Jesus comes at you fast, to
paraphrase that old advertisement for insurance. Jesus comes at you fast in the Gospel of
Saint Mark, which is the Gospel we hear throughout the current liturgical year
(Year B).
This year started on the first
Sunday of Advent, of course; but it is now, with that season, and Christmas,
and the Epiphany behind us, that we hunker down into the workaday world of what
we call “Ordinary Time,” which you can spot by the green vestments. That’s an odd translation of “Tempus per
Annum,” the actual Latin name which clearly means “the time (or season) through(out)
the year,” but it’s what we were given. Anyway,
on the weekdays we have already launched into the season with the beginning of
Mark’s Gospel, and Jesus comes at you fast.
Saint Mark starts with the
prophecy of Isaiah, which leads into John the Baptist, of course, who baptizes Jesus,
then is put in prison; then Jesus calls Andrew, Peter, James and John, and initiates
his public ministry and preaching, and goes to Capernaum and works several miracles
– all in the first chapter. Whew!
Matthew is more
detail-oriented, and he starts with that long genealogy we heard at
Christmas. Luke is an artist, so he
starts with painterly scenes from the infancy and childhood of Jesus, which similarly
we have just studied and celebrated.
After all his work during Christmastide, Luke gets a few days off. He will carry us through next year, though –
Year C, beginning in Advent this December.
Mark’s Gospel is the
shortest of the four, so this year we have room to hear from John’s Gospel on
Sundays, too, notably in late summer when we have all of John Chapter Six. But also this weekend, the second Sunday (the
first was eaten by the holy days last week) in “Ordinary Time”, we get not
Mark, but John. John’s Gospel is what we
most often hear on Holy Days, because he is so theological in his presentation
of the life of the Lord. He doesn’t get
one of the three “years,” the annual lectionary cycles. Perhaps it’s fair to let him use some of the
leftover in spartan Mark’s space.
Don’t worry, Mark will be
back next week. If you miss him, you can
come to daily Mass, where we are seriously plowing through his Gospel. In another television reference, Mark is
rather like the detective on Dragnet: Just the facts, ma’am! His narrative can seem awfully barebones
sometimes, “all bricks and no mortar,” as a professor once said about my papers
(imagine that!)
Because of that no-nonsense
approach to what he is doing, there is no mistaking his purpose. Verse one of chapter one states it clearly: The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. Try to
keep this in mind this year as we work through the Gospel, episode by
episode. It’s a simple, clear, and
direct presentation of Jesus. Yes, that
means the Gospel readings at Mass will be shorter; but it also means that you
might not hear details or aspects that you mentally associate with the events
presented. If that happens to you, you
are remembering Matthew’s version of the same episode, or Luke’s.
It seems appropriate to get
right down to the business of the Gospel these days, when we all have to get
back down to business in our lives and work.
There is no “easing in” or lingering over sweet reflections, as we might
wish after a period as brief and intense with experiences as our Christmas
holiday tends to be. Life comes at you
fast, and so does Jesus. We have Mark to
thank for keeping us up to speed to meet Him.
Monsignor
Smith
