25^th April, Feast of Saint Mark

Mark was the first to write a gospel. According to early tradition, Mark was a disciple of Peter, which accounts for the first reading being from the first letter of Peter. At the end of the reading, Peter sends greetings from ‘your sister in Babylon’, which is code for the church in Rome, the capital of an earlier oppressive empire standing for the capital of the current oppressive empire. Mark’s gospel was the primary written source for the gospels of Matthew and Luke. In the early centuries the church seems to have found Matthew’s gospel in particular more helpful for the life of faith because of the large amount of the teaching of Jesus it contains, relative to Mark. As a result, Mark’s gospel was overshadowed somewhat in the early centuries by its larger relations, especially Matthew. Yet, without Mark’s gospel the church would not have had the gospels of Matthew or Luke in the form they have come down to us. In time, Mark’s gospel came to be appreciated on its own terms, and not just as a poorer version of Matthew’s gospel. It is now recognized for the wonderful literary and theological masterpiece it is. Mark portrays Jesus above all as the suffering Son of Man who came not to be served but to serve, and to lay down his life in the service of all. Mark’s portrait of what it means to be a disciple mirrors his portrait of Jesus. As disciples we are called to walk in the way of Jesus’ self-emptying service of God and God’s people, even when that means travelling the way of the cross. Mark is often unsparing in his portrayal of the failure of the disciples to take on board this teaching of Jesus about who he is and what it means to be his disciple. Jesus struggles to open their eyes. As the gospel progresses, their failure become more pronounced, until, at the end, ‘they all deserted him and fled’. Yet at the beginning of the final chapter of this gospel the young man in the empty tomb calls on the faithful women to tell the other disciples that Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee where they will see him.  The risen Lord remains faithful to his failed disciples, and his faithfulness finally allows them to see clearly and to go out afresh to preach the gospel. This faithfulness of the Lord is well expressed in today’s gospel reading, ‘the Lord working with them, confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it’. This message of Mark’s gospel that the Lord continues to work with us, in spite of our failings, is one the church needs to hear today. The risen one who was taken up into heaven continues to work with us whenever we try to proclaim the gospel by our words and especially by our lives