RBWords

     The Gospel of Mark also has its own "appendix."  Someone else, in effect, said, "Hey!  You forgot to mention....." and added it on early enough to catch the attention of the community and find its way into the "canon" of the New Testament.  I notice one thing that is consistent with the rest of the Gospel of Mark.  Jesus scolds the apostles for their failure to believe what Mary Magdalen had told them!    All through that gospel, they catch it from Jesus for their lack of faith!  This time he gives them some marching orders:  "Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature."  There are echoes of the Gospels of Luke and John here with the mention of Mary Magdalen and the two disciples on the road!   

     We Catholics are notoriously reluctant to proclaim the gospel to every creature.  Yes, we will go to battle with civil authorities or others to protect our "religious liberties" (and I don't want to take away the importance of that), but our moral positions are shared by non-Christian faiths as well.  What we are more reluctant to proclaim is our belief in Jesus Christ.  Part of it is that we fear being identified with certain evangelical expressions of Christianity.  Catholicism has been characterized as a "cool" faith in the sense that we are reluctant to prosyletize aggressively.  We prefer to leave this to private "conversion" through the RCIA programs in the parishes.  Yet, those folks in those programs tell us that it is the personal example of Catholics that have an impact.   Each of us needs to ask how we respond to the Lord's command, "Go out into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature!"  AMEN