Feast

Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist (2)

by

Some people think discerning your vocation is like career planning, but today’s feast of Mark reminds us that praying about God’s will for your life is not exactly the same thing. It’s safe to say that Mark didn’t plan on being an evangelist. He knew many of the apostles; when Peter was miraculously freed from prison he went to the house of Mark’s mother (see Acts 12:12). Mark tried being a missionary with Paul and Barnabas, but went home before the missionary trip was over, and this upset Paul so much that when Barnabas tried bring Mark along again, he and Paul parted ways over it (see Acts 12:25, 15:37-39). It seems the missionary life wasn’t for him.

Scripture doesn’t chronicle it, but tradition holds that Mark eventually started helping Peter as a secretary (see today’s First Reading) and the accounts in Mark’s Gospel were probably the ones he heard from Peter himself. Mark probably didn’t appreciate the importance of his work in his lifetime, but we all owe him a debt for helping us remember the life of Christ through his Gospel.

What does God want you to do with your life? Don’t focus on big plans, but know he already has big plans for you. Just take one step at a time, asking Our Lord to guide you, and be open to his will.

Readings: 1 Peter 5:5b–14; Psalm 89:2–3, 6–7, 16–17; Mark 16:15–20. See also Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist.

Feast of the Chair of St. Peter

by

Today we are celebrating more than a piece of furniture; we’re celebrating a special ministry established by Our Lord himself, as recalled in today’s Gospel, a ministry we refer to as the Petrine ministry because it was established by Our Lord in a moment of the apostle Peter expressing his faith that Jesus was the Christ, aided by the Heavenly Father’s grace. Even today this ministry continues through the Pope. When we speak of the Pope’s office, we speak of the Apostolic “See,” which means seat. When we speak of his work and the work of those who help him in the Vatican’s dicasteries, we speak of the Holy “See.” Aided by the Holy Spirit, when the Pope makes a doctrinal declaration regarding faith and morals that all Catholics are to believe in the faith, we say he’s speaking ex Cathedra (from the chair). All these things are represented by the Chair of St. Peter.

Ministry implies an office, a minister, and someone who needs to be ministered to. It is authority, but it is also service that bears with it a great responsibility. Peter showed himself weak and unsure frequently, but Our Lord promised him that he would be the one to strengthen his brethren and that the Church the Lord would build on Peter would withstand the powers of evil and death. Today we commemorate Our Lord handing over the keys to Peter, keys that would be handed over to his successors, the bishops of Rome, whom we call Popes, to ensure that the powers of evil and death would not prevail against the Lord’s Church and to continue the Petrine ministry that watches over the unity of faith and love in the Church.

Let’s pray today for the Holy Father and for everyone who works with him in the Holy See so that the unity of faith and love in the Church continues.

Readings: 1 Peter 5:1–4; Psalm 23:1–3a, 4–6; Matthew 16:13–19. See also Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul.

The Presentation of the Lord

by

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation. St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome will be filled this evening with religious and consecrated men and woman of all shapes, sizes, colors, habits, and nationalities, each bearing a candle in procession. They carry the candles to symbolize that Christ, the light of the world, has come into the temple. The feast of the Presentation commemorates Christ coming into the temple for the first time. That is why sometimes this feast is called Candlemas.

Today’s First Reading describes the coming of the Lord to the temple as a searing, blinding light, like a hot fire that purified a precious metal of any impurities. Simeon calls the infant Jesus as he comes to the Temple in the Gospel today, “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel”—the light is for everyone. It is not a physical light, or everyone would have had the same reaction: it is a spiritual and moral light. The widow Anna is described as a prophetess. That meant she was recognized as someone through whom the Spirit of the Lord would speak. Simeon too had the “Holy Spirit” upon him, which led him to the temple to see Jesus when he came in, in answer to a promise the Holy Spirit had made to him that he would not die before seeing the Savior.

In the dark of night, when you shine a spotlight on someone or something, it is set apart, it stands out. As the Gospel today reminds us, Jesus was taken to the Temple to be consecrated to the Lord. This would happen forty days after birth, which is why today is the last little spark of Christmas until next December. First born sons were always considered a special property of God, and enjoyed a special favor and protection as well. In this instance, for spiritually sensitive souls, Jesus was the spotlight, and they were blinded by his glory. The Holy Spirit told them where to direct their gaze, and when Christ came into the Temple it was like having spent all your life in a cave and coming out into the sunlight for the first time.

Anna, Simeon, Mary, and Joseph were the forerunners of everyone coming out of that cave. St. John described Jesus at the start of his Gospel as the true light that enlightens every man coming into the world. In the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes, we see what kind of light this is: “The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear” (GS 22). St. John Paul II quoted this number of Gaudium et Spes innumerable times in his pontificate. Christ reveals man to man himself. That’s why some see him as a light by which they change their lives, and others, like St. John the Evangelist tells us in another passage, prefer the darkness because their deeds are evil: they don’t want to come out of the cave of their lives.

On this feast day we also celebrate the World Day for Consecrated Life. Each one of us received a consecration on the day of our baptism. After our baptism we received a candle with the words, “receive the light of Christ.” As consecrated every baptized Christian is set apart for a divine purpose. Not just the religious or consecrated men and women. We all bear the light of Christ, so that others can see Christ through us. We must bring the light of Christ to others. The Holy Spirit guides each of us in our circumstances and history to see what path and form our consecration should take: consecrated life, married life, etc. He shows us the divine purpose for which we are set apart.

When we follow those promptings of the Holy Spirit, take the path he invites us to walk, we draw closer to the light of Christ. Sometimes we think Revelation is just something that happens to those in the Bible, but revelation happens every day in our hearts, and sometimes those revelations are big. They may only seem big to us, but they make us see everything in a new light. The expression “the difference between night and day” comes to fruition in a circumstance, a moment of prayer, a chance encounter. The Holy Spirit is active through everyone God has set apart, whether at baptism, in the lay life, or in the consecrated life, and, like Anna and Simeon, when we are led to the light of Christ, we cannot keep silent. We have to share it with others.

Let’s thank Our Lord for being the light of our lives. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us keep looking in Christ’s direction and illuminating our lives, and let’s resolve to be that light of Christ for others as well.

Readings: Malachi 3:1–4; Psalm 24:7–10; Hebrews 2:14–18; Luke 2:22–40. See also Christmas Octave, 5th Day and 6th day, and Our Lady of Sorrows.

Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist

by

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.