NOTES for Mar 16:15-18
Before ascending to the Father, Jesus sends His disciples out to preach and addresses them with parting instructions. He calls them to proclaim the Good News to the whole world, to “all creation,” and then lists the miracles that are to accompany those who believe. These signs of divine presence seem simply fantastic, and the temptation is great to understand them not literally but allegorically. Yet in the final verses of this chapter, Mark states clearly that their preaching took place with “the word being confirmed by the signs that followed.”
How often we preach only with words, retelling the truths of the Gospel without embodying them in our own lives. The Savior warns us against this before His Ascension, insisting that words must be accompanied by signs. Our faith is, of course, not as strong as that of the apostles, and we cannot heal the sick with our own shadow as Peter did. All we can do is trust that the Lord Himself will perform a miracle and try, as far as we are able, to ease our neighbor’s suffering. This will be a real sign of our living faith.