OUR MARK ON THE FEAST OF ST. MARK

Feast of St. Mark, the Evangelist
Mk 16: 15-20

Today is the feast of St. Mark, the Evangelist. We know very little about Mark. The little we know about him is from his work for the Lord.

The First Reading today (1 Pt 5:5-14) tells us that Mark was like a son to the Apostle Peter. He was Peter’s loyal aide and Paul’s reconciled friend.

We also know that Mark wrote the shortest, oldest and bluntest of the gospels. He wrote the Gospel for Christians who were restless over the delay of the Second Coming of the Lord and were frightened by the virulent persecution waged against them. If you cut the gospel written by Mark into equal halves, you will discover that its very center is the verse where Jesus says, “If a man wishes to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross and follow me.” Discipleship and the cross form the heart of Mark’s gospel. Discipleship is his response to the Lord. The cross is his Good News to the world.

I wonder, after hundreds of years from now, if someone accidentally comes across anything that would identify us, what would that be? How would we be known to generations we will never know? Would they also say, “We know very little about this person, but we know what he did for the Lord and what the Lord does for us now because of him.” This we now say about Mark. Could they say the same about us even long after we are gone?

It depends on what mark we leave behind.