APRIL 25, 2013 :FEAST OF SAINT MARK, EVANGELIST

Feast of Saint Mark, Evangelist 
Lectionary: 555

Reading 11 PT 5:5B-14

Beloved: 
Clothe yourselves with humility
in your dealings with one another, for:

God opposes the proud
but bestows favor on the humble.

So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,
that he may exalt you in due time.
Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you.

Be sober and vigilant.
Your opponent the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion
looking for someone to devour.
Resist him, steadfast in faith,
knowing that your brothers and sisters throughout the world
undergo the same sufferings.
The God of all grace
who called you to his eternal glory through Christ Jesus
will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you
after you have suffered a little.
To him be dominion forever. Amen.

I write you this briefly through Silvanus,
whom I consider a faithful brother,
exhorting you and testifying that this is the true grace of God.
Remain firm in it.
The chosen one at Babylon sends you greeting, as does Mark, my son.
Greet one another with a loving kiss.
Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

Responsorial PsalmPS 89:2-3, 6-7, 16-17

R. (2) For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The favors of the LORD I will sing forever;
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.
For you have said, “My kindness is established forever”;
in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness. 
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The heavens proclaim your wonders, O LORD,
and your faithfulness, in the assembly of the holy ones.
For who in the skies can rank with the LORD?
Who is like the LORD among the sons of God? 
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed the people who know the joyful shout;
in the light of your countenance, O LORD, they walk.
At your name they rejoice all the day,
and through your justice they are exalted.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.

GospelMK 16:15-20

Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them:
“Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them,
was taken up into heaven
and took his seat at the right hand of God.
But they went forth and preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them
and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.

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Meditation: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel"

In many churches in the East and West, Mark the Evangelist is honored today. Each of the four gospel accounts gives us a portrait of Jesus, his life, mission, and teaching. Each is different in style, length, and emphasis. But they all have a common thread and purpose – the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. Among the four gospels, Mark's account is unique in many ways. It is the shortest account and seems to be the earliest. Mark the Evangelist was an associate of Peter and likely wrote his gospel in Rome where Peter was based. Mark wrote it in Greek. It was likely written for Gentile readers in general, and for the Christians at Rome in particular. It is significant that Mark, as well as Luke, was chosen by the Holy Spirit to write the gospel account even though he wasn't one of the twelve apostles. Augustine of Hippo, explains:  "The Holy Spirit willed to choose for the writing of the Gospel two [Mark and Luke] who were not even from those who made up the Twelve, so that it might not be thought that the grace of evangelization had come only to the apostles and that in them the fountain of grace had dried up" (Sermon 239.1).
Mark ends his gospel account with Jesus' last appearance to the apostles before his ascension into heaven. Jesus' departure and ascension was both an end and a beginning for his disciples. While it was the end of Jesus' physical presence with his beloved disciples, it marked the beginning of Jesus' presence with them in a new way. Jesus promised that he would be with them always to the end of time. Now as the glorified and risen Lord and Savior, ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven, Jesus promised to send them the Holy Spirit who would anoint them with power on the Feast of Pentecost, just as Jesus was anointed for his ministry at the River Jordan. When the Lord Jesus departed physically from the apostles, they were not left in sorrow or grief.  Instead, they were filled with joy and with great anticipation for the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus' last words to his apostles point to his saving mission and to their mission to be witnesses of his saving death and his glorious resurrection and to proclaim the good news of salvation to all the world. Their task is to proclaim the good news of salvation, not only to the people of Israel, but to all the nations. God's love and gift of salvation is not just for a few, or for a nation, but it is for the whole world – for all who will accept it. The gospel is the power of God, the power to forgive sins, to heal, to deliver from evil and oppression, and to restore life. Do you believe in the power of the gospel?
This is the great commission which the risen Christ gives to the whole church. All believers have been given a share in this task – to be heralds of the good news and ambassadors for Jesus Christ, the only savior of the world. We have not been left alone in this task, for the risen Lord works in and through us by the power of his Holy Spirit. Today we witness a new Pentecost as the Lord pours out his Holy Spirit upon his people to renew and strengthen the body of Christ and to equip it for effective ministry and mission world-wide. Do you witness to others the joy of the gospel and the hope of the resurrection?
“Lord Jesus, through the gift of your Holy Spirit, you fill us with an indomitable spirit of praise and joy which no earthly trial can subdue. Fill me with your resurrection joy and help me to live a life of praise and thanksgiving for your glory. May I witness to those around me the joy of the gospel and the reality of your resurrection.”
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Our Turn

Feast of Saint Mark, evangelist

Father Patrick Langan, LC Mark 16: 15-20 And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover." So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it. Introductory Prayer: Lord, thank you for taking the time to be with me. There are things in life, Lord, that attract me, but you attract me more. I hope in you because you are always faithful to your promises. Maybe I don’t fully understand what it means to love, and maybe I don’t love the way I should, but I do love you. Petition: Lord, help me to focus on what I can do to tell others of your love. 1. Christ: When Christ blesses, it happens. When he takes yeast and kneads it with three measures of flour, it leavens the dough all through. When he blesses the bread, it multiplies. When he blesses the Eucharist, he is there for us. Christ blesses his apostles. These are not just events of the past, for God’s word is a living word. He also wants to bless me and my work. How can I draw down Christ’s blessing upon me, my family, the people I love, and the work I do? All I have to do is ask him to bless me and believe that he can and wants to. He will take care of the rest. 2. Apostles: Imagine the apostles talking after the Ascension. Andrew might say  to Peter, “Peter, Christ told us to preach to all nations.” “You are right, Andrew, we need to go to the next town,” Peter would agree. “No,” would urge Andrew, “we have to go to Athens and Rome.” Peter might object, “Athens and Rome! But we don’t know anyone there.” In an attempt to persuade him Andrew would add, “Peter, Jesus wanted us to begin here in Jerusalem because this is the largest Jewish city. However, he has shown that he has also called the Gentiles to the Church. We must go to their capitals, their cities of greatest influence so that they too might hear the message Jesus entrusted to us.” Despite their fears, they obeyed Christ and proclaimed the good news in new places. 3. Us: Now it is our turn. As it always has been, being an apostle today is difficult. As we get older, it gets harder. Nevertheless, it is our turn. We live at a crossroads of history. I know Christ is blessing me. He is sending me. I feel fear, but I know he is asking me to imitate the fidelity of the first apostles. He is only waiting for me to begin preaching so that he can bless all that I undertake in his name. Conversation with Christ: Lord, thank you for coming. Thank you for giving the apostles the strength to resist and persevere. Now it is my turn. Grant me the graces I need to proclaim the good news. Resolution: I live life but once. So today I will analyze how I use my time and resolve to eliminate one of the bad habits that leads me to waste time.

www.regnumchristi.org

THURSDAY, APRIL 25

FEAST OF MARK, EVANGELIST
MARK 16:15-20
(1 Peter 5:5b-14; Psalm 89)
KEY VERSE: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature" (v 15).
READING: Mark wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit what is believed to be the first gospel. It is thought that Mark wrote from Rome during the persecution of Christians by Nero Caesar in the late 60's shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem (70 CE). Mark wrote to Gentile Christians to encourage them to endure their sufferings, and urged them to continue to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is believed that Mark's gospel originally ended at Mk 16:8 with the women fleeing the empty tomb in fear. Mark's purpose in writing was complete; Jesus had been raised from the dead just as he told his followers. Mark wanted to challenge his readers to preach the gospel courageously. The concluding verses (9-20) were a later summary of other events and were not in any of the early manuscripts. This "longer ending" is a picture of the tasks committed to the Church by Jesus Christ. First, the Church has a preaching task to tell the story of the good news of Jesus. Next, the Church has a healing task to bring health to the body and to the soul. Lastly, the Church will never be left on its own to do its work. Through the indwelling Spirit, Christ works through his disciples. And so the gospel ends with the message that the Christian life is filled with the power of the crucified and RisenChrist.
REFLECTING: Let us "who hold and teach the Catholic faith that comes to us from the apostles" [Eucharistic Prayer I], continue in our own time to hand on the faith that we have received, just as the apostles did in their time.
PRAYING: St. Mark, help me to proclaim the gospel in everything I say and do.

FEAST OF MARK, EVANGELIST
Mark is sometimes called John Mark in the New Testament. His mother's house in Jerusalem served as a meeting place for Christians. Mark was associated with Paul and Barnabas (Mark's cousin) on theirfirst missionary journey through the island of Cyprus. When he had a falling out with Paul, Mark accompanied Barnabas. Tradition tells us that Mark was asked to set down the teachings of Peter, which seems to be confirmed by the important position that Peter has in his gospel. In this way Mark's Gospel is a record of the life of Jesus as seen through the eyes of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles. Tradition ascribes to Mark the founding of the Church in Alexandria. Many believe that Mark was the young man who fled naked from Gethsemane (Mk 14:51). Mark may have represented the baptized believers by the figure of the young man, dressed in a white robe who greeted the women at at the tomb early Easter morning (Ml 16:5). Mark went on to write the earliest gospel, and may well have died a martyr. Mark is represented by a lion in Christian art, which comes from his gospel account of the temptation of Jesus: "He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts" (Mk 1:13).

www.daily-word-of-life.com

Justice shall flourish in his time and fullness of peace for ever
‘If it dies, it produces many grains.’

Today we commemorate the men who gave their lives in sacrifice for the good of their country at Gallipoli in World War I. Each year, on 25 April, groups of Australians, war veterans, young people and others, visit Gallipoli where it all happened, to contemplate the meaning and worth of that suffering.

The readings at Mass remind us of the Child who was born to us, the Son who was given to us, the One whose rule was to be one of wisdom and peace. It is in the light of this Wonderful Counsellor, this Prince of Peace, that we must evaluate the worth of sacrificing men and women, mostly young, in battlefields throughout the world.

 www.churchresources.info
April 25
St. Mark

Most of what we know about Mark comes directly from the New Testament. He is usually identified with the Mark of Acts 12:12. (When Peter escaped from prison, he went to the home of Mark's mother.)

Paul and Barnabas took him along on the first missionary journey, but for some reason Mark returned alone to Jerusalem. It is evident, from Paul's refusal to let Mark accompany him on the second journey despite Barnabas's insistence, that Mark had displeased Paul. Because Paul later asks Mark to visit him in prison, we may assume the trouble did not last long.
The oldest and the shortest of the four Gospels, the Gospel of Mark emphasizes Jesus' rejection by humanity while being God's triumphant envoy. Probably written for Gentile converts in Rome—after the death of Peter and Paul sometime between A.D. 60 and 70—Mark's Gospel is the gradual manifestation of a "scandal": a crucified Messiah.
Evidently a friend of Mark (Peter called him "my son"), Peter is only one of the Gospel sources, others being the Church in Jerusalem (Jewish roots) and the Church at Antioch (largely Gentile).
Like one other Gospel writer, Luke, Mark was not one of the 12 apostles. We cannot be certain whether he knew Jesus personally. Some scholars feel that the evangelist is speaking of himself when describing the arrest of Jesus in Gethsemane: "Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body. They seized him, but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked" (Mark 14:51-52).
Others hold Mark to be the first bishop of Alexandria, Egypt. Venice, famous for the Piazza San Marco, claims Mark as its patron saint; the large basilica there is believed to contain his remains.
A winged lion is Mark's symbol. The lion derives from Mark's description of John the Baptist as a "voice of one crying out in the desert" (Mark 1:3), which artists compared to a roaring lion. The wings come from the application of Ezekiel's vision of four winged creatures (Ezekiel, chapter one) to the evangelists.

Comment:

Mark fulfilled in his life what every Christian is called to do: proclaim to all people the Good News that is the source of salvation. In particular, Mark's way was by writing. Others may proclaim the Good News by music, drama, poetry or by teaching children around a family table.

Quote:

There is very little in Mark that is not in the other Gospels—only four passages. One is: “...This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come” (Mark 4:26-29).

Patron Saint of:

Notaries

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LECTIO: ST. MARK, EVANGELIST - MK 16,15-20

Lectio:  Thursday, April 25, 2013 
Easter Time

1) Opening prayer
Lord our God,
there is much in us that obscures your word
and keeps us from being truly your Church.We pray you today:
Call us, as once you called Mark,
to speak and live your word.
Inspire us through your Spirit
and teach us to live in the hope
that your kingdom will come
and remain among us
through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
now and for ever.

2) Gospel Reading - Mark 16,15-20
Jesus said to the Eleven, 'Go out to the whole world; proclaim the gospel to all creation.
Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These are the signs that will be associated with believers: in my name they will cast out devils; they will have the gift of tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover.' And so the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven; there at the right hand of God he took his place, while they, going out, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it.

3) Reflection
• Today’s Gospel forms part of the appendix of the Gospel of Mark (Mk 16, 9-20) which presents the list of some apparitions of Jesus: to Magdalene (Mk 16, 9-11), to the two disciples who were walking out in the country (Mk 16, 12-13) and to the twelve apostles (Mk 16, 14-18). This last apparition together with the description of the Ascension into Heaven (Mk 16, 19-20) forms the Gospel for today.
• Mark 16, 14: The signs which accompany the announcement of the Good News. Jesus appears to the eleven disciples and reproaches them for not believing the persons who had seen him resurrected. They did not believe Mary Magdalene (Mk 16, 11), neither the two disciples on the road out in the country (Mk 16, 13). Several times, Mark refers to the resistance of the disciples in believing the witness of those who experienced the Resurrection of Jesus. Why does Mark insist so much on the lack of faith of the disciples? Probably, to teach two things: First, that faith in Jesus goes through faith in persons who give witness. Second, that no one should be discouraged when there is incredulity in the heart. Even the eleven disciples doubted!
• Mark 16, 15-18: The mission to announce the Good News to the whole world. After having criticized the lack of faith of the disciples, Jesus confers the mission to them: “Go out to the whole world, proclaim the Gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned”. To those who had the courage to believe in the Good News and who are baptized, Jesus promises the following signs: they will cast out devils, they will have the gift of tongues, they will pick up snakes in their hands and be unharmed if they drink deadly poison, they will lay their hands on the sick who will recover. This happens even today:
- to cast out devils: it is to fight against the force of evil which destroys life. The life of many persons improves because they entered into the community and have begun to live the Good News of the presence of God in their life.
- to speak new tongues: it means to begin to communicate with others in a new way. Sometimes we meet a person whom we have never seen before, but it seems to us that we have known her for some time. This happens because we speak the same language, the language of love.
- deadly poison will not harm them: there are many things that poison life together, community There is much gossiping which destroys the relationship between persons. The one who lives in the presence of God does not pay attention to these things and is able not to be disturbed by this terrible poison.
- they cure the sick. Wherever there is a clearer and livelier conscience of God’s presence, there is also a special care given to the excluded and marginalized persons, especially the sick. What can help the cure is that the person feels accepted and loved.
• Mark 16, 19-20: Through the community Jesus continues his mission. Jesus himself who lives in Palestine, and accepts the poor of his time, revealing the love of the Father to them, and this same Jesus continues to be alive in our midst, in our community. Through us, he wants to continue his mission to reveal the Good News of God’s love to the poor. Even up to this time the resurrection takes place. And it impels us to sing: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ, who will separate us?” No power of this world is capable to neutralize the force that comes from faith in the Resurrection (Rm 8, 35-39). A community which wants to be a witness of the Resurrection should be a sign of life, should struggle against the forces of death, in such a way that the world may be a favourable place for life, where to believe that another world is possible. Above all, in Latin America, where the life of people is in danger because of the system of death which has been imposed, the communities should be a living proof of the hope which overcomes the world, without fear of being happy!

4) Personal questions
• How do theses signs of God’s presence take place in my life?
• Today, which are the signs of the presence of Jesus in our midst that convince persons the most?

5) Concluding Prayer
I shall sing the faithful love of Yahweh for ever,
from age to age my lips shall declare your constancy,
for you have said: love is built to last for ever,
you have fixed your constancy firm in the heavens. (Ps 89,1-2)

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