Today, we celebrate the feast day of St. Mark the evangelist. We believe Mark’s Gospel to be the oldest of the four Gospels in the New Testament. It was probably written sometime around 60 AD, primarily for Gentile converts to the faith in Rome.
In today’s reading from Mark, we hear the commission that Jesus gives to his apostles. Jesus' last words to these apostles point us to his saving mission and to the call he gives to them to be witnesses to his saving death and resurrection, to proclaim the Good News of salvation to all.
While some of us are ordained to specific ministries in the Church, with me ordained to the priest and serving as a parish priest and as vicar general, while some of us are sent as missionaries to different parts of the world, all of us as Jesus’ followers share in the task of being heralds of his Good News. We are not left alone to this task, as we are members of the Body of Christ, the Church. The risen Lord works in us and through us by the power of his Holy Spirit. Through our words and actions, the risen Christ is a real presence in the world today.
Celebrating the feast day of St. Mark the Evangelist reminds us of how central the apostolic faith of the early Church is to our tradition and to our faith. Not only did the Second Vatican Council modernize and renew our traditions in the context of our culture, but it calls us back to the roots of our faith as expressed by the evangelists, the Early Church Fathers and Mothers, and the apostles. In the spirit of St. Mark and the commission that Jesus gives to all his followers, may we be filled with the joy of the risen Christ. May we long to live a life of praise and thanksgiving for the glory of God.
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