Organisations are prone to develop long and convoluted mission statements which can mean very little. By contrast Jesus in Mark’s Gospel gives the church a mission which is simple, clear and direct. Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from Mass.
Readings for the Feast of St Mark the Evangelist can be found here.
A feature of the last 20 to 30 years has been the rise of the corporate mission statement. The time was when a bookseller’s mission was to sell books, and a shoemaker’s was to make shoes. Now every business needs a lengthy document to say what it’s for. Often, they’ve been written by committee and are hard to make sense of. Take this example: “By integrating agile methodologies with customer-centric paradigms, we aim to co-create sustainable impact through proactive, insight driven collaboration”. Any idea what that actually means? Okay – it was written by AI specially for this homily, but it sounds just like it could come from the corporate world.
Far clearer, and more direct, is the mission statement for the Church given by Jesus in today’s Gospel. “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation”. These words could serve as a summary of the entire Gospel of Mark which they conclude. Jesus’ final speech in Mark’s Gospel is strikingly similar to what he says right at the start: “The kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe in the good news”. Mark, whose feast we celebrate today, bookends his Gospel with the imperative for the message of Jesus to be proclaimed and heard everywhere. The author of our first reading also gives advice to his readers as to what should be at the heart of their life. They are to remain faithful and steadfast, even in the face of difficulties and persecutions.
We might laugh at the corporate mission statements which sound like gobbledygook, but the Church too is not immune from such things. While it’s no bad thing to have a sense of purpose, it’s all too easy to create a fancy statement and then for it to gather dust on the shelf. We could do worse than to follow the commands from our readings today: proclaim the Gospel everywhere, and remain faithful. In all this, we know that we do not rely on our own strength. Mark tells us that the risen and ascended Lord worked in and through the disciples as they sought to continue his work. We know that in the same way he strengthens and sustains us as we seek to serve him today.
Mass today is in St Mary’s at 11.30am, preceded by the Rosary at 11am.
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