Feast of St. Mark, Evangelist, April 25, 2007

Scripture: I Peter 5:5-14. Psalm 89. Mark 16:15-20. Lectionary #555

Many years ago I was surprised to learn that the first Gospel in written
form was that of St. Mark and that it happened around 70 A.D. Since then,
I have had a lot of adventures with this Gospel and taught it on a college
level for about ten years. It now is a precious New Testament text for my
prayer, my growth as a Catholic Marianist priest, and for my interest in
early Christianity from an academic point of view. I like to compare Mark
with a famous American author, J.D.Sallinger who always gives us great
description. Mark writes like that and uses for the most part the present
tense and hurries from one scene to another. He is not only an Evangelist,
he is a theologian and witness to who Jesus of Nazareth really is. I take
great delight in the first verse of Mark and even had my students memorize
it in Greek through transliteration. They mimmicked me but loved it as
they finally learned it in simple Greek. I even taught it to a Chinese
group that I study Scripture with and they did even better than my first
years students. Our first reading is selected from the Epistle of Peter,
his first. This is done because Mark is the one who probably followed Peter
around and learned from his preaching and teaching some of the oral
tradition that he put into writing in his Gospel. It probably all started
in Galilee after Jesus' resurrection. Peter was martyred in Rome and I am
convinced this Gospel was used there and probably in Alexandria, Egypt.
The writers of "Mark as Story" put it this way, one great colossal figure
was followed by a second great one; he in turn was followed by Mark. This
refers to Jesus, then Peter, and our Evangelist. We know that as an
Evangelist, he used more Latinisms than the others and this helps me link
him more to Rome than elsewhere. He is the one who makes the scenes in
Galilee come alive. After all, Peter's wife and mother-in-law were from
Caparnaum and Jesus probably visited their home several times in his short
active ministry of less than three years. Mark fits in well with this
season of Easter since his Gospel is pure proclamation of the Cross and the
Paschal Mysteries through the three predictions of the Passion, Death, and
Resurrection which happens in Galilee for Mark. Mark supplies much
information and an outline for Matthew and Luke; I am certain that John
too used a bit of it and was familiar with the first Gospel. St. Peter was
a self-starter and so too was Mark. The outline is simple: 1) Active
Ministry in Galilee after Jesus' Baptism; 2) the journey and sojourn in
Jerusalem; 3) the Passion Narrative and sudden ending of the Gospel at
Mark 16:8. Since we have also given a lot of reflection to the sacrament
of Baptism and then to the Eucharist, it is Mark who has two miracle of the
feeding of bread to thousands. Matthew is the only Evangelist to copy this
from him. Let me encourage you, dear readers, to meditate on the first
line on this feast day: "A BEGINNING OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST THE SON
OF GOD"...AMEN! Here is a footnote that will help you to think of Mark:
"The tradition of the Church Fathers, at least in the West, agrees that
this Gospel was written by Mark, the follower of Peter. This agreement
appears to stem from Papias, bishop of Hieropolis around A.D.110-130. He
(Papias) quotes John the Presbyter as saying: MARK, THE INTERPRETER OF
PETER, AS FAR AS HE COULD REMEMBER,WROTE DOWN ACCURATELY BUT NOT IN ORDER
THOSE THINGS WHICH HAD BEEN SAID OR DONE BY THE LORD." (Eusebius in his
Ecclesiastical History 3,39).