April 25, 2026 Saint Mark the Evangelist Gospel: Mark 16:15–20
Today the Church celebrates the Feast of Saint Mark the Evangelist. The passage from the Gospel of Mark presents the final instruction Jesus gave to His disciples before His Ascension.
Our Lord Christ, rich in mercy, before He was taken up to Heaven, commanded His disciples to go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature (cf. Mk 16:15). Originally, this mission was entrusted to the Apostles. After receiving the Holy Spirit, they, through Baptism and the laying on of hands, imparted the Holy Spirit they had received more abundantly to those brethren who, through Christ’s Baptism and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, were to gain a more abundant life. Thus, they came to share in Christ’s royal, priestly, and prophetic office.
Today, we who have received Baptism in Christ Jesus through faith are united to the risen Lord and have received the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Like the Apostles of the early Church, we are called to serve Christ’s altar and proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom to the world. When we act in accordance with the Savior’s command and embrace His teaching, announcing the Gospel of the Kingdom to every creature according to the will of God, the life-giving Christ remains with us always, just as He promised the Apostles. He continues to manifest His mighty power through all that we do in our daily lives (cf. Mk 16:17–18). This enables those who witness our actions, performed in obedience to the Savior’s command, to join us in receiving new birth through water and the Holy Spirit by means of Baptism and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Thus, together with us, they may inherit the blessings God has prepared for us since the foundation of the world.
O God, who raised up Saint Mark, your Evangelist, and endowed him with the grace to preach the Gospel, grant, we pray, that we may so profit from his teaching as to follow faithfully in the footsteps of Christ. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
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