Homily: Feast of St. Leo the Great

Feast of St. Leo the Great (Rms 15:14-21) “Doing it the Hard Way.”

One of the concepts that has been emphasized for the last 30 years in the church is the idea of evangelization. I would say that the excitement about this idea began with Pope John Paul II who spoke often of the “new evangelization.” Various groups took up the challenge of this effort. It has always been unclear to me what we are talking about. Sometimes the new evangelization sounds like a pining for something that was in the past.

Another aspect of this that I feel is miscalculation is that for many the new evangelization revolves around bringing fallen away Catholics back to the practice of their faith. So, we are pursuing people who grew up Catholic and already know the basics of the faith.

Another part of this effort seems to revolve around converting Christians from other denomination to the Catholic faith. When a prominent Protestant becomes Catholic a lot of attention is given to them. Somehow it seems like we are pursuing people who already have a basic understanding of Christianity.

In all this we seem to forget that fifty percent of the people in our society have no church. Many have never been exposed to the Christian message. A good many seem to have no concept of how a religious faith can be a great gift to them.

I admire St. Paul. He was a true evangelist. As he says in the Letter to the Romans, he wanted to preach in difficult circumstances to people who had never heard of Jesus. He did convert some Jews but most of his converts were of Greek extraction. He introduced them to Christian spirituality. This was a way of life that gave them a moral outlook, a new spirituality and this changed numerous lives.

Paul also built Christian communities so that these new converts would have the support they need to walk the Christian way. Paul truly understood what evangelization was about.

Reflection Question:

1.    Do I know someone in my life that has no church or religion? Are they living life to the fullest?

2.    How might I evangelize? What are some concrete things I could do?

Dear Parishioners,

          The synod on synodality closed at the end of October. There really has not been a lot of publicity about this meeting in Rome of 400 church leaders. Clergy, religious and laity had three weeks of discussion on a variety of topics. I don’t think there was a lot of media coverage because of all the other difficulties that are happening in the world. Wars, natural disasters, political tensions, etc. happened in October so a long meeting in Rome was not exciting.

          Some people expected immediate changes in church teaching. When that did not happen, it was said that nothing happened. The assessment forgets that this is a two-part meeting. The synod continues next year.

          The other thing that is not acknowledged is that Pope Francis introduced a new way of operating a synod. Other people were included in discussions besides bishops. The status of all the baptized was respected. Synods will probably never be the same.

          May Our Lady of peace pray for us,

          Fr. Mark