions. You and I both know people who live as if their faith were a switch, something they can turn on or off depending on the environment or circumstance.

A recent study from Pew Research revealed that 21% of U.S. Catholics say they attend Mass weekly, pray daily and consider religion very important. In other words, only 1 in 5 Catholics do the bare minimum. It’s safe to say that an even lower percentage of U.S. Catholics are actual disciples of Christ.

Let’s put it point-blank: There is a difference between someone who claims to be Catholic and someone who is a true disciple of Christ.

They are not the same thing.

So then, what is a disciple?

The Identity of a Disciple

A disciple is someone who consciously adheres to the story of salvation as the story of reality. They have decided to make Jesus the center of their life, and they belong totally to him and to his bride, the Catholic Church.

A person “shows himself a true disciple of Christ by carrying the Cross in his turn every day in the activity that he is called to perform,” according to Pope St. John Paul II (Laborem exercens 27).

Or in the words of Pope Francis, “To stay with him, to remain with him: this is the most important thing for the disciple of the Lord” (Angelus, Jan. 24, 2024).

In short, a disciple is a disciplined follower of Jesus.

They actively choose to go deeper and deeper into conversion, intentionally cultivating an awareness of Jesus in their life, in all that they do and with all whom they encounter.

The Church considers one’s Baptism to be one's first and fundamental conversion (CCC 1427). But after this conversion, we need a second conversion (or, as some Church circles today call it, an “initial conversion”). We need a moment in which we choose to pursue Christ with our totality — with our intellects, wills and hearts.

We need a moment when we intellectually buy into the faith, make a firm decision to follow Christ, no matter the consequences and experience the love of Christ.

In a word, we need an encounter with Christ.

I love how the late Monsignor Luigi Giussani defined an encounter: “Encounter means the event of the relationship with a person and with a community whose richness is so authentic that we feel struck by a light and called to a life that is different and more true.”

Put simply, encounters change us. They lead us into a lifelong journey of ongoing conversion — of having a third conversion, and a fourth conversion, and a 5,783,492nd conversion.

A disciple is someone who intentionally embarks upon a life of conversion, and it is through their ongoing transformation that they can effectively make disciples.

Pope St. Paul VI with another zinger: "Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses” (EN 41).

A Disciple-Making, Eucharistic Church

In order to be a Church that truly evangelizes, that truly makes disciples, we need to be a Church full of people who not only talk the talk but walk the walk. We need to be a Church full of people who have embraced discipleship with Christ, who intentionally spend time with him, deliberately emulate him and keep him at the forefront of their minds.

This is the genius of the Catholic Church. Have you ever wondered why Jesus said to go and make disciples right before ascending into Heaven? If one of the primary goals of a disciple back in the day was to spend time with his rabbi, why would Jesus say to go and make disciples as he left us? Did he pull off some sort of divine bait and switch? How can his disciples spend time with him if he’s not even here to spend time with?

Because he is here.

In the Eucharist.

Through the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus continues to enable his disciples to spend time with him and to learn at his feet. 

To be an effective disciple-maker, I encourage you to be a disciple of the Eucharist first and foremost. I encourage you to be covered in the Eucharistic dust of our Rabbi.

It’s in the Eucharist that we can encounter Jesus. 

It’s in the Eucharist that we can adhere to the story of salvation as the story of reality. 

It’s in the Eucharist that we can become true disciples.

And the more we can embrace this simple fact, the more effective we will ultimately be in making disciples.

“Go, therefore, and make disciples,” but first, be a disciple.