"Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses." Pope Saint Paul VI

This is another way of saying that we teach more effectively by our lives than by our words. We profess that we are disciples of Jesus Christ. Does our life indicate this to others? The early Church was effective in converting many not only by its teaching on love, but more by its witness of love for one another in action. We may wear a cross around our neck, but what people see and hear sometimes are the words that come out of our mouths and the deeds we do.  We appear no different than the ordinary, secular non-believer. Is this what Jesus is asking of those who follow him? When he says, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect," he wants us to let our light of faith, hope and love shine as a witness to others.