Colorado-based speaker encourages young people at Canton parish

Canton — According to Chris Stefanick, “sometimes we all need to take a step back and say, ‘Whoa!’”

Stefanick, a lay evangelist and founder of the youth-oriented apostolate Real Life Catholic, was at St. John Neumann Parish in Canton for a “Reboot: Live” event Dec. 9, speaking to more than 2,000 mostly young people about the need to reignite faith and awe of God and his creation.

The Colorado-based speaker stood at the lectern, on a chair and walked among the audience, speaking about what it means to be a follower of Christ.

“What God is saying to us is, ‘Take everything, it’s yours. Take my son, this is how much I love you,’” Stefanick said. “Jesus wants to be awkwardly close to us; he wants to be in our face. It would be easy for him just to give us a bunch of rules, but he does the opposite, he throws us a curveball and gave us his life.”

Stefanick focused on many aspects of the Church in today’s world, but stressed there’s one thing all Catholics must have to recognize the “whoa” moments in life: faith.

“Faith, you have to have a will to believe in God; there is always going to be a faith aspect to following God’s word,” Stefanick said. “That’s how we know Jesus died for the testimony to God, so we could see how much he loved us.

“That’s why St. Peter was crucified upside down, that’s why St. Bartholomew was skinned alive. All these people had to do was say they didn’t believe Jesus was the son of God, and the pain would stop. But they didn’t, because they knew he was divine, they knew this was all real,” he said, pausing. “Can I hear you go ‘Whoa?’”

Stefanick focused on the different ways each Catholic recognizes who they are as a child of God, relating as an example of a story of St. John Paul II reminding the Polish people to resist the mentality of the Communist government and embrace their faith and heritage.

“When St. John Paul II went to Poland, the Communist government tried to tell them who they were,” Stefanick said. “Pope John Paul II said, ‘You’re not who they say you are, let me remind you who you are.’ We need to take the time to remember the ‘whoa’ moments and realize how big we really are.”

Stefanick challenged the audience to change small parts of their lives to recognize Christ in one another. Unplugging from the Internet on Sundays, having family meals without cellphones or dedicating a certain part of the day for solitude and reflection can all be ways to experience God’s fatherhood.

“Jesus came so that we may have light, so that we may live a life that is full,” Stefanick said. “For those of us who believe in him, it’s so simple. If all you really are is matter, then you don’t really matter.

In order to have Jesus in our lives, in order to be true disciples, Stefanick reminded the audience of the need for discipline in one’s life.

“Only a Gospel worldview offers us eternal hope,” Stefanick said. “To have Jesus, we need to have discipline; discipline goes hand-in-hand with discipleship. These are the things Jesus directly calls us to do.”

Stefanick’s YouTube channel, “Real Life Catholic,” has more than 11,000 subscribers, and each of his videos has thousands of views. But Stefanick enjoys giving talks across the country because he likes seeing the transformation on people’s faces, he told The Michigan Catholic.

“It’s amazing seeing people’s lives change, hearts touched, it’s a rewarding honor to be a part of that,” he said. “Be holy, be who you are and don’t be afraid to be who you are. Other people may seem to think you are awkward, but it’s OK to be different.

“My parents got me to go on a retreat in the eighth grade, and I didn’t want to go. But it changed by life. It wasn’t the talks; it was in something about the people giving the talks. You could just see it on their faces, and I love giving that feeling to others.”