Feast of St. Mark

According to Church tradition, John Mark wrote the second gospel in the New Testament. Many speculate that he was the man who carried a jar of water and in whose house, Jesus and his disciples ate the Last Supper (Mark 14:13-16). He was also the young man who escaped naked when Jesus was arrested.
And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body; and they seized him,
but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked (Mark 14:51-52).
Probably, he was too green. He left halfway in the First Missionary Journey of St. Paul at Perga in Pamphylia (Acts 13:14). Therefore, St. Paul refused to take him along in his Second Missionary Journey (Mark 15:37-39), causing Paul and Barnabas to part company. Somehow, Mark became the interpreter for St. Peter in Rome. That was why he had the materials to write the gospel. Peter called him fondly "my son Mark" (1 Peter 5:13b). Today, we are reading Mark 16:15-20. However, most scholars agree that Mark 16:9-20 is an appendix. The reading today might not have been penned by him. So, I turn to a more interesting passage in 1 Peter 5:5-14.
Today's reading begins with a very meaningful advice.
Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (1 Peter 5:5).
How wise St. Peter was! Humility is not inborn. It is not an ingredient of human nature. It needs to be learned, practised and put on. Moreover, humility covers our nakedness and vulnerability. It protects us from falling into self-destruction. Furthermore, it is probably the wedding garment required by the King in Matthew's parable (Matthew 22:12). So all of us, whether we be a PhD holder or a McDonald's waiter, need to be humble without exception.
In 1967, Dr. Thomas Anthony Harris wrote a self-help book called I'm OK, You're OK. Instantly, it became a bestseller and later, a classic. The book employs a technique called Transactional Analysis (TA) to help alleviate dysfunctioning relationships.
I'm OK, You're OK is the best situation in which both you and I benefit and grow from the relationship. Our potentials are realized.
I'm OK, You're NOT OK is the situation of victims of child abuse. It is not my fault. You have a problem. You deserve to be punished.
I'm NOT OK, You're OK is the situation of most people seeking psychological help, of true believers who always pray that they are sinners. Save me Lord.
I'm NOT OK, You're NOT OK is the worst situation in which life is no longer worth living. This is tragically illustrated by scenes of domestic violence in which a husband kills his family members and commits suicide to wrap up everything.
When I am in Situation 2, I am obviously not humble because I fail to recognize and acknowledge your value, your potential and God's grace in you. But neither is Situation 3. Although I am able to recognize my sins, my weakness and my incompetence, I fail to be humble exactly because I fail to acknowledge my value, my potential in God's eyes and deny the possibility of obtaining God's forgiveness and love. I am so proud as to say that God is wrong. I am irredeemable. Very soon, I may descend into Situation 4, into hell.
St. Peter said,
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you (1 Peter 5:7).
We should not misunderstand St. Peter. If our motive is to be exalted, then the humility we show is cheap. Rather, we humbly acknowledge our incompetence as well as our strength. We submit ourselves to the mighty hand of God, trusting that His plan is the best for us. Then, in due time, God will actualize our potential to the full. He will exalt us.
When St. Peter wrote this epistle, the early Church began to experience systematic persecutions from the State. Painfully, he saw believers falling one by one. He knew that it was beyond human strength to overcome such difficulties. No organized insurgence could overthrow the Roman Empire whose time was not yet due. Therefore, he urged us to humble ourselves under God's hand so that His Spirit might manifest smoothly with minimum resistance from us.

My sweet Jesus, I thank St. Mark for his hard work. He is not perfect but who can be? He failed several times and who hadn't? I thank You for giving us a saint whom we feel comfortable to imitate. May we learn and practise true humility so that Your image and likeness may shine through our humanity. Amen.