St. Mark the Evangelist
1 Peter 5:5-14  +  Mark 16:15-20
April 25, 2017

“But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them….”

Saint Mark the Evangelist, like St. Luke, was not an apostle, as were the evangelists Matthew and John.  Yet various prayers and Scriptures in the Sacred Liturgy are taken today from those set aside for the apostles.  Why is this?  Is the Church just too lazy to compose prayers specifically for the evangelists?  Of course not.

The entire New Testament is apostolic in origin.  Out of the 27 books of the New Testament, only two were not composed by apostles: the Gospel accounts of Mark and Luke.  Yet even these two books are apostolic in origin, for St. Mark was a disciple of St. Peter, and St. Luke of St. Paul.

That St. Mark handed down the Gospel account that he had received from an apostle reminds each of us of two things.  First, the Church is apostolic in origin, by the design of Jesus.  It’s in unity with our bishops under the guidance of the Pope that we can hear and understand the fullness of the Gospel.  Second, each of us, like St. Mark, is to hand on to others the Good News proclaimed through the apostles and their successors.  Each of us carries out this mandate within the setting of his or her own vocation within the Mystical Body of Christ.