I’ve wanted to be great my whole life.

If I’ve ever been motivated by one fear, it’s the fear of living a life of no significance. That I would have lived my life having no positive effect on anyone, with no legacy to claim. For a time, I thought being great meant to be famous, to be world-renowned, internationally recognized. To win a Grammy, an Oscar, a Nobel prize. To get published. To get rich. To end up with my own Wikipedia page.

Encountering the powerful and personal love of Jesus in 2009 changed everything for me, and for a solid few years, I couldn’t shut up about it. Evangelization wasn’t even really a word in my vocabulary at that time, until I met a Catholic Christian Outreach missionary at UBC. 

My time with Catholic Christian Outreach, CCO for short, gave me the words to describe the contagious zeal and excitement I had for my relationship with Jesus and my love for the Church He founded. My desire to help others experience what I experienced - that was what evangelization was. I learned through CCO that evangelization was the very vocation of the Church, and that the Catholic Church is missionary by its very nature. 

It was in learning this that I realized that I couldn’t live a more significant and great life than by living out the Church’s call to evangelize.

Soon after graduating, I discerned a call to work for CCO out of this desire to simply help others experience what I experienced - to vicariously share the joy of having met Jesus. I met a young man from the Czech Republic in my early weeks of outreach at UBC, a self-professed atheist who was open to hearing more. He joined a Discovery faith study. Week in and week out, he engaged with the questions thoughtfully and earnestly. I did my best to answer his questions. We spent time playing board games between sessions. 

By the end of the 5th session, he was presented with the pivotal question of Discovery - did he want to invite Jesus to be at the center of his life? After some discussion and more questions, he decided, yes, I want to make this decision. And so in a time of prayer, I gave him an opportunity to say yes in the library cafeteria. He invited Jesus to be at the center of his life. 

He said that he had never experienced anything as amazing as that prayer. A week later, he shared that he wanted to take another step and get baptized in the Catholic Church. Sadly, we split ways as he returned home to Europe to continue his education. 

Recently, I saw his picture come across my social media feed. He was married, and had his first child - and I couldn’t be prouder that the photo was of him with his family at a church, with his child newly baptized. 

I can safely say that after having that experience, and many more like it in my missionary career and in my day-to-day life, I no longer have the fear that I would have lived a life of insignificance. I believe that I have already lived a great life, in that I have seen the greatness of others rise up through the grace of God. 

I believe that as I continue to follow Jesus and his promptings to share the joy of knowing Him with others, it only gets better. Day after day. 


Joseph San Jose attends All Saints Parish in Coquitlam with his wife Marion and two children. He works for Catholic Christian Outreach as the Pacific Regional Manager, and in his spare time releases music for prayer and runs marathons.


#WeAreProclaim is a story campaign by the Proclaim Movement. Inspired by Humans of New York and the Archdiocese of Detroit’s I am Here campaign, it will showcase missionary conversion stories of people from the Archdiocese of Vancouver. Check out the rest of the campaign on Facebook and Instagram at @weareproclaim.