Feast of St. Mark (my favorite)
Near the top of my list of biblical thanksgivings is St.Mark’s gospel account. I’m a firm believer in the importance of a 1x4 gospel, so I will admit that the other three are necessary to tell the whole good news of Jesus Christ. But Mark is definitely my favorite. He doesn’t mess around with apocryphal birth narratives (Luke) or get lost in the esoteric importance of genealogy (Matthew). He doesn’t open with some highfalutin prologue that clergy only pretend to understand (John). Instead, he starts right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and tells it like it is.
“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” I can’t think of a better place to start. As “Son of God” suggests, Mark might give us a pretty straightforward gospel account, but he doesn’t leave out important Christological details. For example, he continues with a quote from Isaiah, which was a favorite way to talk about the coming of the messiah. He is putting all of the pieces together, but he does it subtly and gently. There’s an understated quality to Mark’s text that I find very appealing.
