Mk 16:15-18
15[Jesus appeared to the Eleven and] said to them: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. 16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. 18They will pick up serpents [with their hands], and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Go into the whole world: What finally converts Paul? Is it the blinding light or the voice from heaven? This may just be the climax of what he has been observing all along. He is converted, I believe, by the many Christians whom he has persecuted—how they show love for one another in the face of persecution, how they face death with courage, how they profess belief in their God despite the possible consequences, how they suffer and forgive in spite of his continued attacks on them.
It must be this strange faith that Paul wants to discover among the so-called Christians and that later urges him to spread it around the globe. His encounter with real Christians makes him establish such communities across the seas.
If Paul were to go around again today, would he find such real faithful Christian communities in our midst?
GOSPEL: “Gospel” (Greek euangelion) means good news, good information. In a religious sense it means the good news of salvation offered by God to his people. The sentinel announcing the return of exiles from Babylon was pictured as a “herald of good news” (Is 40:9). In the New Testament, “gospel” means the announcement of God’s definitive intervention for the sake of his people through Jesus Christ. Jesus proclaimed the good news to the poor. The apostles are sent to preach the Gospel of Jesus and about Jesus to the whole world.