This Liturgical Year we continue to encounter Jesus and learn His fundamental teaching, as we proclaim with the universal Church - the Gospel according to St. Mark. Though its language and literary style are somewhat “unpolished,” this Gospel is one of the oldest texts of the New Testament, and primary source of the life of Jesus for other evangelists. Written in vivid and lively narrative, the Gospel of Mark invites us to know our Lord and Savior, and become His faithful and Spirit-filled disciples.
 
We are called to recognize Jesus – as being fully divine and fully human. St. Mark writes in the Prologue: “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Throughout the narrative, the disciples and crowds are “baffled” by Jesus’ supernatural power of healing, authentic teaching authority, profound self-awareness, and clear knowledge of His messianic identity. The religious and political powers perceive Him as a real threat - exposing their hypocrisy and well-established systems of control, and so they conspire to destroy Him. Only God the Father, and, surprisingly, the demonic powers recognize His true nature and mission. The man possessed by the Legion of demons shouted: “Why meddle with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God.” Toward the end of the Gospel, upon seeing the manner of Jesus’ death, the Roman centurion declared: “In truth this man was the Son of God.”
 
The humanity of Jesus is depicted with touching and genuine naturalness. He reacts to people’s needs and pain, and various events, with authentic human emotions of compassion, sadness, apprehension, surprise, joy, admiration, fear, distress and indignation. For example, seeing the malice of the religious authorities, “Jesus looked angrily at them, and grieved to find them so obstinate.” Our Lord rejoiced to see and bless the children, and He said: “It is to just such as these that the Kingdom of God belongs.” Aware of His “human limitations,” Jesus acknowledges that there are things He does not know. “As to the exact day or hour, no one knows it, neither the angels in heaven nor even the Son, but only the Father.” Let us ask the Holy Spirit and St. Mark the Evangelist for guidance and inspiration, as we prayerfully read the Good News, and proclaim it in word and in deed.
 
In Christ’s abundant Life,
Fr. Stanley