HOMILY – FEAST OF ST MARK
Proclaiming the Good News by Word and Witness
(1 Pt 5:5-14; Ps 89; Mk 16:15-20)
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This feast of St. Mark and the readings today might suggest this dismissal at the end of the Eucharist: “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.”
There is a danger that we take the term “good news” for granted. Watching a film like Paul – Apostle of Christ can stir up a deeper appreciation of who Jesus is and what he did for us, as we watch the early Christians struggle to be faithful to the teachings of Jesus and forgive rather than resort to violence, even as they are being burned alive or torn apart in Nero’s colosseum.
They were first called “Followers of the Way,” a very appropriate description, because by his birth, life, passion, death, resurrection and sending of his Spirit at Pentecost, Jesus revealed the true nature of God as humble compassion, mercy, unconditional love, forgiveness and total non-violence. He also called us to share in his divine life even now, by living and loving as he did.
This was a radical new way of living and contrast to the way of life at that time that included violence in the name of religion. So radically different that Saul, once he had met Jesus, felt the need to go to Arabia for three years just to integrate who Jesus was as Risen Lord, and his new way of life, which for Saul meant absorbing the forgiveness he received from Jesus for persecuting the disciples, and especially learning how to forgive himself as well as others. A line in the movie reveals how deeply he learned that lesson, as Acquilla reminds the angry young men of the community in Rome Paul never once resorted to violence to defend himself.
That is the good news we are to proclaim and we do proclaim in a thousand different ways – by our words, RCIA, catechism, sacramental preparation and now, social media, used especially by folks such as Bishop Robert Barron, Richard Rohr, Ron Rolheiser and countless others.
But we must also witness to this good news by our lives. St. Peter, in the first reading, gives us numerous ways to manifest this truth. The first is by clothing ourselves with humility in our dealings with one another. Some would say humility is a more basic virtue than even love, as love builds on humility.
Next, we are to trust completely in God, and cast all our anxieties on him. That faith and trust will empower us to resist the evil one and all the temptations that assail us every day. A good way to do that is to think, what do we want? – a moment of illicit pleasure, or the joy and closer relationship with Jesus that happens the moment we say “no” to a particular temptation.
St. Peter then counsels us to accept some redemptive suffering for the sake of the gospel. That means to accept some inconvenience or suffering without bitterness or resentment, just as Jesus did. Our suffering then is connected with the suffering of Jesus, and becomes redemptive, taking on deep meaning and purpose as we help build up the reign of God here on earth.
In the gospel, Jesus adds to the missionary mandate signs that will accompany those who both proclaim and witness to the good news by their lives: they will cast our demons, speak in new tongues, not be harmed by snakes or poison, and heal the sick. How can this be, we might ask?
Perhaps an example will illustrate. Velma was verbally abused on the phone one day by her ex-partner, from whom she had to escape to save her life. She called me crying, and I reminded her of what she had learned by joining the church and the various courses in which she participated, including Cursillo, a lay formation program, Christopher Leadership Course and an addictions awareness session.
She immediately knew what to do to live the good news in her life – try to forgive her abuser by living Matthew 18:15 -17, in which Jesus teaches us to go to the one who hurt us and share our feelings with that person instead of fighting, fleeing or freezing. She wrote a letter communicating her feelings with love, without any desire for revenge, punishment or getting even. She then drove out to his community with her daughter and gave him the letter. He simply said “okay” after reading it, turned around and went back to his meeting. Her daughter exclaimed, “Mom” because she had never seen her parents relate that way before – it was always a fight – something had changed. She drove back to town full of joy and called me to share her excitement.
I commended her on living the gospel. By deciding to try to forgive her abuser, she has cast out the demon of anger and revenge. By writing that letter communicating with love, she had picked up a deadly snake and it did not harm her. By delivering the letter to him, she drank deadly poison and it did not hurt her. And by communicating with love in the letter, she was speaking a new language her daughter picked up with her expression, “Mom!” And when he was dying of cancer two years later, she was the one who was there to care for him, as he had alienated himself from his family. Velma was witnessing to the good news by her words and actions – she was proclaiming the good news by her life.
St. Mark was the son of Mary, a widow in whose house the early Christians gathered (Acts 12:12). He also accompanied his cousin Barnabas and Paul on their first missionary journey but left them prematurely. While Paul decided to take Silas on his next journey, Barnabas took Mark to Cyprus (Acts 15:39-41). Tradition tells us Mark went to Rome, became Peter’s interpreter and later wrote the first Gospel. Even Paul eventually forgave Mark for deserting him, commended him for his service and called his companionship a “comfort” (Col 4:11). The story of Mark’s life teaches us the importance of forgiveness, and not to give up on each other, but rather to keep on believing in each other’ potential, and the power of God’s love to cover a multitude of sins.
The Eucharist is the food that sustained the apostles throughout their journeys proclaiming the good news of salvation. It is an intimate experience of the Risen Lord who commanded us to “do this in memory of me.” May our celebration empower us not only to proclaim the good news of salvation with our lips, but also to witness to it by our lives.
And perhaps the next time we are able to attend a Sunday
Eucharist, we might just hear the presider dismiss us with the words, “Go and proclaim the good news by your words, and your witness.”
