Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 25, 2022
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.
Imagine sitting with the disciples in today’s gospel passage. Up until this point, they had been immersed in their feelings of profound loss after Christ’s crucifixion, but now they hear this life-altering commission to go into the world and proclaim the Good News.
Christ’s words quickly brought them out of their grief and confusion. They put aside their fears and trusted that the Lord would work with them, allowing them to be God’s instruments on earth. While these men weren’t trained scholars or brilliant speakers, they used the gifts God had given them and trusted God to do the rest.
Each time we are dismissed from Mass, we are reminded that we are being sent forth to announce the gospel, just as the disciples were instructed. While this commissioning can seem daunting, we are not alone. We may not all be missionaries, physicians, or eloquent speakers, but we are called to use the gifts we have been given and allow God to work through us to reach those in need.
In my daily life as a parent, I may not be able to evangelize the crowds as the disciples did, but when I feed the hungry children, kiss their bumps and bruises, and teach them about Christ’s love, I am living out Christ’s commission for this stage of life. I answer his call in the most intimate space, my home, and then pray he will use my heartfelt gift to spread his love throughout the world.
We pray today for the conviction to live out this commissioning in ordinary and extraordinary ways, working with the Lord to proclaim the gospel to all.
Prayer
O God, Jesus is gone; we are now his voice, his arms and legs, and we work miracles not with snakes but with overcoming the power of sin by your grace and by reaching out with the works of mercy and goodness. We are the members of the Church of Jesus Christ spread throughout the world. You, O Lord, are no longer as of old among us, but you are now always with us. We pray to be your voice on earth — your arms and legs ours to bend in your ways of love and service, through you, O Lord.
Saint of the Day
St. Mark is the author of the earliest record of Jesus’ life and death that we have in Scripture.
Some believe he is the young man who makes an appearance in that Gospel’s account of the arrest of Jesus (Mark 14:51-52)—the young man who was nearly captured but escaped.
Known also as John Mark, he was a follower of St. Peter and makes other appearances in the Scriptural accounts of the early Church (Acts 12:25). He and his mother were important figures in the early Christian community—his mother’s house was a gathering place for followers, for example.
He traveled with Peter to Rome and he also accompanied Paul and Barnabus, who was Mark’s cousin, to Cyprus as they preached the good news. Tradition tells that he established the Church in Alexandria where he served as bishop, founded the first famous Christian school, and was later martyred. Because of the tradition linking Mark to Egypt, he is one of the chief saints of the Coptic Christian Church.
His Gospel was composed sometime around the year 70, and it seems to have been intended for a non-Jewish audience facing persecution. Some ancient writers describe Mark as Peter’s interpreter—that Mark's Gospel was written from Peter's eyewitness account of Jesus' life.
All four of the Gospel writers are depicted with a symbol that comes from imagery in the Book of Revelation (4:7): a lion, a calf, a human, and an eagle. Mark’s emblem is the lion because his Gospel begins with a scene in the desert, and the lion is considered lord of the desert.
The city of Venice, Italy, is said to hold his body, and relics of St. Mark also rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus. Mark is depicted in several places on campus, most notably in this painting from the ceiling of the Basilica.
St. Mark, the first Evangelist to write down the story of Jesus's life—pray for us!