Feast of Saint Mark, evangelist

Today's Mass Readings

Perhaps you’ve lived in an area in which there were numerous evangelical Protestant Churches, and perhaps you’ve also had many opportunities to read their signs, which usually feature a verse or two from one of the Evangelists’ accounts of Jesus’ Great Commission. Oftentimes, you’ll find “Go and make disciples” (Mt 28:19), or a verse from our Gospel passage today, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15). While a greater prevalence of the Word of God is definitively a good thing, such exposure can have the unintended side effect of numbing a person to the true meaning of the Gospel’s compelling command to go out and evangelize the world. This very word, “evangelize,” actually comes from the Greek word, “euangelion,” which means “good news.” In Jesus’ time, “euangelion” would have only been used to refer to exceedingly great news, such as a military victory. So you can imagine how fitting it is for the Church to begin using this word to refer to the mystery of Christ’s salvation offered to all who believe in Him and are baptized into His Mystical Body. However, just as a little child is encouraged to share a sweet treat with his siblings, so are we, as Christians, expected to share the incredible and life-changing news of Christ’s invitation to eternal life with all we meet. For the Apostles and for missionaries across the world, this looks like going to foreign lands and radically proclaiming Christ crucified to all. However, for the Christian, true evangelization doesn’t have to happen only in foreign lands, as each of us is called to spread the message of Christ through the small acts of love and kindness that ought to pervade the life of any Christian, fueled by the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. One’s daily evangelization could be as simple as asking the cashier how their day is going or by holding the door open for that one coworker you don’t exactly get along with. However, when performing small acts of love, it is a great temptation to overlook the value of one’s own charity. It is in these trials that we can take comfort in the great saint Thérèse of Lisieux’s words, “nothing is small in the eyes of God. Do all that you do in love.”

Reflection by Gerald, seminarian