Homily: Feast of St. Mark

Feast of St. Mark (Mk. 16:15-20) “Go And Make Disciples”

Mark the Evangelist is an important figure in the history of Christianity. Mark was known as John Mark. He was a traveling companion of St. Paul on his missionary journeys. He was obviously a resource. He must have known Jesus well or at least interviewed the Apostles who knew Jesus well before he sat down to write. We could say that he invented the literature we know as the Gospel.

Gospels are not necessarily biographies, but they contain biographical material. If it were not for St. Mark, we would know little about the historical Jesus. Matthew and Luke took Mark’s structure and adapted it for their needs. They added material from their sources. This is why their Gospels are much longer than Mark’s.

Mark had a very terse approach to telling the Gospel story. He does not have much to say about Jesus’ childhood. A lot of that material is included in Matthew and Luke’s account. Mark also does not have a lot of post resurrection material. He simply refers to the fact that the tomb of Jesus was empty.

The material that we read in today’s Gospel was probably added later by someone else. This was a common occurrence. The redactor obviously thought it was shocking that Mark did not say more about the resurrection and give a better witness about Jesus rising from the dead.

Redacted material is still important. The passage for today gives us the words of Jesus that we label the great commission. We are reminded what our task is as Christians. It is not our task to save our own soul, but our mission in life is to bring others to Christ.

We have people in our parish who understand that well. I think of those who prepared our Confirmation candidates this year. Many of them are volunteers and they put in many hours to help our children get ready for this great event.  The are truly evangelists.

Reflections Questions:

1.    Did I know Mark’s gospel was the first one written? Why is that important?

2.   How could I fulfill the great commission? Do I feel compelled to?

 Dear Parishioners,

         In my reflection above I compliment those who prepared our children for Confirmation. Being a religious education teacher is not an easy task, especially when it comes to working with junior high students. They do not always show their appreciation. Many times, I notice that the candidates for confirmation do pick a teacher to be their sponsor. Religious educators are remembered as important figures in a person’s faith journey.

        Some children do not have a lot of guidance in their life. They long for people who can offer moral teaching. Unfortunately, parents often feel that raising their own children is enough. Jesus called on his followers to take responsibility for their neighbor and their neighbor’s children.

        If you might want to put your faith into practice, call Debbie at our Religious Education office. She could always use more volunteers young and old to be catechists.

        May Our Lady pray for all our children today.

        Fr. Mark