God working with us!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

April 25, 2022: St. Mark the Evangelist

1 Peter 5: 5-14; Mark 16: 15-20

‘The Lord worked with them’ reads the last verse of the Gospel today! The Apostles had this privilege it looks like, as we read the Acts and the letters…the Lord worked with them. The words, I will be with you till the end of times, was not merely words or a ideology; it was a concrete experience of the Early Christian Communities. Specially, the apostles are found to be so fiery, fearless and focused because they saw, experienced and were convinced that ‘the Lord worked with them.’ 

St. Mark, apart from being the evangelist that he was, represents the generation that immediately followed the apostles and received the Christ-ian heritage – a reminder for us that even today, if we are conscious and convinced, the Lord works with us! There is no reason to be afraid, apprehensive or alarmed about the situation around or the worsening situations from within. Because, the Lord works with us.

What does it mean to believe that God works with us? On the one hand, it is to surrender ourselves to the will of God for the works of the God. "Bow down, then, before the power of God now, and he will raise you up on the appointed day," says St. Peter whose ardent disciple Mark was. As a young disciple of the second generation, Mark insists on this in his proclamation reflected in the Gospel. 

On the other hand, directing all our works, all our aspirations, all our undertakings and all our endeavours towards the Reign of God... thus making the presence of God felt in and through all our words, deeds and works. "In my name they will cast out devils; they will have the gift of tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover," - all works and signs towards the Reign of God, the epitome of the experience of God working with us!