The Feast of St Mark, the Evangelist

 1 Pet. 5:5-14, Mk 16:15-20. Today we celebrate the Evangelist Mark who wrote the earliest of the four Gospels. Papias, an early Church writer describes Mark as assistant to Peter in Rome and translated Peter’s Aramaic sermons so that the Roman Christians could understand. According to Papias, after Peter’s death, at the request of the Christians in Rome, Mark wrote what he knew of Peter’s memories of Jesus. His Gospel reflects the plain, blunt speaking style of the Galilean fisherman and captures their sense of awe at the healing power of Christ. The Psalmist captures the ideal for celebrating Mark: “Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.” Mark’s gift to the Church was to describe the works and miracles of Jesus, the humble Son of Man, “who came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as ransom for all.”

Our response to Mark is not only to listen to his message and meditate on it, but also to live its ideal of humble service in our life and practice. Mark is identified with “John Mark” (Acts 12:25), a Jew from Jerusalem, whose mother Mary let her house be used as the meeting place for the little group of Christians where Peter came on his release from prison (Acts 12:12). He was the young man in the garden of Gethsemane on the night Jesus was arrested, who fled away leaving behind his linen cloth. Committing himself to the spread of the faith, Mark accompanied his cousin Barnabas and Saul on their first missionary journey. However, he was unready for the dangers of the work and left them at Perge to return to Jerusalem. While preparing for a later missionary journey, Barnabas wanted to take Mark along once more, but Paul objected so strongly that the two cousins went off together on mission. Time healed the rift between Paul, Barnabas and Mark, and during Paul’s Roman captivity, Mark did him some service (Philem. 24). Later when the Apostle was in a more severe imprisonment he asked Mark to come to visit him (2 Tim. 4:11).

May the Lord renew our strength, so that we may always be courageous to do His will and be His witnesses wherever we are! Amen!! Have a gracious day!!!