John Mark had accompanied Sts. Barnabas and Paul on a relief mission to help the starving Judean Christians (Acts 12:25). Next, John Mark accompanied Barnabas and Paul on the first evangelistic mission of the Church (Acts 13:5). However, John Mark dropped out of that mission (Acts 13:13).

There’s a big difference between a relief mission and an evangelistic mission. Many of us have been on relief missions. We have given our time, energy, and money to help the poor, the suffering, and the victims of tragedies. However, fewer people have gone on evangelistic missions. Relief missions are very important and often are a matter of life and death. Evangelistic missions, however, are of supreme importance and a matter of eternal life and death (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, 905). Usually, we need a much stronger love to go on an evangelistic mission than a relief mission. We will often fight a much more severe spiritual battle in an evangelistic mission than in almost any other activity.

We can criticize John Mark (i.e. St. Mark) for leaving the first Christian evangelistic mission, but many of us have never quit because we’ve never started. If we have dropped out, we ought to follow St. Mark’s lead, repent, and go back on mission. “Once you know all these things, blest will you be if you put them into practice” (Jn 13:17).

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