May 13, 2018

Gospel: Mk 16:15-20
Then he told them, “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; the one who refuses to believe will be condemned. Signs like these will accompany those who have believed: in my name they will cast out demons and speak new languages; they will pick up snakes, and if they drink anything poisonous, they will be unharmed; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.” So then, after speaking to them, the Lord Jesus was taken up into heaven and took his place at the right hand of God. The Eleven went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.

Lectio Divina
Read: Luke narrates the event of the ascension of the Lord. Mark informs us of the Lord’s command to be his missionaries to the ends of the world. Paul invites us to embrace this vocation that coopts our many God-given gifts so as to complete God’s dream of uniting the entire universe in the one body of Christ.
Reflect: To the disciples who stood looking wide-eyed at the sky to which Christ ascended – some believing, some rejoicing, and most of them confused – the angels throw a reprimand: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up at the sky?” Indeed, they are not meant to be standing there looking up; they are meant to go out to everywhere, to all the Galilees of the world, and get down to serious work that Jesus entrusted to them: preach the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness, His redemption and grace, and thus build up the body of Christ. The reprimand continues today: As Pope Francis reminds us, we are not merely to be an adoring, cozy Church, but are to be a serving Church that smells of the sheep on the margins and is bruised by its journey on the peripheries.
Pray: Pray for the missionaries serving in the margins of the world.
Act: Identify three practical ways you can be a missionary in the margins of your world.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2018