528. April 25, St Mark, Evangelist

Meditations no. 460 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The figure of St Mark speaks to us of veneration for the Head of the Church, and of unity.

Sacred Scripture relates how St Peter, after having been freed from gaol by the ministry of an angel, went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. It is the first time Scripture mentions the name of Mark. Further on it tells us that he accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their first apostolic journey, that he abandoned them in Cyprus, and that, for this reason, St Paul did not allow Mark to go with them on their second journey. After some years, Mark again makes his appearance, now as a faithful co-worker of St Peter, who considers him a favourite son in the faith. St Paul himself, in his second letter to Timothy, praises the efficacy of his ministry.

Mark did not form a part of the group of the Apostles, but he was a disciple of the first hour. He accompanied them in their apostolic endeavours and gradually became one of the most faithful collaborators, especially of St Peter. St Jerome has passed on to us a few facts which shed light on what his life was like: Mark, disciple and interpreter of Peter, at the request of the brethren who lived in Rome, put his Gospel into writing according to what he had heard Peter preaching. Peter himself approved it, after having listened to it, and he handed it over with his authority so that it might be read in the Church.

And St Jerome continues: Afterwards, taking the Gospel he had written, Mark went off to Egypt and announced Christ for the first time in Alexandria. He thereby founded the Church there with so much doctrine and right living that by his example he drew many to follow Christ.

We discover in the figure of the holy evangelist a quality that characterised him as an efficacious collaborator and docile disciple of the Apostles: He knew how to renounce personal ideas in order to expound St Peter’s teaching faithfully and without the smallest deviation from his doctrine, being, as he was, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. From which it may be seen that he was perfectly united to the visible Head of the Church.

St Mark - and this is a consideration we can apply to our lives - understood how to stay in his place. He was aware of St Peter’s primacy in the Church, and he comprehended that his mission by his side consisted in passing on the teachings of the Prince of the Apostles faithfully, while being docile, too, to divine inspiration. He thereby composed one of the four Gospels, something for which he is perennially remembered in the Church.

O God, you honoured your evangelist St Mark with the grace of proclaiming the Good News. We beseech you to enable us always to make good use of his teaching so as to follow Christ your Son, our Lord, faithfully.

Our union with the ecclesiastical Hierarchy.

Our Father showed his veneration for the Church and her visible Head in many different ways. You well know, he wrote to us, the heart-felt love that I have for the Pope, the Holy See, and you have heard me speak about how we must always defend his authority, and be ready to rectify any of our opinions, in a filial and docile way, at the behest of the Church’s Magisterium.

I would cut off my tongue with my teeth and expel it far away a thousand times over, before uttering the least murmur about the one I love most on earth after our Lord and Holy Mary: Il dolce Cristo in terra, as I usually say, repeating the words of St Catherine of Siena.

This union we maintain with the Roman Pontiff makes us now, and will in the future, feel most united to the local Ordinary in each diocese. I usually say, and rightly so, that we do, and always will, pull the cart in the same direction as the Bishop. If at some time, a Most Reverend Ordinary does not see it that way and tries to make out incompatibilities that cannot exist, I would greatly regret it. But, as long as it does not compromise what is essential, I would give in. And you too ought to give in, without difficulty. We are motivated in our self-giving only by the desire to give God all the glory, and to serve the Church and all souls without seeking any glory for the Work or any personal gain.

Foreseeing these possible difficulties, which seem unlikely to me, and in order to obtain from our Lord, right from the beginning of the Work, this internal and external union with the local Ordinary, and with all the souls who are engaged in whatever kind of apostolic work, you know that we pray each day pro unitate apostolatus. It is a unity that is conferred only by the Pope upon the whole Church; and by the bishop, in communion with the Holy See, upon the diocese.

In Opus Dei, we dedicate ourselves personally, by divine vocation, to the service of all souls, in the state and condition each one of us has, where our Lord has called us, and in the place where the Directors have placed us. And so it is that the fidelity to that mission and to the spirit that we have received from God will always be a pledge of efficacy in the service we render to the Church…

If you live out this spirit, wrote our founder, you will always maintain a close union in filial affection with the one who, as the Vicar of Christ, confers unity upon the whole of the Catholic Church, that is, the Roman Pontiff, as well as with the bishops, who, under the authority of Peter, govern the dioceses.

And so you will feel the joy of working efficaciously in the service of the Holy Church of God and of all souls, when you carry out that most beautiful task of giving doctrine, by example and word, through your professional work, in the middle of the world.

Eagerness to serve the Church, the Roman Pontiff and all souls.

We want to serve and we feel honoured to do so. Indeed, we are convinced that, were we to forego this longing, we would not be able to imitate Christ, which is our only desire. My children, our Lord came to the earth for this - Filius hominis non venit ministrari, sed ministrare (Matt 20: 28); the Son of man came not to be served but to serve - and everyone who wants to follow him is not to aspire to any other line of conduct. This disposition for being of service, which we renew so often throughout the day, is directed in first place to the Church and to the Roman Pontiff. That cry - Serviam! - is the will to serve the Church of God faithfully, even at the cost of fortune, of reputation and of life.

On the current world scene in the present time, where laicism and materialism threaten to sterilise the life and the apostolic action of many Christians, we recall some words of our founder: My children, we can say that the concern and the responsibility for the entire Holy Church - sollicitudo totius Sanctae Ecclesiae Dei - and not just of this or that particular part, weighs down upon us. Backing up as we do the official - juridical, de iure divino -responsibility of the Roman Pontiff and of the Most Reverend Ordinaries, and not with a juridical responsibility, but rather with a spiritual, ascetical one, full of love, we serve the whole Church with a service of a professional nature, of citizens who bear the Christian witness of example and doctrine to the furthermost reaches of civil society.

Ours is a service of prayer, of sacrifice, of sanctified and sanctifying work, a direct consequence of the vocational commitment that unites us to Opus Dei. And this service is efficacious and fruitful for the Church, provided we live out in all their details the specific requirements of our vocation to holiness and apostolate: Each in his own situation, in the place where God has called him, in the fulfilment of his family, professional and social duties…

Do not think, however, that making a service of our lives is easy, our Father also wrote. This good desire must be translated into deeds, for the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power (1 Cor 4: 20). And we can’t be of constant assistance to others without sacrifice. Instantia mea quotidiana sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum (2 Cor11: 28), there is the daily pressure upon me of the anxiety for all the churches, wrote St Paul, and this sigh of the Apostle reminds all of us Christians of the responsibility all the faithful have to feel, in order to place at the feet of the Spouse of Jesus Christ - of the Holy Church - all that we are and possess, loving her most faithfully, even at the cost of fortune, of reputation and of life.

Union with the Head: to serve the Church, the Pope and all souls with joy and simplicity, without ostentation, with faithfulness, without awaiting any payment on earth, is what the evangelist St Mark teaches us also with his life. Perhaps he learned it directly from our Lord when he was young, for - as an ancient ecclesiastical tradition relates - Jesus liked to meet with his disciples in the house which Mark’s mother had in Jerusalem. Perhaps the Blessed Virgin taught it to him, for she would have stayed with the first disciples in that house after Jesus’ death as they awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit.

We now go to our Lady, telling her of our desire to serve God’s Church, according to the spirit of the Work, in a disinterested way, without expecting an earthly return, after the manner of that little donkey her Son used one day to make his glorious entry into Jerusalem.