1 Peter 5:5-14
Mark 16:15-20
When we celebrate the feast of St Mark the Evangelist we celebrate the gifts of a storyteller. What we read on the printed page had its origins in an oral culture. The early Church preserved in writing the memories and stories which shaped their identity. Mark’s Gospel is the first to be written. Biblical scholar Nicholas King SJ suggests we can credit Mark as the inventor of ‘gospel’ as a literary form. If you were a well-to-do host in Graeco-Roman society you might pay a ‘gospeller’ to come and perform a gospel for your guests.
Hearing a Gospel performed in one sitting has a big appeal for me. Mark’s brisk style would lend itself to this very well. Some of Mark’s favourite phrases are ‘immediately’ and ‘at once’. Jesus is a man of action. Through the actions and words of Jesus Mark announces that a new era has dawned. This is the era of Good News.
As a Christian community we still tell and retell our story. It is in the telling and retelling that we begin to learn who we are.
Bring to mind the significant stories in your life.
Thank God for those who have been storytellers in your life.