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.”
PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL: The word “gospel” comes from the Greek evangelion—good information, good news. In classical Greek, it meant the joyful news itself, or the offering to the gods in thanksgiving for good news. It also meant the announcement of victory or of other propitious events. In the context of the cult of the Roman emperors, the birthday of Caesar, his enthronement, his deeds were “good news” for the subjects of the Roman empire.
Good news had a religious meaning in the Hebrew Bible, especially in the texts of Isaiah. With Cyrus’ edict permitting the exiled Jews in Babylon to return to Jerusalem, the sentinel seeing caravans of returnees was called “herald of good tidings” (Is 40:9).
In the Gospel, Jesus portrays his mission as “the announcement of good news to the poor” (Lk 4:18). For this reason, “gospel” would mean the announcement of the joyful news of God’s definitive intervention through Jesus Christ. The “gospel of Christ” means the joyful news brought by Jesus and promulgated by him, and then the salvation achieved through him. With the coming of the gospel as a literary form, “gospel” would also refer to the works of the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
In the great commissioning in today’s Gospel, the apostles are commanded to preach the gospel to the whole world. The apostles are to announce what they have seen and heard from their Master, but also the deeper meaning of his person especially in the light of the paschal mystery.
The Apostle Paul, whose conversion we celebrate today, centers his gospel on the meaning of Jesus’ cross, his Paschal Mystery which encompasses the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. For Paul, the good news is God’s totally undeserved grace of sending his Son to save us from our sins. The cross may be a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks, but to the believers Christ Crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:23-24).