So, there you are on the elevator on the tenth floor of the building with a black cross smudged onto your forehead from the Ash Wednesday liturgy. The fellow getting on the elevator looks at you and says, “Catholic?”
You reply, “Yep.”
He says, “What’s it all about?”
At six seconds per floor, you have about 60 seconds to tell him do exactly what St. Peter instructs you do in his letter from the readings this week. “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope…” (1Pet3:16).
In marketing and sales, this is called the “Elevator Speech.” It is a prepared, practiced sixty-second explanation of the basics of your organization, product or service.
When it came the proclamation of the Good News of the resurrection of Christ and the forgiveness of sins, the apostles excelled at the elevator speech. The Acts of the Apostles is full of these precise, succinct explanations of the basics of the faith known as “kerygmata.” Almost every missionary in history had a similar speech in their back pocket. We each need to have our own “kerygmata” as well. Your sixty-second soul saver. It should be polished, practiced and practical.
Keep it simple. You don’t need to explain everything there is to know about the Catholic Faith. You are already an expert on what matters most in that moment; namely, why it is that you are Catholic and how you have experienced the joy of the risen Christ in the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish family.
People can always dismiss a faceless institution. They can never dismiss the Christian facing them glowing with the joy of the Good News.
You have sixty seconds – which, incidentally, is the length of this homily.