Bulletin Column: Exploring the Gospel of Mark

As many of you know, the readings for Sunday Masses are organized into three, year-long cycles – A, B, and C – with each cycle focusing on one of the three synoptic gospels. (A = Matthew, B = Mark; C = Luke; readings from the gospel of John are interspersed throughout all three cycles.)

These three cycles enable us to hear a large portion of the Scriptures proclaimed at Mass, and not just the same few readings over and over. In November, we finished cycle A, so this weekend we begin cycle B, which means for the next year we will be hearing primarily from the gospel of Mark. To help us all prepare for this new cycle, I would like to share some basic information about the gospel of Mark (taken from the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible):

• Author: The earliest manuscripts of the second Gospel are titled “According to Mark.”  This heading summarizes the Church’s uniform tradition that Mark, a disciple of Simon Peter, wrote the second Gospel. Although Mark did not write as an eyewitness of Christ’s public ministry, he was a channel of apostolic tradition through Peter, who was his primary source for information about the life of Jesus. His association with Peter is evident in both the New Testament and the testimony of the early Church.
• Date: Many modern scholars place the composition of Mark’s Gospel just before 70 AD.
• Structure: The Gospel of Mark resists a neat and clear-cut outline. As the narrator, Mark remains tucked behind his story and imposes no artificial structure on the traditions he has received; he is content, rather, to present the events of Jesus’ life as he learned them. For the sake of convenience, however, the Gospel may be divided into two minor sections: 1) the Preparations for the Messiah and His Forerunner and 2) the Resurrection Epilogue, and two major sections: 1) the Public Ministry of Jesus and 2) the Passion Narrative.
• Key Theme #1: Jesus Is on the Move: Apart from two lengthy sermons in the Gospel, Mark depicts Jesus as an active healer and exorcist continually on the move – a feature the evangelist accentuates by using the word “immediately” over 40 times in his mere 16 chapters!
• Key Theme #2: Questions, Questions, and More Questions: Mark’s Gospel engages the Christian reader with a number of rhetorical questions and statements that punctuate the story: “What is this? A new teaching!” (1:27); “Why does this man speak like this…Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (2:7); “Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?” (4:41); “But who do you say that I am?” (8:29); “And what I say to you I say to all: Watch” (13:37). These statements address the attentive reader much as they address the characters in the story. They invite every believer to look at Jesus with the eyes of faith, embrace him in hope, and imitate his heroic love.
• Key Theme #3: Messianic Secret: In Mark, Jesus often attempts to conceal his identity as the Messiah because of the great possibility that his contemporaries will misunderstand his mission. During New Testament times, many in Israel expected the Messiah to liberate them from the oppressive rule of the Romans. Jesus distances himself from this popular, but mistaken, aspiration and instead works to conceal his messianic identity to avoid confusion about his ministry.
• Key Theme #4: Sonship of Jesus: The divine Sonship of Jesus is a leading theme in Mark’s Gospel. It could be said, in fact, that recognizing Jesus as the divine Son of God is the goal of Mark’s Gospel. Mark’s Gospel proclaims this mystery of Christ’s Sonship in story form and seeks both to inform and to challenge readers with this central truth of the gospel.

The new liturgical year is upon us, and I look forward to this journey through the gospel with you in the months ahead. St. Mark, pray for us!

Father Brian Park
Pastor