Here is my homily from this morning. God bless!
Last week at the National Association of Diaconate Directors convention in Minneapolis, I was able to take in a lecture given by George Weigel, a noted theologian often interviewed on EWTN, Relevant Radio and NBC news. He spoke about Catholic evangelism, and the new epoch of the Church that began during the papacy of Leo XIII and advanced by all his successors.
Our Holy Father Pope Francis, and certainly Pope John Paul II and even Pope John Paul I if you read his several papal speeches, all have called on the Church to enter into a new evangelization of the world. The Holy Fathers have reminded us thats all of us, from the greatest to the least, are called to reintroduce Jesus Christ into our world. Each of us, by virtue of our baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit given to us, are called to proclaim the Gospel. Certainly, our society desperately needs this.
None of us are exempt from this mission. All of us, no matter how talented we may or may not be, are called to the same task. We must bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. This is the new evangelizaton.
It is easy for us to say to ourselves, “I don’t have the talent or the aptitude to do that. I don’t have the education.” No…. each of us are called by virtue of our baptisms to proclaim Jesus to the world.
In the Acts of the Apostles, which we are reading at Mass each day during the Easter season, we hear how seemingly insignificant men were called, given the Holy Spirit, and then went forth and evangelized a culture. Indeed, God is calling us also to greatness. He doesn’t want mediocrity; he expects great things from us, and with the gifts of grace and the Holy Spirit, we are equipped to meet the challenge and the need.
Let us go forth to proclaim the Good News to all peoples.
I conclude with the final verse from today’s Gospel passage:
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send, receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. John 13:20
