Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 16, 15-18
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.”
Convert, to see and proclaim
1. Go into the world. Open up and let go of the prejudice that makes you believe that you know it all. Look at St. Paul! The rigid structure he grew up in led him to believe that he knew more than others. Today we celebrate his conversion, his change, from being a persecutor to being persecuted. When Jesus appears to him He says: “Why are you persecuting me?”, showing that persecuting the Church is persecuting Christ, they are two sides of the same coin. Getting off your high horse or falling to the ground is a representation of ‘falling’ from your pride, from your plans, from what makes you look down on others, as if you were the perfect one. Perhaps, today God wants to throw you off your horse and remind you how hard the ground, that’s to say life, is. But, above all, that you have brothers and sisters who have already fallen but have also gotten up.
2. Seeing. Saul goes blind and it will be a follower of Jesus who will restore his sight. When you fall in life, it’s hard for you to see and understand things. That often happens to you when you get knocked down in life and you look like a fool, feeling puzzled by everything, because you don’t know where you stand. You even begin to doubt everything you have done. You need that person who will restore your sight and make you see the path you have to walk along. How hard it is when you can’t see!
3. Proclaim. That clearly appears in the gospel. When you fall and are able to get up, you see life from another perspective, and you feel the urge to proclaim it. It is an inner need to show the work of God not only in the Bible but rather in and with your life. Nowadays, there are many who are on their high horse, even among us, consecrated people. If you have fallen and have gotten up, try to help others see again, so instead of moaning about their fall, they might go out together with you, to proclaim that Christ lives!
May the conversion of St. Paul remind us that we can all change and that no one knows it all. Pray that we may fall off the horse of self-centeredness and discover that we can help one another to see and proclaim.
Remember that something good is on the way!
God bless you and protect you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
