Readings: 1 Peter 5:5b–14; Psalm 89:2–3, 6–7, 16–17; Mark 16:15–20.
We can be rightly jealous of someone like St. Mark the Evangelist. St. Peter in the First Reading refers to him as his son, and there is a strong tradition that Mark was Peter’s secretary and possibly wrote down in his Gospel what Peter himself told to the first disciples regarding the life of Jesus. Our Lord sends the Apostles in the Gospel today to the whole world, and the Gospel of Mark was written to help the Church fulfill that mission.
Mark was not only blessed for receiving first hand testimony from the Apostles, but also because God chose to communicate his word, his Gospel, through Mark. Mark was not just a pen in Our Lord’s hands, but the communicator of a vital experience inspired and aided by God.
Let’s thank Our Lord today for giving us such a precious inheritance in the first witnesses of the faith by reading some of Mark’s Gospel and trying to put its teachings into practice.