Feast of Saint Mark the Evangelist
Reflection
I’m lucky. I was assigned the twenty-fifth day of each month, so writing these reflections should be a piece of cake! After all, pondering Christmas Day (December 25), the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25), the Annunciation (March 25), and St. James the Apostle (July 25) is only the beginning. Some years we celebrate Thanksgiving on the 25th (November) or Ash Wednesday (February) on that day. Today we have St. Mark, Evangelist.
St. Mark, whose Gospel is the earliest of the four evangelists, is symbolized by the lion (Matthew, Luke and John depicted as angel, ox and eagle, respectively) mirroring courage.
We imagine the courageous person as one possessing valor or guts, but the word actually comes from the Latin, cor (heart) and agere (to act); so, to be courageous means to have the strength of “acting from the heart.”
Years ago, while directing a retreat for college students, I remember asking these salt-of-the-earth, good young people what the most important attribute or virtue might be in their choices of friendship. Nearly all of them said they look for integrity or authenticity in others… that people be true to their hearts, not so much their thoughts or abstract ideas.
In our liturgical readings during these days of basking in the shadow of Eastertide, we keep hearing (especially from the Acts of the Apostles) those stories about the early followers of Jesus being transformed, that resurrection wasn’t just something that happened to Jesus.
Rather, all those who shared in Baptism were also to immerse themselves into the Paschal Mystery.
They were converted, or transformed, from being a scattered, scrappy group of frightened and suspicious independents, into being suddenly galvanized into a believing and zealous faith community.
In our first reading, St. Peter thunders, “Clothe yourselves in heartfelt humility”! Perhaps one of the reasons many young people today are drifting away from the structures of participation — in politics and government and church — could be a call for all of us to be more authentic or genuine, to act from the heart. Courage. Saint Mark.
