Word to the Wise
Monday, February 5, 2024 - Monday in the 5th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Kgs 8:1-7, 9-13 and Mark 6:53-56,401]After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed. [Mark]
FEBRUARY 5 ST. AGATHA, virgin and martyr
The Gospel According to Mark is the earliest in chronological order of composition of the four gospels. The gospels according to Matthew and Luke borrowed a great deal from it, but added and elaborated the "good news" of Jesus from various other sources and shaped their compositions to reach the particular communities for which they wrote. [The Gospel According to John did this, too, but did not borrow from Mark.] So, in the Gospel According to Mark, the various elements of Jesus' ministry are presented - preaching, healing, exorcisms - as well as the conflict between Jesus and the "powers" that be - the scribes, Pharisees and demons. All of these are meant to be understood in the light of the cross. This is why the disciples and crowds and others do not seem to recognize Jesus' true identity. (Only the demons do and Jesus silences them.) Finally it is the pagan centurion at the foot of the cross who says "Truly this man was the Son of God." [15:39]
This can help us understand the crowd scenes like the one in today's passage from Mark. Jesus is perceived as a healer or exorciser but nothing more. However, the gospel uses a Greek verb that means both heal and save, and not the usual word for healing from an illness. The crowds (and the disciples) do not understand what Jesus is really doing for them. The meaning of all of Jesus' ministry in the Gospel According to Mark is to be found in the cross and resurrection. It can be a challenge to begin reading the Gospel According to Mark with the passion account, but doing so can help us to understand everything that went before. AMEN