#WITNESS MEANING FULL#

And it is normally caught only from someone already 'caught up' by it. It has to be 'caught' rather than taught. This is to let one's light shine among men. To be a Christian wholly given to Christ is, by that very fact, to bear eloquent witness to the faith.

Witnessing is first of all a question of what one is, rather than what one does. The Holy Spirit offers to make a person a strong, docile, committed believer.

#WITNESS MEANING FULL#

And because this demands the full commitment of a person, Confirmation is also the Sacrament of Christian maturity. The special Sacrament of Christian witness is confirmation. His first calling is to live and transmit Christ, through his second calling or role in life.

Witnessing to Christ is so important that it constitutes the Christian's primary vocation. Thus the role of the witness is to realize a presence within himself and to transmit a call. Yet just as the signs of credibility are not separable from the first Witness who is Christ, and just as they are not separable from the permanent witness which is the Church, so they usually are not separable from the individual Christian witness.

'You shall be my witnesses' is applied not only to the Apostles, but to every Christian. Normally, Christian truth must make itself known through a Christian person: message, convincing signs, and grace must come in dependency upon individuals. And in living it, he is thereby a witness, for witness is but the necessary overflow and externalization of true commitment to the faith. He lives the Christian message, in order to possess it authentically. The committed Christian finds God and His truth present and meaningful to his whole life. And God by His graces and internal helps adapts these signs to the individual recipient (cf. It is for this reason that the signs of its divine origin will always be evident in the Church (despite any failures of its members). It must not only preach the gospel, then, but bear convincing witness to it. Its mission is to continue Christ and His saving work in the world. What is true of the Apostles as primary witnesses to Christ, is true of the church as the permanent witness. A martyr is a witness to Christ and the faith even to death (cf. The Greek word for martyr, μ ά ρ τ υ ς, from which the English is derived, means witness. His faithfulness, love, contagious conviction, and compelling words are elements of his witness to Christ, as is, finally, his martyrdom. The commitment is expressed with the enthusiasm characteristic of him. The Apostle paul, for example, is a totally committed man. Message, convincing signs, and grace are evident in apostolic witness. The primary object of their testimony was the resurrection of christ (Acts 1.22 4.33), but this soon broadened to include the whole earthly life of Jesus -particularly His passion, death, and Resurrection, and its effects on man: conversion, forgiveness of sin, and judgment (Acts 5.31 10.42). They are the special eye-and ear-witnesses to Christ, testifying to the historical and saving events (Jn3.11 1 Jn 1.1 –5 Lk 24.48). But Jesus specifically asks His apostles to be His witnesses even to the ends of the earth (Acts 1.8). john the baptist 'came as a witness, to bear witness concerning the light' (Jn 1.7), and he represents all witnesses who preceded Christ. All three elements of Christian witness are obviously verified in Christ.Īpostles, Primary Witnesses to Christ. And since He is God the Son as well as man, the witness He gives must be identical with that of the Father. He came into the world precisely 'to bear witness to the truth' (Jn 18.37), which He had received from the Father (Jn 8.26), to call attention not to Himself, but to the Father. 'The faithful and true witness' to the Father is Christ (Rv 3.14). There are three elements in this Christian witness: message, signs to convince, divine helps to awaken and draw others to God.Ĭhrist. A witness is a person totally given to God and his fellow men. All true religious witness is an exteriorization of inner commitment it transmits truth to others in a living way. A witness is a person who calls attention to something other than himself, one who is called upon to give -or to be -evidence of something.

Witness meaning