Sharing the Good News

In today’s reflection on the daily mass readings, Fr Richard considers the task of spreading the Good News of Jesus – evangelisation.

Readings for the Feast of St Cyril and St Methodius (Saturday 14 February) can be found here.

What do you do with those flyers that are so often pushed through our letterboxes, advertising everything from takeaways to double glazing to gardening services? Most of us probably put them straight in the bin, but the people who send them out must think it’s worthwhile, or they wouldn’t bother. For every thousand flyers delivered, perhaps a handful will actually respond.

The work of evangelism, of spreading the Gospel, can often feel like this. We put in an enormous amount of effort for seemingly little reward. We might feel that figures such as St Cyril and St Methodius were much more successful in this work than we could ever hope to be. Yet our readings today remind us that proclaiming the Gospel is never easy and often brings mixed results. In the passage from Acts, Paul and Barnabas are on their first missionary journey and have reached Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). At the start of the reading, Paul is addressing the Jewish population of the region and commenting on how they have not received the Gospel. Paul, however, is not about to give up. Instead, he simply turns his attention to another group, namely the Gentiles.

In the Gospel Jesus sends out the 72 missionaries in a simple and humble manner. There is no “hard sell” here – they are merely to proclaim a message of peace. Sometimes, Jesus says, the message will remain with the person; other times it will return. In the verses that follow today’s reading, Jesus warns them that whole towns may reject their message, in which case they are to move on somewhere else.

As we seek to spread the Gospel in our own day, we shouldn’t think that if we adopt this or that strategy results will automatically come, like pulling a lever. Instead, we must simply proclaim the good news to all and sundry with simplicity and humility. And who knows, someone might actually pick up the leaflet, read it, and respond.

Mass today is in St Mary’s at 11.30am (Morning Prayer and Rosary at 11am)

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