Pope: The courage to do great things, the humility to appreciate little things
(Vatican Radio) In his homily for Mass Thursday morning at the Casa Santa Marta, Pope
Francis focused on how Christians should proclaim the Good News as mandated by Jesus
and recounted in the Gospel of Mark read during the Liturgy of the Word. Emer M cCarthy
reports:
Celebrating
the Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist, the Pope said in sharing the Gospel, Christians
should have courage to do great things, but at the same time, the humility to appreciate
the little things.
Present for the liturgy Thursday morning were members of
the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, accompanied by the Secretary General Archbishop
Nikola Eterovic, and a group of police from the Vatican Gendarmerie.
Pope
Francis' homily focused on the passage from the Gospel of St. Mark which describes
the Ascension of the Lord Jesus. Before ascending into heaven He sends the apostles
to preach the Gospel "to the end of the world", not only in Jerusalem or in Galilee.
Go
“all over the world. The horizon ... great horizon... And as you can see, this is
the mission of the Church. The Church continues to preach this to everyone, all over
the world. But she does not go forth alone: she goes forth with Jesus. So they went
forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord acted with them'. The Lord works with
all those who preach the Gospel. This is the magnanimity that Christians should have.
A pusillanimous Christian is incomprehensible: this magnanimity is part of the Christian
vocation: always more and more, more and more, more and more, always onwards!"
"The
First Letter of St. Peter - the Pope said - defines the style of Christian preaching
as one of humility:
"The style of evangelical preaching should have this attitude:
humility, service, charity, brotherly love. 'But ... Lord, we must conquer the world!'.
That word, conquer, doesn’t work. We must preach in the world. The Christian must
not be like soldiers who when they win the battle make a clean sweep of everything”.
The Christian - continued the Pope - "proclaims the Gospel with his witness,
rather than with words." And with a dual disposition, as St. Thomas Aquinas says:
a great soul that is not afraid of great things, that moves forward towards infinite
horizons, and the humility to take into account the small things. "This is divine
– observed the Pope – it is like a tension between the great and the small" and "Christian
missionary activity" proceeds "along this path." The Gospel of St. Mark - said
the Pope - ends with "a beautiful phrase" where it says that Jesus was working with
the disciples, confirming "the word with accompanying signs”.
"When we go forth
with this magnanimity and humility, when we are not scared by the great things, by
the horizon, but also take on board the little things - humility, daily charity -
the Lord confirms the Word. And we move forward. The triumph of the Church is the
Resurrection of Jesus. But there is first the Cross. Today we ask the Lord to become
missionaries in the Church, apostles in the Church but in this spirit: a great magnanimity
and also a great humility. So be it”.