RBWords

     Occasionally one encounters a bit of irony, probably unintended, in the lectionary.  Today's gospel scripture for the feast of St. Mark the Evangelist is an example.  It is taken from the last chapter of the Gospel of Mark, but that chapter is widely believed by scripture scholars to have been "added" to the original text!  Nevertheless, this "appendix" is a good summary of the entire content of the gospel itself.  Furthermore, by virtue of being included in the New Testament, Mark's gospel accomplishes what Jesus commanded!  The Bible has gone just about everywhere in the world!

     The Gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four gospels and was the first one written.  So, one could claim that Mark "invented" a completely new form of biblical literature - the gospel!  To get the full flavor of it means that we almost have to forget anything we know of Jesus from the three later "gospels" and pretend that Mark is all we have!  Why would Mark write a "gospel" in the first place?  Indeed, why was it necessary to put it in writing?  Where did he get his information from?  We know that Matthew and Luke got much of their information from Mark!  Why, in Mark, is there so much emphasis on keeping Jesus' real identity a secret till his passion and death?  

     There are many other questions that could be asked, but I think the exercise of reading the Gospel of Mark and realizing that this was the first story of its kind to be told about Jesus can add much to our own thinking about how WE should be going out into the whole world to proclaim the gospel.  AMEN