RBWords

     The post-Easter reflection on the Gospel According to John takes a break with the feast of another evangelist, Mark.  Tradition has a way of stitching together bits and pieces of information to create a narrative.  There is a reference in the first scripture today from the First Letter of Peter to "Mark, my son." which may have given rise to the belief that the principal source for the Gospel According to Mark was St. Peter.  I will leave that to the scholars to debate.  The gospel scripture for today is appropriately taken from the Gospel According to Mark, but from what is called the Marcan Appendix.  This means that some of the ancient manuscripts do not include it, but when a final conclusion at the Council of Trent was reached about what to include or exclude from the list of New Testament books, the appendix to the Gospel According to Mark was kept on the list.

     The context for today's passage is after Jesus' resurrection.  He appears to the disciples (who, in this gospel,  have not gotten very good reviews during his ministry!) and chews them out for not believing Mary Magdalen and others who had reported his resurrection.  Then he gives them their marching orders.  Those are really summed up in the one line quoted above.  Those marching orders are ours, too.  "Whole world" and "every creature" mean what they say.  The Gospel According to Mark is brief and blunt when compared to the other three.  But brevity and bluntness are sometimes what we need!  AMEN