December 21, 2005
Have you considered giving your car a gift this Christmas? That’s right; I’m not begging for a car (as we generally do) but begging on behalf of your car.
I’m not trying to sell you an oil change or new hubcaps. I was simply realizing again lately how easy it is to make a vehicle of transportation into a vehicle of evangelization with a good bumper sticker or two. The Friars and Sisters try to take public transportation when feasible to be a public witness on the streets, but when we need to drive, we are at least reaching the people behind us with a pro-life or other Gospel message. But, everyone can get in on this kind of witness.
My Dad had a sticker on our family car with the simple but powerful statement, “The family that prays together stays together.” I remember a number of people commenting that they were grateful for that reminder. I am always encouraged whenever I pull up behind a car that proclaims, “Jesus is Lord!” even if it is a “gypsy cab” in the Bronx who is pulling the customary U-turn in the middle of an intersection!
One of our vehicles came with a bumper sticker already attached that read, “My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter.” That particularly catches the attention of New Yorkers. One summer day, for example, a truck driver slowly rolled past me in heavy traffic and yelled through an open window, “Oh yeah, my boss is an Italian #%@$*!” (I really can’t remember the exact word.) Then, when my line of traffic started moving faster and I rolled ahead of him, he had obviously realized what the sticker meant and he yelled again, “Sorry Brother! I didn’t mean that!”
Sometimes our pro-life stickers get an angry response and some unfriendly gestures, but we try to use ones that mention our concern for upholding the dignity of women and their children, such as, “Why can’t we love them both?” There is something to be said for tact, and we don’t want to do any false advertising of the Gospel. (That may happen by the way I drive, but that’s another story…)
For those who are already driving wheels of evangelization, I GAS I can’t TANK you enough! If not, there is something new that you can do for that special car in your life that may in fact be a greater gift to the soul in the car behind you.
Fr. Richard Roemer, CFR
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