Thursday, April 25, 2013

EVANGELISM is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.


It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching. – St Francis of Assisi


(Scripture text: 1 Pt 5:5b-14)
Beloved: 
Clothe yourselves with humility
in your dealings with one
another, for:

God opposes the proud
but bestows favor on the
humble.

So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,
that he may
exalt you in due time.
Cast all your worries upon him because he cares
for you.

Be sober and vigilant.
Your opponent the Devil is prowling
around like a roaring lion
looking for someone to devour.
Resist him,
steadfast in faith,
knowing that your brothers and sisters throughout
the world
undergo the same sufferings.
The God of all grace
who called
you to his eternal glory through Christ Jesus
will himself restore,
confirm, strengthen, and establish you
after you have suffered a
little.
To him be dominion forever. Amen.

I write you this briefly
through Silvanus,
whom I consider a faithful brother,
exhorting you and
testifying that this is the true grace of God.
Remain firm in it.
The
chosen one at Babylon sends you greeting, as does Mark, my son.
Greet
one another with a loving kiss.
Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

Today is the Feast of Mark the Evangelist. Sometimes we forget that the
Saints whom we celebrate were men and women just like you and me. They
had their strengths - as well as their weaknesses. They were very human.

What made them become holy - able to be held up for us as examples to
imitate, and relied upon as intercessors - was their humanity
transformed by God's grace. They responded to God's invitations with
their human freedom, living faith, heroic virtue and courageous
perseverance in the face of great opposition and persecution. They now
call us to do the same.

We are living in a trying time for the Church in the known world of our
day. Sadly I feel it will become even more difficult in the days ahead.
No matter how rocky the soil of the American culture is becoming, we do
not have the option of pulling out of our obligation to participate. 
We cannot withdraw from this world; we cannot also let the darkness
overcome it. This world which God created is to be re-created in and
through Jesus Christ, the first born of a new creation (Colossians
1:15), and that will not come about without struggle, suffering and
perseverance.

It is amazing how little “leaven” it takes to raise a loaf of bread.
That is because within those little particles of yeast is found the
power to ferment, to change the lump of wet dough into a loaf of
aromatic, tasty, nourishing bread. However, the power contained within
that yeast is not activated unless it is mixed and kneaded into the
dough. Once you work the leaven in, it is still hidden to the eye but
my, how it transforms that loaf!

In the words of St. Jose Maria Escriva, "May Our Lord be able to use us
so that, placed as we are at all the cross-roads of the world - and at
the same time placed in God - we become salt, leaven and light. Yes,
you are to be in God, to enlighten, to give flavor, to produce growth
and new life. But don't forget that we are not the source of this
light: we only reflect it. (St. Jose Maria Escriva, Friends of God, #
250)

We have to get in “the loaf”. We must be in the world - where Jesus is
- in order to be used to accomplish His ongoing work of redemption.
This missionary mindset has inspired great missionary ages in the past
and brought extraordinary changes to entire cultures. It can once again
in this hour, if we respond to the call.

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