THE TEXT BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPTION OF THE VIDEO COMMENTARY BY FR. FERNANDO ARMELLINI

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Greetings to all. 

Today, we will listen to the first page of the Gospel according to St. Mark, the Gospel that will accompany us throughout this liturgical year. This book was written during a dramatic period for the Christian community in Rome. Nero’s persecution had recently ended, as Tacitus describes in a memorable section of his Annals. Among the victims of this persecution were also Peter and Paul, considered the pillars of the Church, and their disappearance deeply shook the community of Rome. It prompted reflection, leading them to realise that the eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life would not remain with them forever, and it raised the question of how the Gospel message proclaimed by the Apostles could endure even in their absence. 

How can we prevent someone from altering the message that Jesus of Nazareth left us, whether by adding or removing parts? How do we preserve the integrity of this message? This wounded community has decided to transmit the message given to us by the Apostles in a written form. For this purpose, Mark, a prominent member of this community, was entrusted with the task because he had been Peter’s interpreter and then devoted his entire life to the Gospel. Let us listen to how Mark begins his account: 

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” 

The phrase “The beginning of the gospel” seems a bit unusual as an opening to a book. Why was it necessary to tell his readers, ‘I am going to begin to write the gospel’? This is not the intended meaning of the first verse of Mark’s Gospel. On closer inspection of the terms he uses, it becomes clear that the message he wants to convey is significant. The first word he uses, ‘beginning,’ in Greek, Ἀρχὴ – ‘Arche.’ It was not a word chosen at random. Ἀρχὴ – ‘Arjé’ is the same word with which the Bible begins, “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.” 

Why does Mark use this word? It is precisely because he wants to refer to that beginning, back at the world’s creation, to that world that lasted for a long time, during which people committed many evils, injustices, wars, and violence. Everyone was tired of that world; they could no longer endure it. There was widespread anticipation everywhere that something new would eventually emerge. For example, in Israel, the prophets addressed the poor of the land—those who had returned from exile in Babylon and who were exploited and humiliated—and these prophets encouraged them, promising that God would create new heavens and an earth where justice would reign forever. By using the term ‘beginning,’ Mark wanted to tell the Christians of his community and us: ‘I am going to explain how the new world everyone was waiting for began and how it is now beginning to sprout and grow within our communities.’ 

Second term: ‘Gospel’. ‘Beginning of the Gospel.’ When we speak of Gospels, we refer to the four books written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but at the time of Mark, these Gospels were not yet written, and even when they were later composed, they were not called Gospels. The first person to use the term was Justinian when he wrote his First Apology in 165, so it had been 100 years since the Gospel of Mark was written. Previously, these four books were anonymous; they had no titles. So what did Mark mean by the term ‘Gospel’ – ‘Beginning of the Gospel’? 

We know that εὐαγγελίου – ‘euangelion’ is a Greek word well known in antiquity. Homer had already used it. It simply means ‘good news’ or ‘joyful news.’ When people heard news that caused joy, they said they had listened to a gospel, and this good tidings could be shared publicly; thus, when they won a war and the news arrived that they had triumphed, they had heard a gospel. Or it could be private news; for example, if a person was healed, the recipient of this news would say, ‘I have received a gospel.’ Even more significantly, the term ‘gospel’ was used by emperors. 

What did the emperors do? When they ascended to the throne, they announced their programmes and what they promised to the people. Naturally, these included welfare, health, peace, and justice. They called these proclamations their gospels, the good news they delivered. Even more significant was the news relating to the emperor’s life. One very famous inscription was discovered in Abilene, in Asia Minor; it dates from 9 AD. Jesus was 16 years old when it was written. What does this Abilene inscription say? It states that the year should not begin on the first of January but on September 23, because Caesar Augustus was born on that day. The reason given for this regulation is that the birth of the god Octavian Augustus marked the start of the gospels for the world, the beginning of all happy news. The reference was to the Pax Romana celebrated by Virgil; these were years of peace and prosperity across the Mediterranean, and many believed that the Golden Age had begun with Caesar Augustus. 

When in ’68 Mark wrote his book, Augustus had been dead for over 50 years, and hopes for a new golden age were dashed. The hope placed in him had vanished. Even during the years of his successor, his adopted son Tiberius, expectations of a world of peace and justice had completely disappeared. Just consider what was happening in Rome when Sejanus ruled, while Tiberius was partly suffering from dementia on Capri, indulging in all manner of debauchery and perversion. Tacitus, in his Annals, vividly describes the situation in Rome, where, to survive, people had to skillfully juggle daggers and poisons. Also, of the first 12 Caesars, seven, maybe eight, died violent deaths. And just as Mark, in 67, began writing his work, a brief but fierce civil war broke out, and after three emperors, Vespasian came to power. 

In conclusion, it cannot be said that the day of Augustus’s birth marked a new era for the world, of the gospels, of the good news. Therefore, using this term to denote the beginning of the Christian message, Mark aims to tell his readers that the gospels and the proclamations of Augustus and the other emperors were disappointing; all the expectations and hopes placed in them have been unfulfilled. 

What, then, is the ‘good news’ that Mark speaks of? It is not information; instead, this good news is a person, Jesus of Nazareth. Because if I listen to him, if I look at him, I see and hear ‘good news’—news that has never been announced before: God’s unconditional love. No one expected this. People had always believed that God would love the good and hate the bad. They had always assumed that God would reason and think as they did, judge as they did, and that he would be just like them, blessing those who obeyed his commands and punishing those who disobeyed with diseases, calamities, and plagues. All religions have always preached this. 

Jesus came to tell us that all this was not true; it was all lies about God. He brought the Good News, the Gospel; he told us that God surrounds us with his love, fills us with tenderness, and blesses everyone —those who are good and those who are less good— loving them freely and always for all are his sons and daughters. This good news had never been given before; no religion had ever announced this about God. This is the Gospel, the beautiful face of God that shines in the face of Jesus of Nazareth; when we look at him, we see the beauty of our God. And Mark gives two titles to Jesus. Let us listen: 

“Christ, the Son of God.” 

The first title Mark gives Jesus is Christ—Χριστός – Christós, in Greek and Mashiah in Hebrew. Messiah derives from the verb mashiah, which means to anoint. Why is Jesus called Christ, the anointed one? In Israel, the kings and priests were anointed with oil. What did this rite signify? We understand that oil penetrates; if a drop of water falls on a cloth, we do not worry because it dries and everything remains the same, but if a drop of oil falls, it permeates. This rite indicated the transmission, the infusion of a Divine force into those called to perform a role that required higher capacities than those of ordinary mortals. 

The priest was meant to be a mediator between people and God; a power, a special spirit from heaven, had to be communicated to him. The king, tasked with leading a people and administering justice in God’s name, was called to receive the spirit of the Lord and, therefore, to be anointed with this spirit that was to penetrate him. Mark tells us that Jesus is the Christ par excellence, the anointed of the Spirit of the Lord. In him, the Spirit is present in its fullness; he is naturally filled with the Spirit of the Lord, of divine life, which he came to bring into the world and to impart not only to priests and kings but also to all, by giving his Spirit. 

The second title, ‘Son of God,’ does not imply that he was a son like the Pharaohs who were physically begotten by the god Amun; no, in Semitic culture, son, rather than begotten by, meant similar to. A father recognised his son when he resembled him, not so much in outward features but in character—the values he had cultivated in life. For example, if the father is a loyal, honest person, attentive to others, hardworking, and then his son turns out to be a wild rascal, people would say: ‘That’s not his son; he brought him into the world, but he’s not his son; he doesn’t look like him.’ 

When Mark calls Jesus the ‘Son of God,’ he means that he perfectly reflects the face of the Father. Jesus tells Philip, “he who sees me sees the Father.” In Jesus, we can contemplate the beauty of God. Jesus has revealed this beautiful face of God throughout his life. The Son of God came into the world and became one of us precisely to show us the beauty of God. Jesus walked the streets of Palestine, went into villages, entered houses and synagogues precisely to reveal the face of the true God. And we Christians believe in no other God than the one we see shining in the face of Jesus. 

And no wonder that the scribes and Pharisees, when they saw Jesus dining with publicans and sinners, did not recognise him as the Son of God. He did not resemble the God they had in mind and had always preached in their catechesis, and therefore they regarded him as a heretic and a blasphemer. They rejected him and the good news he had come to bring to the world. But let us be careful, because even today, among Christians, many still find it difficult to accept this beautiful face of God. 

And now, we would expect that Mark would begin to relate the life of Jesus, starting with the Annunciation and his birth, but he does not do so. Luke and Matthew will do this. Mark is only interested in what Jesus said and did during his public life, and, in fact, at this point, he introduces the figure of the Baptist with a quotation taken from the Bible. Let’s listen: 

“As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: ‘Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.’” 

We have heard the quotation from the prophet Isaiah, in which the Evangelist Mark introduces the figure of the Baptist. And who was this Isaiah of whom the Gospel text speaks? He was a prophet who lived in Babylon in the 6th century BC. Our text calls him ‘an angel sent by the Lord’ with the task of preparing these deportees to welcome the Deliverer. The Lord wanted to come to deliver them from the land of bondage. 

The task of this angel is very arduous because these deportees were highly educated people, and in Babylon, many of them had been given good positions, and they did not want to hear any more about returning to their land. They had adapted themselves to the gentile life, they were content to stay there; they had renounced even their faith, and they had forgotten the promises made to Abraham and remained in Babylon; only a small remnant let themselves be prepared and welcomed the Deliverer, let themselves be brought into the land of Israel. 

In this angel, who preached to the slaves in Babylon, the Evangelist Mark saw the image of the Baptist, also called ‘angel,’ sent by the Lord to prepare the people to welcome the Lord, who wanted to come to liberate them. What liberation did he seek to bring? What was the bondage they were in? It was the slavery of a distorted image of God—one who does not communicate joy but instead frightens you; and who does not make you grasp how much he loves you. He wanted to come and deliver you, and an angel needed to prepare the people to welcome the Deliverer, who would free us from a false image of man. The man who felt triumphant when he conquered, won battles, became rich, and gained control. It was a vision of the man who enslaved us, not of free people capable of love. The Baptist was necessary—the angel who was to prepare the people to welcome the Liberator Christ with his Gospel. 

The message is also very relevant for us. Let’s try to think about our life; how many times we have found ourselves slaves, because we have abandoned the Lord and trusted in our whims, in our follies and have become slaves of our passions, of our vices, of our grudges, and we were not happy. Some angels (and we could give names to these people) prepared the way in us so that the Lord, with his Gospel and word, can liberate us. And let us also ask ourselves whether we have sometimes been angels to someone who was a slave to passions and vices. Have we prepared someone so that the Lord can come in to liberate him, bring him peace, and make this person happy? And now the forerunner enters the scene. Let’s listen: 

“John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.” 

To those who approached him seeking preparation to welcome the Lord into their lives, the Baptist made a primary demand: conversion; they must be converted. What the Baptist told the people of his time, the Evangelist Mark wants us to hear today—addressed to each of us—is that it is to us that the Baptist says, ‘If you want to let the Lord with his Gospel into your life, prepare to be converted.’ The term ‘conversion’ does not fully convey the meaning of the Greek word ‘μετάνοια’ – metanoia — which derives from the verb ‘metánoei’ and means ‘get ready to change the way you think, reason, and evaluate things.’ Previously, money was important to you; success, career, and family were absolute. Be prepared for change; otherwise, the Gospel will not enter your life, and you will be a slave to idols—nice things, but if they are truly converted, they do not enslave you at all. They must stay in their place. Be ready to change your convictions, certainties, and habits because if you are not prepared to be challenged, you block the way for the Lord, who wants to come with his Gospel. 

Conversion is not only of the mind but also of the behavior; if I had considered my neighbor a rival with whom I had to compete because I had to subdue and dominate him, and he had to serve me. Now, the conduct changes because I have changed my perspective, and he becomes a brother to love. What is the danger? It is to look for in the Gospel what justifies what we have always thought, that is the danger; let us be attentive, let us open our hearts, and let us prepare ourselves to receive the Lord as he is, with his light; let us not be afraid to leave what does not correspond to the Gospel. 

The objective presented by the Baptist: The remission of sins. The term used is ‘ἄφεσιν’ – ‘áphesin,’ which means to blot out sin, evil, and unrighteousness. If we are ready to let the Lord in with his light, we are prepared to convert; then evil, sin, all wickedness is swept away, and a new world is born. John made his proposal: conversion.

How did the people respond to this request? The passage says that all those who came from Judea came to him. This translation is not correct; the term used in Greek is ‘ἐξεπορεύετο’ (exeporéueto ): they went out to him. Whence came they out, and where were they going? Here, it is necessary to be clear. In the background, you see a map showing the place where the Baptist was, Bethabara, east of the Jordan River. You can see this river mentioned in the Bible more than 200 times. and therefore, very important. It was never important from an economic point of view; no city was ever born on the banks of this river, nothing to do with the Nile or the rivers of Mesopotamia, the Tigris, and the Euphrates, which gave rise to the great empires. It did not have economic importance, but it always had theological importance because the Jordan River marked the border between the pagan land to the east and the holy land, the land of liberty where the people of Israel had entered that had come out of Egypt. 

And the place where these people had passed over the Jordan River, passing from the pagan land to the land of liberty, was Bethabara, the place of the ford. The Baptist was in the east. Notice where Judea is located. The gospel passage says that all the people of Judea went to him, crossed the Jordan River, and made a reverse exodus back to pagan land. 

What did the Baptist mean? They are not free; that is not the land of freedom; they are still slaves of their idols; they must make the exodus again, they will cross the Jordan River (this is the baptism), and then ‘I will deliver them to the new Moses, who will introduce them to the new Moses. into the land of liberty.’ Let us now see how the Baptist appeared before these people and what he said to them: 

“John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey.” And this is what he proclaimed: “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the holy Spirit.”

Why is the Evangelist Mark so interested in presenting us with how the Baptist dressed and what he ate? He was dressed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. So, no designer clothes. And Jesus also refers to the Baptist’s austere manner of dress when he says, ‘Whom have you gone to see in the wilderness? One who wears soft garments? No, these dwell in the palaces of kings.’ It could be a timely message, even for some Christians today, who perhaps splurge on designer clothes that are worn a couple of times, then stay in the closet, soon go out of fashion, and one is ashamed to wear them. But this is not the message that Mark wants to give us. 

Presenting us with the Baptist dressed this way tells us that this was the uniform worn by the prophets in the Old Testament. The prophet Elijah, the first one, the greatest of the prophets, dressed exactly like this. What Mark means is that the Baptist is the Elijah. The people were waiting for him to return, preparing them to receive the Lord. The prophet Malachi said that Elijah would return and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers; he would restore family peace, without which the Lord cannot come. Mark the Evangelist, by presenting the Baptist thus clothed, means that he is the Elijah who was expected. And then the food with which the Baptist nourished himself. It is not an expression of asceticism, of penance, no. The Baptist eats what the desert offers him; it is how all the nomads of the desert feed themselves. Wild honey is very fragrant and appreciated, and grasshoppers. 

What did the Baptist preach? We observe that, unlike Matthew and Luke, we do not find threats in Mark, in the mouth of the Baptist. In Matthew and Luke, we find the Baptist saying to the Pharisees and Sadducees: ‘You brood of vipers, who taught you to flee from the coming fire? The axe is already laid at the root of the trees.’ None of these threats is found in the Gospel, according to Mark. There, the Baptist only says that one is about to enter the history of the world who is stronger than him. 

The Baptist wants to remain in his place; he has only the task of introducing Jesus, not of replacing him. Let us pay attention; a practical application also for priests, for catechists, for everyone: We, like the Baptist, must not substitute for Jesus, we must bring people to Jesus, and by changing the hearts of these people, we allow Jesus to enter with his Gospel into their lives; so, let us be careful not to substitute Jesus by introducing ourselves. 

Then, the Baptist distinguishes between his and Jesus’ baptisms and says they are very different. ‘Mine,’ says the Baptist, ‘is a water immersion, but he will immerse you in the Spirit. My baptism is an external washing, which indicates a break with the past, with the conduct of life contrary to the word of God and indicates the decision to change your way of thinking and living. His baptism is an immersion, not in material water, but in the Spirit.’ That is, it immerses us in the divine life; it is the gift that brought to the world the life of the Eternal, that life that is no longer touched by biological death. 

This is what Mark wants to tell us: ‘Prepare to receive this gift, the baptism in the Spirit, the immersion in the divine life.’ 

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.