PRI Reflections on Scripture • 4-25-24 - Feast of Saint Mark, evangelist

Finding God In Our Hearts with Msgr. Don Fischer

Gospel Mark 16:15-20
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.” Then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them,
was taken up into heaven
and took his seat at the right hand of God.
But they went forth and preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them
and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.
Reflection Imagine yourself in this scene. The resurrected Jesus is standing there before you. You understand him. He's been teaching you since he rose from the dead, and he's been amazingly clear to you as to what it is he wants from you.
It's not just that you have this gift for you, but you must give it to other people. Speak a new language to them. The language of love, not the language of law, and heal them from their darkness and from their depression. And most especially from fear. This is the beginning of the work that we have promised we will participate in to establish the Kingdom of God here and now.
Closing Prayer Father, often we're timid about proclaiming you to other people, but help us to realize that you gave us such a perfect model. It's not so much of what we say, it's but who we are when we resonate a joy, when we resonate, a feeling of hopefulness. And when we resonate love, we are doing the work of speaking a new language. We are doing the work we're called to do. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.