Mk 16:15-20 (9-20)

 

The unthinkable news to the contrary, and the unbelief of the Apostles

(Mk 16:9-15)

 

«How universal is the great Way! He can be on the left as well as the right» [Tao Tê Ching (xxxiv)].

 

Despite their difficulty in believing, the disciples are made heralds of the News of God.

Glad tidings favourable to humanity that intends to journey towards itself - without the baggage of the overwhelming accumulations of tradition, or the conditioning of fashions.

Jesus brings out the transmutative capacities already in the dowry of each one, for communion with God and one's brothers and sisters, in the journey of life and the sense of rebirth that lurks therein.

His Person and vicissitude teaches us that all this develops after pain, travails, experiences of rejection, thoughts of failure and death ... [for us today, also in reference to new arrangements, or global crises, war, health emergency].

In such a seemingly inverted perspective, his proposal supplants the oppressive yoke of the external perfections preached by religion; replaced by our own simple family virtues, grasped from within.

Not: proselytising, setting up, fighting, but 'welcoming'. Not to 'obey' God, but to 'resemble' Him by being oneself; so on.

 

The Church should not have become an ethical communion of heroes and saints, but of sinners and undecideds.

Indeed, the story of the unbelieving apostles comforts us: we are already empowered, and with aptitude for fullness. But in its reversal.

It is the resurrection that sends us among men, precisely to be regenerated; just like us.

So the condition of the 'apostle' weaves its roots into the little by little of concrete existence.

It is not subjected to the usual doctrinal, moral, devotional rigmarole of great things; it is no longer delayed in being assumed.

Despite the fact that self-belief remains fragile, we continually experience regeneration from our wreckage - at best still bringing the entire organism of the spirit, and the inner universe, into being.

All this shapes a different consciousness of inadequacy: the one in the Faith - only positive, which understands the brothers and knows how to justify the resistance to the Announcement.

For it is in the recovery of surprises, opposites and contradictions that we have become - in our own - experts in difficulty.

In this way, more able to perceive discomfort; even feeling drained - as a preparatory energetic state.

Then we have learnt the listening to emotions: even the feeling of being overwhelmed - even in ideas.

As well as the need to grasp or lose oneself in sorrows, even unbearable ones.

And not fearing solitude, the key to accessing the treasures of one's own eccentricity and Calling by Name.

 

In short, for the purpose of vocational fulfilment, everyone is already perfect.

In its bearer of dissimilar energies, it just has to learn to meet the sides of itself that it has not yet given space to.

As if within us we have a multiplicity of 'faces' - often all to be discovered, behind some shell that resists.

They are malleable energies, powers, other arrangements; occasions that complement, and infallibly lead to personal and social blossoming.

Here we pass from death-resurrection experience to true witness, in the spontaneous frankness of having been enabled as evangelisers.

Which surprises us. But now the Message makes a body with ourselves.

A call for peace, however explosive - unbelievable, and we see this more from the limits (now nothing to fear) than from the ability to set up cathedrals and showcases.

After Christ, one no longer has to 'improve' in the common sense.

There is no waiting and purpose à la page, or looking to and drinking from the fountain of the past. They then place us in the same predictable situation as always.

For the shaky disciples, religion was self-denial at its core.

Conversely, the vocation became the development of what each person was in his or her innermost being, and had not given himself or herself: the path of self-realisation in contributing to the brothers.

The only convincing weapon is genuineness: frankness that burns within to make us unconscious and incomplete, yet living, shrines.

Only way to meet souls.

 

The churches of the first generation were small realities lost in the immensity of the empire. Minimal communities 'in the midst' of the vastness of a world marked by different principles.

Popular fraternities animated by a passion that made them a visible witness and manifestation of the life of the Risen One.

The spirit of the origins was the only proof and possibility of recognition of Christ.

Then, to defend themselves against criticism, lists of 'apparitions' began to appear, but only from the second generation of believers.

Does it no longer appear today? No, he still manifests himself in his people.

This is the whole game.

The difficulty in accepting the convincing signs of the Presence of Jesus and his own Spirit can be overcome.Not with organisation, which weakens the uniqueness. There is no living here. Not with perfectionism, which boycotts the expression of our qualities.

But through the conviviality of differences, and by announcing "to all" the "good news" (v.15) that the Lord goes beyond the experience of what is already known.

"Go": if one does not do Exodus, one does not unleash the Spirit. We must not lose ourselves in the search for external consensus.

It is within a non-selective Path that we learn to transform our discomforts into valuable resources to face the future.

The Good News to be proclaimed is: the Father is loving; he wants to care.

Exactly the opposite of what the false leaders of both Judaism and any culture of the empire preached.

Not a leech God who depersonalises; conversely, a Father who gives.

Not the God of religion, who waits for the reckoning. For he accentuates transmutations.

He is the Root of Being and the Founding Relation. Gift that ceaselessly comes to activate the exuberance of flourishing.

Not a grey Lawgiver and compassionate Judge, who imposes rules or punishes - to keep everyone in check.

The Eternal One invites and transmits his own surplus - even discordant - to merge, and dilate aspects, resources, dissimilar faces. Possibility of realisation for each one.

Unthinkable, before Jesus.

 

 

To internalise and live the message:

 

How do you overcome doubt, retreating? What do you announce with your life? Does it go beyond direct experience? Do you know realities that manifest the Risen One? How do you point out exuberant paths of hope? Or are you selective and silent?

 

 

Go into all the world and proclaim with Him

(Mk 16:15-20)

 

The appendix of Mark (16:9-20) presents some manifestations of the Risen One and the assumption into heaven.

It is the so-called Ascension (v.19) or the Passover of Christ according to the Semitic category of royal enthronement.

The text reflects a charismatic environment that suggests a very primitive community, less configured than in other Gospels [less articulated in: leaders, tasks, discipleship, liturgical signs, and discipline].

The premise of today's passage is not entirely edifying: Jesus rebukes the Eleven for not believing.

They have historically resisted stubbornly because they cultivated contrary expectations.

Mk insists.

The transmission of the Faith does indeed pass through particular and prophetic figures. It spreads through very small fraternities with particular sensitivities. But even the least critical witnesses are not to be discouraged.

Adherence to the Risen One was uncertain even by those who knew him personally and lived with him.

Despite this, God only considers obstinacy guilty.

The Message to be announced and adhered to in the first person is so unusual that at first it can create reluctance and scepticism - as was even the case among the apostles, leaders of the nascent Church.

They too were weak and uncertain who were made convinced, stronger and more decisive, by Gift; in the experience of interpersonal communion, described in filigree in the same mandate (vv.17-18).

Sharing within a vital fraternity has however produced new perceptions - more rooted in being - and a growing afflatus.

Thus on the wave like an energy chain, each Seed has become aware that it has gradually learnt to respond to his call and not let itself be disturbed by poisons.

This recognition of the divine Presence in his new Face was revealed and poured out on the marginalised and the sick - the lowly and imperfect previously considered in religions to be punished by fate or even cursed by God.

The atmosphere of friendship and understanding that had supplanted social and spiritual antagonism, and the feeling of being welcomed even in precarious conditions, favoured every care, every expression of gratuitousness.

Christ has thus continued to unfold his work in history, making himself alive in the human and divine people who bear witness to him. His influence and triumph - victorious everywhere over the germs of death.

His only "power".

 

In every person or group there are decisive events, stages of regeneration and new birth.

Mk attempts to describe the change in Jesus' presence, which continues to guide the disciples step by step even in the first hesitations following his inglorious death.

The mission seemed not precisely defined [as vice versa in religious ideologies] and superior to the forces at work.

By his inspiration and power, Christ wanted to remain forever present in his disciples, manifesting himself alive in the signs mentioned in the text.

They are not demonstrative prodigies - although since the end of the 2nd century apologetic eagerness has wanted to impose itself on the narrative of faith, and we too have unfortunately inherited it.The Announcement is accompanied by the new language of love and its wonders:

The Spirit of the living Christ in the Church is bringing about another kingdom.

 

The statement in v.19 is also theological. The image recalls the customs of the Eastern courts.

Here it is useful to express God's inverse judgement of the Son's earthly defeat - and of His own.

Then, the concluding verse of the Gospel according to Mark finally testifies to the disciples' conviction that they have the Lord beside them, that they are not alone and orphaned.

 

In this way and in the Spirit of genuine selflessness, the Resurrection has become a fact that spans time, right up to today.

Intimate mystery and wonder, our 'breath' and impetus - so that the world may be a favourable place for the fullness of life for all.

 

 

Humble for great things: salus animarum vs salus idearum

 

Magnanimity in humility. This is the way of life of the Christian who really wants to be a witness to the gospel to the ends of the earth. The contours of this way of being "missionaries in the Church" were outlined by Pope Francis, this morning, Thursday 25 April, during the now customary celebration of Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae [...].

As always, the Pontiff commented on the day's readings, taken from the first letter of St Peter (5:5-14) and from the Gospel of Mark (16:15-20). "Jesus, before ascending to heaven, sends the apostles to evangelise, to preach the kingdom. He sends them to the end of the world. "Go into the whole world," he began. And he went on to emphasise the universality of the Church's mission, highlighting the fact that Jesus does not tell the apostles to go to Jerusalem or Galilee, but sends them all over the world. Thus, it opens up a great horizon. From this we can understand the true dimension of the 'missionary nature of the Church', which goes forth preaching 'to the whole world. But,' the Pope warned, 'she does not go alone; she goes with Jesus'.

So the apostles went out and preached everywhere. But "the Lord," he pointed out, "worked together with them. The Lord works with all those who preach the Gospel. This is the magnanimity that Christians must have. A pusillanimous Christian cannot be understood. This magnanimity is proper to the Christian vocation: always more, always more; always ahead'.

However,' he warned, 'something can also happen 'that is not so Christian'. At that point, "how are we to go forward? What is the style that Jesus wants for his disciples in the preaching of the Gospel, in this missionary work?" the Pontiff asked himself. And he indicated the answer in the text of St Peter, who "explains this style a little: 'Beloved, clothe yourselves with humility, one to another, for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. The style of evangelical preaching goes on this attitude, humility, service, charity, fraternal love'.

The Pope then imagined the possible objection of a Christian before the Lord who proposes this style: "But Lord, we must conquer the world!". And he showed what is wrong with this attitude: 'This word, "conquer", does not go. We must preach in the world. The Christian must not be like the soldiers who, when they win the battle, wipe out everything".

At this point, Pope Francis referred to a medieval text in which it is told that the Christians, after winning a battle and conquering a city, lined up all the pagans and lined them up between the baptistery and the sword, forcing them to choose: the water, that is baptism, or the weapon, that is death. And he affirmed: "This is not the Christian's style. Its style is that of Jesus, humble'.

The Christian,' he explained, 'preaches, announces the Gospel with his testimony more than with words. A wise bishop from Italy said to me a few days ago: 'Sometimes we get confused and think that our evangelical preaching must be a salus idearum and not a salus animarum, the health of ideas and not the health of souls. But how does one get to the health of souls? With humility, with charity. St Thomas has a beautiful phrase on this: 'It is like going towards that horizon that never ends because it is always a horizon'. So how do we proceed with this Christian attitude? He says do not be afraid of great things. Moving forward, taking into account even the small things. This is divine. It is like a tension between the great and the small; both, this is Christian. Christian missionary work, the preaching of the Gospel of the Church, goes this way'.

The confirmation is in Mark's gospel. The Pope noted it: 'You cannot proceed in any other way. And in the Gospel, at the end, there is a beautiful sentence when it says that Jesus acted together with them and 'confirmed the word with the signs that accompanied it'. When we go with this magnanimity and also with this humility, when we do not become afraid of the big things, of this horizon, but we also take the small things, such as humility and daily charity, the Lord confirms the Word and we go forward. The triumph of the Church is the resurrection of Jesus. There is the cross first".

"Let us ask the Lord today," he concluded, "to become missionaries in the Church, apostles in the Church, but with this spirit: great magnanimity and also great humility".

(Pope Francis, S. Marta homily, in L'Osservatore Romano 26/04/2013)

 

 

The Victory of the Risen One is his People, in the care of creation

 

[Gospel of the Conversion of St Paul].

(Mk 16:15-18)

 

Paul - who is us - manages to free himself from the fetters of subservience to an antiquated and selective religion. He discovers the joy of living.

Strict tradition is supplanted, together with all its false and empty ideal of perfection (individualist or circle).

He sees opportunity, fully. He encounters and intuits the best, which persuades him to throw himself into the risk of a life of Faith.

He recognises the Love that well disposes, humanises, intimately convinces because it recovers, reintegrates and makes differences and opposites convivial.

Here he discovers the authentic divine trait. Qualities that surpass the pharisaic - only sterilising - purity norms he had hastily adhered to.

All this dismantles him, makes him experience another Kingdom, which conveys a different Vision - with no more impossible conditions of indefectibility.

The fraternal experience of the Lord's intimates compels him: he feels he must collapse from the empyrean in which he had placed himself.

He falls not from his horse, but from the artificial pedestals of inherited belief - which did not encourage him to grow, from within.

He experiences the active dynamics of a grace that does not overpower; undeserved and prevenient - that takes the first step.

He finds it even in his own lacerated inner life, and in the attentive, hospitable character of the first communities: he is fascinated by them.

 

Of course, the sudden 'conversion' can affect him in turn in a way that is just as radical, passionate... and opposite to the 'starchy' choices.

The excessive, dizzying sense - perhaps otherwise one-sided, 'reformers' - can be typical of reversals from the previous plastered conformity.

And it can again become one-sided.

But indeed, as a sign of his Presence, Jesus left a free spirit.

Not vintage catwalks, nor festivals. Not even fantasies of an abstract, cerebral, disembodied world.

Not a fixed ideology, nor a relic - or particularly dedicated places and times.

In such openness, which unleashes the Spirit, we all recognise ourselves today.

Namely: in the spirit of the Exodus and in the adventurous afflatus of the Apostle of the Gentiles, who everywhere and to everyone proposed the Risen One.

He is truly Living in the work of his People who evangelise without ceasing or fence (v.15) - but to the extent that they leap from the idol of distinction to the conviviality of differences.

From oppositions and reversals, to Communion. It is not a torrent in flood, nor a shouted attitude, because it makes room for better understanding, valuing other points of view.

 

The task appears grandiose and would seem to be beyond our strength, but in the meantime we can initiate a new atmosphere by living in a less distracted manner; precisely, by proclaiming "to every creature" (v.15).

The expression contains the invitation to open the horizons of salvation also to the whole of creation - of which we are not the masters.

After decades of land plundering and just as the world of devotions has moved on indifferently, perhaps we are beginning to understand that God is calling us to be custodians, not predators.

[Called to a totally different quality of relationship from the opportunist one we have had before our eyes and perhaps helped to perpetrate - just while the churches were still packed, drowsing consciences, as well as many vital energies].

In short, the Risen One activates a new way, place and time: both to meet ourselves and people, and plants and animals.

 

The proclamation of Salvation that we are invited to proclaim continues with other very practical "signs" and messages, which, however, have nothing to do with competing with magicians and soothsayers (vv.17-18).

Unfortunately, the sense of these lines interpreted by ear runs the risk of locking the crowds into that misunderstanding that can insinuate a whole way of thinking and a style anchored to the torment of conventional spirituality, empty of content and incisiveness.

In fact, we are still passionate about the search for visions, demonstrative wonders and religion-show phenomena.

We have behind us a corpus of history that, from the second century onwards, has sought to impose an apologetic conception of 'miracles': utterly cheap shots of lightning and today grounds for righteous rejection.In essence, the "preaching of the Gospel" is not about grim things, or about exceptionalities (though plausible here and there).

Rather, it is a work of wide-ranging humanisation, thanks to which people abandon the aggressive and dangerous aspect of their nature.

This happens to this day, in favour of encounter and dialogue.

The forces of self-destruction and death are driven out - not by punctual, lightning prodigy, but by a process of content assimilation, strong friendship, exodus, and realisation.

 

Often the spiritual accompaniment of the Word and of an authentic community help people to free themselves from the obsessions of unworthiness that block life - and thus to discover personality sides and unexpressed powers.

As a commentary on the Tao Tê Ching (XLVII), Master Ho-shang Kung writes: 'The saint [...] from his own person knows the person of others, from his own family knows the family of others: from these he looks at the world'.

A completely new language blossoms in such a climate: that of welcoming and sensitive listening, the first step towards a new communication.

For example, it allows us to shift our gaze, to acquire knowledge, to get to know people we had not imagined, to frequent other regions and cultures; and so on.

The 'poisons' - even those that are not easy to identify - are rendered harmless, not because we pass over them and pretend they do not exist. We are not called to be disassociated.

He simply takes note of his own vocational character and the varied inclinations of others. Nothing that is human is only 'lethal' (v.18).

 

Thus - by letting everyone follow their own nature - we become mutually tolerant and richer, improving coexistence; without hysteria or mannerisms.

On such a vital wave, unparalleled attention to the weak, the sick, the marginalised can appear everywhere.

A wise natural attitude of caring for the least, no longer forced or imposed, but spontaneous and forthright.

Quite naturally, it is precisely the weak who are now enabled to become the centre of the family, of groups, of ministerial activity.

An institution of service, the new Church; which gradually expunges the dirigiste model of the large and self-sufficient.

In this way, our divine DNA manifests itself when we achieve impossible recoveries.

In short, we are the bearers of a force capable of recreating women and men - even desperate ones who have lost energy and self-esteem.

 

From the very beginnings, in a practical, de facto ecumenical and inter-religious style, no particular denominational affiliation has been able to annihilate the spirit of convocation and coexistence, innate in humanity in search.

In concrete terms, the Lord's proposal has always left room for singular contributions, for even instinctive powers and images, for inner struggles - not denigrated at the outset as in religions.

The Risen One has manifested and expressed himself through the Mission of his lovable Community, a place favourable to the exchange of gifts; to the settlement of distances, to profound happiness.

This was His own way of revealing the Father's Love to the world - without excessive proclamation - and remaining close to us.

 

 

To internalise and live the message:

 

What are the signs of new life that you have been able and willing to receive, assimilate, put into action, and which correspond most to you?

 

 

Crossing cultural and religious boundaries

 

"Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature" (Mk 16:15); "make disciples of all nations", says the Lord (Mt 28:19). With these words Jesus sends the Apostles to all creatures, so that God's saving action may reach everywhere. But if we look at the moment of Jesus' ascension into heaven, narrated in the Acts of the Apostles, we see that the disciples are still locked in their vision, thinking about the restoration of a new Davidic kingdom, and they ask the Lord, "is this the time when you will restore the kingdom for Israel?" (Acts 1:6). And how does Jesus respond? He responds by opening their horizons and giving them a promise and a task: he promises that they will be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and gives them the task of witnessing to him throughout the world by going beyond the cultural and religious boundaries within which they were accustomed to think and live, to open themselves to the universal Kingdom of God. And at the beginning of the Church's journey, the Apostles and disciples set out without any human security, but with the sole strength of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel and faith. It is the ferment that spreads throughout the world, it enters into the different events and multiple cultural and social contexts, but it remains a single Church. Christian communities flourish around the Apostles, but they are 'the' Church, which, in Jerusalem, Antioch or Rome, is always the same, one and universal. And when the Apostles speak of the Church, they do not speak of their own community, they speak of the Church of Christ, and they insist on this unique, universal and total identity of the Catholica, which is realised in each local Church. The Church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic, reflecting in herself the source of her life and her journey: the unity and communion of the Trinity.

(Pope Benedict, address to the consistory 24 November 2012)

 

Faith that is not quiet.

Transmitted not to convince but to offer a treasure

 

St Mark, one of the four evangelists, is very close to the Apostle Peter. The Gospel of Mark was the first to be written. It is simple, a simple style, very close [...].

And in the Gospel we read now - which is the end of Mark's Gospel - there is the sending of the Lord. The Lord revealed himself as saviour, as the only Son of God; he revealed himself to all Israel, to the people, especially in more detail to the apostles, to the disciples. This is the Lord's farewell, the Lord is leaving: he departed and 'was lifted up into heaven and seated at the right hand of God' (Mk 16:19). But before he left, when he appeared to the Eleven, he said to them: 'Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature' (Mk 16:15). There is the missionary nature of faith. Faith is either missionary or it is not faith. Faith is not just something for me to grow by faith: that is a Gnostic heresy. Faith always leads you out of yourself. Going out. The transmission of faith; faith is to be transmitted, it is to be offered, above all by witness: "Go, that people may see how you live" (cf. v. 15).

Someone told me, a European priest, from a European city: 'There is so much unbelief, so much agnosticism in our cities, because Christians do not have faith. If they had it, they would surely give it to people'. Missionary outreach is missing. Because at root there is a lack of conviction: 'Yes, I am Christian, I am Catholic...'. As if it were a social attitude. On your identity card you call yourself so-and-so and 'I am a Christian'. It is a given on the identity card. This is not faith! This is a cultural thing. Faith necessarily takes you out, leads you to give it: because faith essentially has to be transmitted. It's not quiet. "Ah, you mean, Father, that we must all be missionaries and go to distant countries?" No, this is a part of missionary work. This means that if you have faith you necessarily have to go outside yourself, and make faith seen socially. Faith is social, it is for everyone: "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to every creature" (v. 15). And that doesn't mean proselytising, like I'm a proselytising football team, or I'm a charitable society. No, faith is "no proselytism". It is making revelation seen, so that the Holy Spirit can act in people through witnessing: as a witness, with service. Service is a way of life. If I say that I am a Christian and live like a pagan, it is no good! That doesn't convince anyone. If I say I am a Christian and I live as a Christian, that attracts. It is witnessing.

Once, in Poland, a university student asked me: 'In the university I have many fellow atheists. What do I have to tell them to convince them?" - "Nothing, dear, nothing! The last thing you have to do is say something. Start living, and they, seeing your testimony, will ask: 'But why do you live like this?'". Faith must be transmitted: not to convince, but to offer a treasure. "It is there, you see." And this is also the humility of which St Peter spoke in the First Reading: 'Beloved, clothe yourselves all with humility towards one another, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble' (1 Peter 5:5). How many times in the Church, in history, have there been movements, aggregations, of men or women who wanted to convince of the faith, to convert... True 'proselytists'. And how did they end up? In corruption.

So tender is this Gospel passage! But where is the security? How can I be sure that by going out I will be fruitful in the transmission of the faith? "Proclaim the gospel to every creature" (Mk 16:15), do wonders (cf. vv. 17-18). And the Lord will be with us until the end of the world. It accompanies us. In the transmission of faith, there is always the Lord with us. In the transmission of ideology there will be teachers, but when I have an attitude of faith that must be transmitted, there is the Lord there to accompany me. Never, in the transmission of the faith, am I alone. It is the Lord with me who transmits the faith. He has promised: "I will be with you all days until the end of the world" (cf. Mt 28:20).

Let us pray to the Lord to help us live our faith in this way: faith from open doors, a transparent faith, not 'proselytising', but one that shows: 'This is who I am'. And with this healthy curiosity, you help people to receive this message that will save them.

(Pope Francis, s. Marta homily 25 April 2020)

 

 

To sum up, to internalise and live the message:

 

How do you overcome doubt, withdrawing? What do you announce with your life? Does it go beyond direct experience? Do you know realities that manifest the Risen One? How do you point out exuberant paths of hope? Or are you selective and silent?

What prodigies of salvation have you experienced? What inexplicable recoveries have you made with Jesus? Beyond the uncertainties, do you glimpse the Lord who builds his kingdom? What is your different way of being close to you?

What signs of new life have you been able to receive, assimilate, put into action, and do they most correspond to you?