Homily for 25 Apr 2016

25 Apr 2016

Feast of Saint Mark

One of the joys of being Catholic is variety.  When we look at the four evangelists—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—we see four distinct ways of spreading the gospel message.  Today on the Feast of Saint Mark, and in our readings, we see courage and steadfastness in faith as a way to share the gospel of Jesus.

Now, for some people, it’s an annoyance to have a Christian confront them and try to tell them about Jesus.  But for those same people, it may be an inspirational thing to see a Christian simply being true to his or her faith—especially when that faith is under attack.  And so, Saint Peter encourages us to “remain firm in it;” remain firm in faith—because commitment to faith draws people to the faith.

And that commitment—in the model of Saint Mark—involves courage: the courage to “clothe ourselves with humility in our dealings with one another;” the courage to “humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God;” the courage to “be sober and vigilant” against the “prowling” of the devil. 

Jesus says to the Eleven apostles, and to us, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature:” evangelize the whole world.  And some of us do that with teaching and worship, like Saint Matthew.  Some of us do that by caring for the poor and outright preaching against injustice, like Saint Luke.  Some of us do that by trying to expose people to a broader vision of what humanity can be, like Saint John. And most of us evangelize by being committed to the ways of faith, hope, and love—regardless of what comes our way, just like Saint Mark.

One of the joys of being Catholic is variety.  Even though we’re all called and sent by the Lord to evangelize, there’s a variety of ways to do it.  Regardless of the way we evangelize, let’s “remain firm” in doing it—with humility before God, and charity toward all.