Imaginative Discipleship!

Thursday, April 25, 2024

Feast of St. Mark, Evangelist!

1 Pt 5:5-14; Mk 16:15-20

The feast of St. Mark provides an occasion to reflect on the evangelist and his role in proclaiming the Good News. 

Mark’s Gospel has many distinctive features. Being the first written presentation of the Good News, it inspired other gospelers. When there was an increasing appearance of Jewish claimants to the role of Messiah, Mark wrote the Gospel to assert that Jesus was and is the Messiah. The tradition holds that Mark followed his own order in presenting the life of Jesus. He not only wrote what Peter preached about Jesus but also used anecdotes and parables from oral traditions about Jesus. 

Written in a simple and effective style, the most coherent portion in Mark’s Gospel is the passion narrative. In effect, Mark provides an account of the Good News that centers on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Also, Mark presents the suffering Messiah whose sacrifice gives life to others. Hence, the overall emphasis of Mark’s Gospel is discipleship and a life that is modeled on Christ. 

Mark’s Gospel is thus rich in its content and emphases. However, what attracts my attention is the person of Mark (also referred to as ‘John Mark’) who became a disciple of Christ himself. In that regard, there are three points for our reflection.

Not an Apostle: Mark was not an apostle himself. He was the disciple of Peter (who refers to Mark as ‘My Son’ in today’s first reading), who was an apostle of Jesus. As such, Mark did not have any status like the band of apostles, who were directly chosen by Jesus. However, that was not an impediment for Mark to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. He discovered the truth of Jesus from others and followed Christ to experience it himself. An ordinary man called Mark became an evangelist through his unwavering faith and faithfulness. 

A Hesitant Follower: Bible scholars speculate that the reference to ‘a certain young man’ in Mark 14:51-52 points to the author of the Gospel himself. If we hold that such hesitation was true of Mark initially, we are to ask ourselves, ‘What transformed him into a courageous witness of Christ later in his life?’ In his hesitation and desperate flight, Mark represents many of us. Therefore, in Mark, we have a model and example to follow Christ. No matter where we begin, our end is Jesus. Mark shows the way.

An Innovative Disciple: If there is something so fascinating about Mark, it is his idea of writing the life of Jesus. In this sense, the thought of a new Christian genre called ‘Gospel’ is original to Mark. It shows that Mark was not a random or average follower of Jesus, but someone who exercised purposeful discipleship. The intentional follower of Jesus got so inventive when he decided to use a pen to preach Christ when others relied on word of mouth. In this way, the inspirational oral accounts on the life of Jesus were ‘frozen’ in the letters of St. Mark so that they continue to be inspirational for millions and millions of people even today. For this reason, we are profoundly grateful to Mark, who actualized the idea of presenting a written record of Jesus that would permanently inspire the followers of Christ. 

In concluding my reflection, I am specifically thankful to St. Mark for the question that arises in my heart: ‘What would have happened, had Mark not written the first Gospel?’

Here, I believe what is attributed to Malala is enormously helpful to appreciate Mark’s imaginative discipleship of Jesus. 

‘One Book (The Bible)

One Pen (St. Mark, the writer)

One Child (the faithful disciple) [and]

One Teacher (Jesus Christ)

Can change the world.’

The success of Mark is that he envisaged it ahead of time. 

Yes, Mark’s Jesus changed the world!

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar