and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned...
...they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.
As I understand it was one of Europe's greatest philosophers, Hegel, who assured his fellow citizens that they didn't have to take the Word of God too literally or too seriously. He pointed to the springtime, for instance, as a time of renewed vitality among living things, and that's what resurrection means. It's not, according the philosopher, about someone coming back from the dead and living forever; it's rather the undying, resurgent vitality (geist) which exists briefly in this or that organism. It holds dead matter in a living embrace for a while; and then moves on to form other organisms which also return to the earth from which they are made. In other words, you won't live forever but your spirit will. And so Easter is well represented by flowers which produce seeds, fertile rabbits, and eggs.
Hegel admitted that everything dies and no individual is finally saved from that. But life is worth living despite its brevity, especially if you're wealthy, secure, educated, and esteemed by your peers.
However, the Gospel of Mark takes the Word of God very seriously, and impresses upon the Church its responsibility to every living creature. If it fails, if people do not know the Lord, they are not saved; nor are they saved if they refuse to hear.
The Gospel comes to us in the form of a cross, comprising an upright and a crossbeam. Both are necessary blessings, neither can be ignored. The horizontal beam extends to the entire world, the vertical upright reaches from the fathomless depths of every human heart to the infinite reaches of heaven.
But our attention seems to shift back and forth between the vertical and horizontal, Sometimes our attention is fascinated by our duty to praise God and the call to personal penance; sometimes we want to invite everyone who can possibly hear or welcome the Good News.
Reflecting on the post-war Church and the Second Vatican Council, Pope Benedict XVI suggested that the Traditional Latin Mass represents the mysterious vertical beam; and the vernacular Mass represents the horizontal liturgy which is accessible to everyone. Both can and do speak to everyone who will listen. In both cases, our duties are serious.
It is wonderful to see surprising numbers of people entering the Church this year through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults in Europe and North America. We can suppose that millions of people are disenchanted with the false promises of this world with its endless entertainment and relentless exploitation of human and natural resources. Human beings instinctively know we deserve better than what the world offers. We know too, that "our hearts are restless until they rest in God."
As we celebrate the Feast of Saint Mark, the shortest and perhaps darkest of the Gospel, we welcome the brilliant light it sheds on our call to holiness and our mission to announce the Gospel to every creature.
