Today, in the festivity of St. Mark, while listening to the Gospel and looking at the Evangelist, we cannot but proclaim assuredly and gratefully where the source is and where the strength of our word lies: the gospeller does it, because a presence and a command have certainly been prescribed upon him, from the outside, without coercion, but with the authority of who deserves all the credit: «Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation» (Mk 16:15).

On the other hand, our word is not presented just like another one out of the market of ideas and views, but it has the whole weight of all strong and explicit messages. Life or death depend upon its recognition or rejection; and its truth, its capacity for conviction, comes the testimonial way, that is, it appears accredited by the signs of power in favor of the needy.

—Why, then, our silence? Fear, shyness? St. Justin said that «though unlettered and without any fluency, they could persuade mankind because of their virtue».