Saturday – 2nd week ordinary time

Today’s gospel is the first installment of a three part story. Saint Mark often uses this technique, sometimes called a sandwich. He begins one story, then tells another story, and then finishes the first story. The faithful should understand there is a theme binding the two stories which might not be apparent if you read only one of them. In this case,

1)      Jesus family, thinking him insane, sets out to retrieve him.

2)      The scribes from Jerusalem accuse him of working with Beelzebub, and

3)      His family arrives, only to be rebuked.

But how do we interpret this story? Was his Mother Mary in league with the hostile family?

It seems that Saint Mark, (writing approximately 65 A.D.) knew little or nothing of the Church’s incipient devotion to Jesus’ mother. It had not developed in his local church. The Evangelists Matthew, Luke and John reveal a growing reverence for the Woman who believed that God's word to her would be fulfilled.

But Saint Mark's fellow Christians had suffered persecution. Some of them, it seems, had not only left the church, they’d turned hostile to it. So Saint Mark’s gospel challenges the congregation, “Will you also betray him?” Saint Mark contemplated the terrible betrayal and overwhelming isolation of Jesus.

In the final chapters of the Gospel, his family was embarrassed about him; his disciples abandoned him; one of the twelve betrayed him; his right hand man denied knowing him; his co-religionists mocked him; the leaders of his people condemned him; his fellow men tortured and crucified him; and his God in heaven gave no sign of sympathy. His dying word is a terrible agonized cry of despair.

Set today's brief two-verse passage against the whole story of Jesus passion and death and you’ll understand its import. It’s not about Mary; it’s about the growing isolation of Jesus. Even as he reveals himself, a brilliant light, the darkness grows. Soon his will be the only light in the theater of the Gospel, and it will be snuffed out.

Saint Mark challenges us to follow Jesus into the darkness of faith. There we will see ourselves as cowardly, sinful, foolish, and hopelessly lost. When we have drunk deeply the bitter cup, we’ll find consolation.