The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today are
chosen to provide a link for us to St Mark the Evangelist. Exegesis (from the
Greek 'to lead out') is a critical explanation or interpretation of a religious
text. Scholars who do the exegesis of the Gospel of Mark find a document which
is skillfully crafted to proclaim Jesus human and Divine nature to Gentile
Christians living in Rome. The words chosen by the evangelist and the structure
of the writing are important. The preference of modern western readers for
journalistic accounts of events does not mean that they were written in that
manner. Friar Jude Winkler comments on the advice of Peter written from Rome, symbolically
renamed Babylon, to the leaders of the early Christian churches to live humbly
and be aware that pride will weaken our defense in the spiritual war with
temptation in the world to choose other than the Way of Jesus. This passage in
the letter of Peter places Mark the Evangelist in Rome from where he worked to
write his Gospel account. The recent election of Pope Francis brought much
discussion of the model of a simpler Church structure. The ending of the Gospel
of Mark points the disciples of Jesus to the mission of proclaiming the Good
News and baptizing people for salvation. Pope Francesco, in the spirit of his
namesake Francesco of Assisi, may be the humble shepherd who encourages us to
live the Good News as our proclamation of our baptism in Christ and to use
words only when necessary.
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