Countless stories are told about St. George, including the famous episode of the dragon and the girl saved by the saint. According to the standard version of the legend, we hear that in the city of Selem in Libya, there was a large pond where a terrible dragon lived. To appease it, the inhabitants offered him two sheep a day and later a sheep and a child drawn by lot. One day the king's daughter was chosen, and while she was heading toward the pond, George passed by and pierced the dragon with his spear; a gesture that became a symbol of faith triumphing over evil. Who was St. George? George, whose name in Greek means “farmer,” was born to a Christian family in Cappadocia around the year 280. After moving to Palestine, he joined the army of Diocletian. When the emperor issued the edict of persecution against Christians in 303, George gave all his belongings to the poor and, in front of Diocletian himself, tore the document apart and professed his faith in Christ. For this he suffered terrible torture and was eventually beheaded. Shortly after his death, a basilica was erected over the place of his burial in Lydda (modern-day Lod, in Israel). His relics are still visible today. Among the most ancient documents attesting to the existence of St. George, a Greek epigraph from 368 found in Heraclea of Bethany speaks of the “house or church of the saints and triumphant martyrs George and companions.” A Passio Georgii was classified among the hagiographic works by the Gelasianum Decree of 496 and deemed apocryphal. There were many later redactions of the Passio, which informed subsequent legends. From martyr to holy warrior The crusaders contributed a great deal to transforming the figure of St. George the martyr into a holy warrior, seeing in the killing of the dragon a symbol for the defeat of Islam; Richard I of England (“the Lionheart”) invoked him as the protector of all soldiers. With the Normans the cult of St. George became firmly rooted in England where, in 1348, King Edward III established the Order of the Knights of St. George. Throughout the Middle Ages his figure inspired a great deal of epic literature. Devotion to St George St George is considered the patron of knights, soldiers, scouts, fencers and archers, among others; he is also invoked against the plague and leprosy, and against venomous snakes. In the absence of certain information about his life, in 1969 the Church changed the liturgical feast of St George to an optional memorial on the universal calendar. However, this change did not affect devotion to the saint. The relics of the saint are found in different places of the world; in Rome the church of San Giorgio al Velabro has housed his skull from the time of Pope Zachariah.  As in the case of other saints wrapped in legend, the story of St George serves to remind the world of a fundamental idea, that good ultimately triumphs over evil. The fight against evil is a constant in human history. It is a battle cannot we cannot win on our own. Saint George was able to kill the dragon because God was acting in and through him. With Christ, evil will never have the last word.

Most of what we know about Mark comes directly from the New Testament. He is usually identified with the Mark of Acts 12:12. When St Peter escaped from prison, he went to the home of Mark’s mother. Paul and Barnabas took him along on the first missionary journey, but for some reason Mark returned alone. The oldest and the shortest of the four Gospels, the Gospel of Mark emphasizes Jesus’s rejection by humanity while being God’s triumphant envoy. Probably written for gentile converts in Rome - after the death of Peter and Paul sometime between A.D. 60 and 70 - Mark’s Gospel is the gradual manifestation of a “scandal”: a crucified Messiah. Evidently a friend of Mark - calling him “my son” - Peter is only one of this Gospel’s sources, others being the Church in Jerusalem, and the Church at Antioch. Like another Gospel writer Luke, Mark was not one of the 12 apostles. We cannot be certain whether he knew Jesus personally. Some scholars feel that the evangelist is speaking of himself when describing the arrest of Jesus: “Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body. They seized him, but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked” (Mark 14:51-52).  Others hold Mark to be the first bishop of Alexandria, Egypt.

Just like last week, we get another reminder that the risen Jesus offers peace to his friends and disciples. In this reading, they are still struggling with fear, doubt, and confusion about what they have experienced over the last three days. Rather than criticizing them for their doubts or misunderstandings, Jesus begins this encounter with them with his famous words “Peace be with you.” Before he does anything else, he wants them to have that gift. Once the peace is given, then he can answer their questions. It is only after they receive his peace that they can come to believe that this person in front of them-whom they thought was a ghost-is really their risen friend. Jesus takes care to show the disciples that he is still in a physical body. They can feel him with their own fingers. They can see the nail wounds in his hands and feet. They watch him eating fish. Jesus wants to be clear with them that he is not just a bright spirit floating around the earth.  In the Apostles’ Creed, we proclaim, “I believe in the resurrection of the body.” The gospel today gives us that hope. Our belief is that somehow - we do not know how - God will give us new life in the physical bodies we had on earth. They will be recognizable, as Jesus was recognizable after his resurrection, and they will still show the marks of our wounds, but those wounds will be healed. We will never be able to explain this hope and this belief with our minds, but then again, neither could the disciples have explained it rationally to others. Questions of the Week  Jesus responds to his friends’ doubts and confusions by offering peace rather than criticism. In what area(s) of your life might God be inviting you to accept peace rather than remain troubled?  What difference does it make for you to believe in the resurrection of the body, not just a resurrection of the soul or spirit?