I
came across a video on the internet—an interview on CNN between Piers Morgan
and Marky Mark Wahlberg. Many years ago,
in the 1990s, Mark Wahlberg was in a band called Marky Mark and the Funky
Bunch. He was fairly successful, but he
fell in with the wrong crowd; at the age of 13 he developed an addiction to
cocaine, he joined a gang; he was arrested for assault and attempted murder,
and spent some time in jail.
Now, aged 42, Mr. Wahlberg has cleaned up his life, he’s
involved in community service, especially working with kids from the inner city
and he’s also a practicing Catholic. In
this interview with Piers Morgan he talked about his conversion and the
importance of Faith.
Mr. Morgan said, you were into all of this drugs, and gangs
and dark stuff, and then in prison, it looks like you had a sort of
Epiphany. In prison, Marky Mark, met a
Catholic priest, who helped him turn away from drugs and crime—how in prison he
realized that he had to make a choice. He called it a “personal choice”— either
he would continue his life of drugs and crime, or making a choice for faith, to
do the hard work and entrust himself to God.
His life was at a crossroads, one road leading to death, the other, for
faith and life.
He now attends Mass, if not daily, he goes into a Church every
day in order to spend time in front of the Eucharist.
Piers Morgan, said, what do you pray for when you go to
Church? What does it bring you? Marky
Mark said I like to start my day going to Church, it brings me a very clear
focus on what is important, it helps me to be appreciate the blessings of my
life—my four children—I need a reminder every day of what I need to stay away
from. I pray to be a good father, a good
husband, a son, a friend, a brother and uncle, and good example to those who
look up to me, and a good servant of God.
The Epiphany—the encounter with Christ changed him, yet
knows that he needs to continue to practice his faith, to go to Christ daily in
prayer and at Mass, for strength to be the man God made him to be.
One of the most powerful lines in all of the Gospels is the
last line for this feast of the Epiphany, The wise men, went to meet Christ in
Bethlehem, they went to do him homage.
They were filled with joy at meeting Christ and seeing Mary the mother
with the Christ child. And then the last
line of the Gospel, “Having been warned not to return to Herod, they departed
for their country by another way.”
Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, “of course they go back a
different route, you never come to Christ and go back the same way you
came.” The encounter with Christ changes
you.
After the encounter with Christ in prison, Marky Mark new
that he could not go back to the old way of drugs and crimes, so the new way
forward, required hard work, lots of hard work and lots of faith. But changing his route has made all the
difference.
Piers Morgan was right when he said, “this Epiphany has
changed you”. Christ is the
Epiphany. And this Feast today is a
celebration that Christ reveals himself, not just to the shepherds of
Bethlehem, but to all those who seek him out; he is an Epiphany for the entire
world, and the encounter with him is meant to change us.
Mark Wahlberg found Christ in prison, at a very dark place
in his life. Christ promises that all
who seek shall find him. Sometimes we
need to hit rock bottom before we realize that we are supposed to be looking
for him.
Yet, when we seek him and find him, Christ dispels the
darkness of our life. He might not wave
a magic wand and make our troubles disappear, but he pronounces our sins
forgiven, and illuminates the path which leads not to death and
self-destructive behavior, but to eternal life.
Jesus shows us how to live in righteousness, he teaches us
to pray, he teaches us how to live, he teaches us to receive his body and blood
to strengthen us in holiness, to help us to know that he is with us in the
particularly dark times of life.
In our particularly secularized pagan culture, I think it is
a wonder that a Catholic like Mark Wahlberg was able to sneak on to CNN and
pronounce to all the world how Christ changed his life. The encounter of Christ is meant to change
us, that we can bring others to him. We
receive God’s comfort that we can go out and comfort others; we receive the
Good News of the Gospel, that we can go out to share that Good News with
others.
The Second Vatican Council expressed clearly and strongly
the responsibility of every Catholic to evangelize—to work to build up the
growth of the body of the Church.
So perhaps, to those family members that have stopped going
to church, or to a neighbor who does not practice any faith, we could invite
them back. Some people do not respond
well to direct confrontation, but a letter, written in your own hand, speaking
of the importance of the faith, is so powerful.
A letter written to a child or grandchild that has fallen away from the
faith because they’ve entered into an invalid marriage, or to a family member
return for a second semester of college, to encourage them to become active in
their school’s catholic ministry group and to remain strong against all the
temptations that they face there.
As catholics we believe that our Church does possess the
fullness of truth—Jesus who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life truly leads to
the everlasting joy of the Father’s kingdom.
May we rejoice in that truth, live that truth, bear witness
to the truth, and work to spread the light of that truth for the glory of God
and salvation of souls.
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