Feast of Saint Mark

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/042512.cfm

Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them:
"Go into the whole world

and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.

Giotto's Saint Francis
preaching to the birds

13th century Franciscan preachers and artists delighted in Jesus’ parting command to preach the gospel to every creature. We have stories of Saint Francis preaching to the birds, who gratefully responded by flying in cruciform patterns over his head; and Saint Anthony, who preached by a river mouth to the minnows in the shallows, the fish in the deep and the whales out on the briny. Of course artists followed suit describing these wonders in lavish detail.

The 21st century should also delight in this mandate. We understand Jesus’ preaching command today as stewardship of the earth. We preach the Gospel without words as we develop ways to live in this world without wasting its precious resources. And that Good News is “heard” and “welcomed” by animate and inanimate nature. Indeed, as Saint Paul said, 

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God....

Geneticists tell us human beings are very much like other living creatures. The similarities are not accidental for we live on the same planet, breathe the same air and drink the same water. As the Book of Genesis tells us, we are "dirt" and to dirt we must return. (If I were an atheist I would suppose the whole purpose of living things is to generate more dirt; life is dirt's way of reproducing itself.) 

St Anthony preaching
to fish

It's hardly strange that the Lord commands us to preach to every living creature. Whether we're speaking of apes, fish, snails or the flowers of the field, they are all creatures like us, and each claims its place in the sun. Or its place in the dark. They are, in a sense, flesh and the Word became flesh to complete our destiny. 


As usual, Saints Francis and Anthony were way ahead of their time when they preached to the birds and fish. It's time we caught up with them by recreating the necessary infrastructures of human existence in conformity with the needs of Earth.