A CHALLENGE TO FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE: Within the last two weeks, the present Administration has announced a reversal of bureaucratic policy that, if carried out, poses a serious attack on fundament rights, and specifically the
right to freedom of conscience.  That the President himself approved this reversal is shown by the fact that he personally telephoned Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), to inform him of its impending publication.  The following is a letter from Bishop James S. Wall, written this week,to the Catholic people of the Diocese of Gallup in response to this development:

MARK’S “MESSIANIC SECRET”: The great overarching theme of Mark’s Gospel is that Jesus is the Christ (i.e., the Messiah) and the Son of God.  We have already seen this stated in the opening words of the Gospel: “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mk.1.1).  Mark wants to bring us to recognition and acceptance of who Jesus truly is and to a living faith and commitment to him.

In light of that theme, there is a puzzling characteristic of Mark’s Gospel: the so-called “messianic secret.” Over and over again throughout the Gospel Jesus is reluctant to have anyone proclaim him as the Messiah or even to tell of miracles he has performed (cf., e.g., Mk. 1.24-25; 34; 43-44; 3.11-12; 5.43; 7.35-36; 8.25-26; 29-30; 9.9).  Why would Jesus not want people to recognize him as the Messiah, or to talk about the great miracles he had performed?  This seems to contradict the whole point of Mark’s Gospel in directly proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God.

There are two factors behind the “messianic secret.” The first of these is that in Mark’s Gospel, the first to recognize who Jesus is are the “unclean spirits” – the spiritual agents of Satan!  Their acknowledgement of Jesus comes not from faith, but from fear, panic and defiance:  “There appeared in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit that shrieked: ‘What do you want of us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know
who you are – the holy One of God!’” (Mk. 1.23-24).  Jesus refuses to accept this kind of recognition: “Jesus rebuked him sharply: ‘Be quiet!  Come out of the man!’” (Mk. 1.25).

Mark is trying to show us here that faith in Jesus is not simply a matter of knowing who he is.  The demons know who he is before anyone else does!  Faith is a matter of believing in Jesus, accepting him for who he truly is and allowing our hearts and lives to be transformed by him. The demons knew Jesus, but they refused to believe in him or accept him, and much less to allow their lives to be transformed by his love.  Jesus, therefore, rebukes their recognition and will not allow them to voice it.

The second factor behind the “messianic secret” is more complex.  In Matthew’s Gospel, when Peter professes his faith in Jesus as “the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” Jesus seems overjoyed.  He blesses Peter and designates him as “the Rock on which I will build my church” (Mt. 16.16-18).  In Mark’s Gospel, by contrast, Jesus appears to have no reaction to Peter’s profession other than to give the apostles “strict orders not to tell anyone about him”(Mk. 8.29-30).  Why would Jesus be so reluctant to accept a profession that sprang from genuine faith?

The answer to that lies in the predominant mentality of the Jewish people during Jesus’ lifetime.  The Jews were under the yoke of the Roman Empire.  They were not a free people.  Even the practice of their religion was strictly monitored by pagan Rome.  They yearned for their own nation, independent of Roman domination and they thought of the Messiah as one who would lead them to victory in their struggle with Rome.  During the lifetime of Jesus, this yearning and anticipation for the all-conquering messiah was becoming more and more intense among the people.  Several men had already stepped forward claiming to be the promised deliverer.  All of them had embarked on military adventures (or more precisely, guerilla warfare) against the Romans and all had been defeated.  Their lack of success only served to intensify the anxiety of the people for a military and politicalmessiah who would re-establish the earthly Davidic kingdom of the Jews.

This popular human concept of the messiah and his work was not God’s concept – norwas it that of Jesus.  It was largely for this reason that Jesus, in Mark’s Gospel, is very circumspect and prudent in allowing acknowledgement of him as the Messiah.  It was not because he was not the Messiah, but because the people’s understanding of God’s Messiah and his role was so earthbound and limited.  This is the reason for the “messianic secret” motif in the Gospel of Mark.

THEMES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK: Last week we said that as we begin “Ordinary Time” for 2012, the Church will be using the “Marcan Cycle” (Cycle “B”) of the Lectionary.  The Gospel for most of the “ordinary time” Sundays this year will be taken from the second canonical gospel.  Mark is the shortest and the oldest
of the four Gospels, and like Matthew, Luke and John, proclaims the revelation of Jesus with its own unique themes and in its own unique way.

The four Gospels were not intended to be “biographies” of Jesus, nor merely historical accounts of his life and teaching.  They had the far more sublime purpose: proclaiming the faith of the apostolic Church that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and the Son of God.  Mark’ Gospel begins directly with the words: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ [i.e., Jesus the Messiah], the Son of God” (Mk. 1.1).  It concludes its account of the earthly work of Jesus (i.e., his death on the cross) with the centurion’s assertion: “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mk. 15.39), thus reaffirming its opening theme.

We have already noted that Mark’s Gospel was heavily influenced by the preaching of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles.  The entire Gospel is, in fact, basically a detailed development of St. Peter’s discourses as recorded by St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles (cf., Acts 2.22-26; 3.12-26; 10.36-43).  Both ancient Church tradition (i.e., Church Fathers such as Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Irenaeus and St. Jerome) and modern biblical scholarship assert that the Gospel was set down in Italy – most likely in Rome itself – and was written specifically for the Christians of Rome.  It was very likely composed at the request of the Roman faithful who wanted a written record of Peter’s oral preaching.

When compared to the other Synoptic Gospels (Matthew and Luke), we find Mark’s to be very direct, sparse and straightforward.  The Gospel is divided into three parts.  There is no “infancy narrative” in Mark telling us of the birth of Jesus.  Part One of the Gospel (Mk. 1- 8.30) deals with the early ministry of Jesus, mainly in his native Galilee.  After a prelude of only 13 verses (which speak very briefly of the ministry of John the Baptist, Jesus’ own baptism and thetemptations in the desert), Mark takes up the beginnings Jesus’ ministry in Galilee (Mk. 1.14-3.35), parables of the Kingdom of God (Mk. 4.1-34) and miracles and other activity both inside and outside of  Galilee (Mk. 4.25-6.6).  Mark focuses on Jesus’ training of the apostles in their mission of evangelization – proclaiming the Good News. The first part of the Gospel concludes with Peter’s profession of faith, speakingon behalf of the Twelve, in Jesus as the Messiah (Mk. 8.30).

Part Two (Mk. 8.31-10.52), dealing with Jesus’ ministry on the way to Jerusalem, opens with the first of three predictions of his suffering, death and resurrection – and the apostle’s lack of comprehension (Mk. 8.31-33).  These,
along with the account of the Transfiguration (Mk. 9.2-10), are done to prepare his followers for what is to come when they arrive in Jerusalem.  This section also relates several of the miracles, as well as Jesus’ teachings on various aspects of what the Christian life entails.

Part Three, the final portion of the Gospel (Mk. 11-16), speaks of Our Lord’s ministry in Jerusalem, beginning with his triumphal entry and his confrontations with the Scribes and Pharisees. Chapter 13
presents the “eschatological discourse” – i.e., Jesus’ predictions on the destruction of the Temple, the last days andthe second coming of the Son of Man.  Chapters 14-16 recount the events of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus.  Our Lord’s success in preparing his apostles for the work of evangelization is indicated in the last line of Mark’s Gospel: “And they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it.  Amen” (Mk. 16.20).

“ORDINARY TIME” … NOT SO ‘ORDINARY’ … With the celebration of the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord last Monday, we ended the 2011 Advent / Christmas season and passed into the first cycle of “Ordinary Time.”  This is the “short cycle,” whichwill last until Ash Wednesday (February 22, 2012).   We then begin the 2012 Lent / Easter season,running through Pentecost Sunday (May 27, 2012).  On May 28^th, we will take up the “long cycle” of Ordinary Time, which will last until December 1^st,the Vigil of the First Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the 2012 Advent /Christmas season.

The “special seasons” of the Church’s year focus on the two unique Mysteries of the Christian faith: the Advent / Christmas cycle celebrates the Mystery of the Incarnation, and the Lent /Easter cycle the Mystery of Salvation in the Death
and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Ordinary Time “sandwiches” the two special seasons, focusing on the words, teaching and actions of Jesus during his three-year public ministry.  It is because of this focus that “Ordinary Time” is not so ordinary!

The Scripture Readings we will hear proclaimed on the Sundays of Ordinary Time in 2012 are from “Cycle B,” the so-called “Marcan” cycle.  On most of the Ordinary Time Sundays this year the Gospel readings will be taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark.  Because Mark’s Gospel is the shortest of the four Gospels, it does not contain enough material for all of the Sundays, and so will be supplemented with portions of John’s Gospel.

Even though Mark is canonically the second Gospel of the New Testament (following Matthew), it is nevertheless the oldest of the four Gospels, having been written somewhere between the years 60-65 AD. According to Church tradition, St. Mark knew Jesus personally and was a bystander in the Garden of Gethsemene on the night Jesus was arrested (cf., Mk. 14.51-52).  The Acts of the Apostles tell us that, as a young and perhaps immature young man,  he was a companion of both Paul and Barnabas on Paul’s first missionary journey, but that for some reason he left them in the middle of the journey and returned home.  This angered Paul, who refused to have Mark accompany them on the second missionary journey, thereby causing Paul and Barnabas to go their separate ways.  Later, Paul and Mark were reconciled and he once again became one of Paul’s trusted co-workers (cf., Col. 4.10f, 2 Tim. 4.11).

In later years, Mark became especially close to Peter, who calls him his son (cf., 1 Pt. 5.13), implying a long-standing and deep relationship.  He served as Peter’s “interpreter” in Rome, which probably meant that he translated into Greek and Latin the oral preaching and teaching done by Peter in his native Aramaic language.  In the Church’s Tradition, the Gospel of Mark is essentially the kerygma (i.e., the proclamation) of Peter while he was preaching in Rome and Mark was his close companion.  St. Mark is said to have ended his days in Egypt as one of the founders of the Church in Alexandria.

This sketch of St. Mark’s life can be a source of consolation and encouragement to us in our faith life.  It shows us how Mark grew spiritually.  As a young man he was fickle and not dependable.  This is what angered Paul, and eventually led to Paul’s split with Barnabas.  Barnabas had been Paul’s mentor in the years following his conversion, and was also a cousin of Mark.  When Paul refused to allow Mark to come on the second missionary journey, Barnabas sided with Mark and took him along with him to Cyprus while Paul went to Asia Minor.  After Paul and Mark were reconciled, Mark went on to become not only his faithful and dependable disciple, but also that of Peter.  In other words, Mark grew over his lifetime and acquired the virtues he needed to become an effective disciple of Jesus Christ, and a valued assistant to the great apostles of Jesus – Peter, Paul and Barnabas.  So too, God gives each of us the opportunity and the spiritual gifts we need to be effective disciples of the Lord according to the Call he has given each of us!  Next week we will begin to examine the themesand characteristics of Mark’s Gospel.
Stay tuned …

THE GREAT SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY: The Solemnity we observe today is the second oldest on the Church’s calendar.  It was an established feast for almost one hundred years before Christmas began to be celebrated in the Church at Rome.  The only feast more ancient than the Epiphany is Easter itself, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.

The Epiphany – which means the “showing forth” or the “manifestation” – originated in the second century among the Christians of Alexandria, Egypt.  Church historians tell us that it had its remote beginnings in a natural annual event and in the pagan religious celebration of that event.  In Egypt, during the summer and fall months of the year, the volume of water in the Nile River grew less and less.  In mythological terms, it was said that the river was “dying.”  The death of the Nile would have been catastrophic for the land and the people. Every year the Egyptians watched this phenomenon with dread, hoping and praying that the river would revive and “come back to life,” manifesting its “divinity.”  As the winter snows in the mountains of central Africa began to melt, the waters of the Nile and its tributaries were replenished, and the volume of water increased.  By early January each year, this increase of water volume reached Egypt – the Nile had been “reborn.”

This annual “manifestation” of the Nile’s “divinity” was a cause for relief and great rejoicing among the people of Egypt.  Over the course of time a great festival grew up to celebrate the epiphany of the Nile.  By the time the Christian faith was established in Egypt, the pagan festival of the epiphany was a well-established part of Egyptian religious life and culture. Christians, of course, would not agree that a river was in any sense “divine,” but as Egyptians it was impossible for them to ignore the ancient cultural festival.  Their solution was not to do away with the feast, but to transform it meaning!  In doing this, the Christian people followed a precedent set by the Hebrews of the Old Testament, who centuries earlier had not abolished, but rather transformed pagan Canaanite festivals into celebrations of Thanksgiving to the God of Israel.  The Feast of Booths, for example – which Jesus himself celebrated  (cf., Jn. 7:1-14) – had originated as a pagan festival of thanksgiving to the gods for the yearly harvest.  The Hebrews took the notion of thanksgiving for the harvest and applied it not to the pagan gods of their neighbors, but to the one true God of Israel, to whom they offered thanks for a bountiful harvest.

For the Christians of Alexandria, then, the Feast of the Epiphany was not the celebration of the “divinity” of a rising river, but rather the Divinity of God Himself manifested in Jesus Christ! We noted in last Sunday’s bulletin that when it was first observed in the ancient Church, the Feast of the Epiphany commemorated three distinct events in the life of Jesus, each of which “manifested” his divine status and power.  The revelation of the star to the pagan
Magi showed that in Jesus salvation is offered to all people of good will and that people from every nation would respond to God’s salvation in Christ.  At his baptism in the Jordan (another river!), the Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove and the Father confirmed that Jesus was his Beloved Son, “in whom I am well pleased.” Finally, at the wedding of Cana, Jesus gave evidence of his divine power by changing water into wine – “the first of his signs … thus didhe reveal [i.e., manifest] his glory”(Jn. 2.11).

Modern liturgical practice sets the Baptism of the Lord as a separate feast, which this year will be celebrated on Monday, January 9^th – the day after we celebrate the Epiphany.  The feast marks the transition from the so-called “hidden life” to the beginning of his three-year public ministry.  On the Church’s calendar it also marks the close of the Christmas season and the beginning of the first cycle of “Ordinary
Time,” which focuses on the deeds and teaching of Jesus in the course of his public ministry.

THE FIVE GREAT FEASTS OF CHRISTMAS:  The Christmas season is the shortest of all the Church’s liturgical seasons, but in so many ways it is the most beautiful!  Perhaps one of the reasons for this is precisely the reality of its quick passing.  This year, especially, the season will be very brief, ending on Monday, January 9th with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.  We savor the magnificence of the Incarnation in the short time given us.  The season consists of several individual feasts – both major and minor – providing us insight into the Mystery of the Incarnation – the Mystery of the Eternal Son of the Father becoming fully human, being born of the Virgin Mary.  If we think of the Mystery of the Incarnation as a large beautiful diamond, then each feast views the same jewel in a different light, from a different vantage.  None can embrace the full majesty of the gem, but each brings out a unique facet of its beauty.  The major feasts of the season are these:

Christmas Day commemorates the day of Jesus’ birth, not in the sense that it is his historical birthday (the actual date of which is unknown), but rather in the sense that it celebrates the historical event of God’s Eternal Son being born as a human being.  The Feast of the Holy Family – which this year is observed on Friday, December 30^th – underscores the full humanity of Jesus by reminding us “he grew in age and wisdom” – in the context of family life – as is normal for any human person.  God’s Son became like us “in all things but sin.”

The eighth day of the season (January 1, one week after Christmas) is always the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, celebrating the virgin of Nazareth whom the Father chose to be the human mother of his Divine Son.  Because Jesus Christ is a single person possessing the fullness of both the Divine Nature and our human nature, and because Mary is the mother of Jesus, she is called properly “Mother of God.”  Such a glorious and overwhelming Title is given not because of Mary’s personal worth (as unique as it is), but in acknowledgement of the reality of him to whom she gave birth!  In this, as in everything, Mary’s glory is but a reflection of the Glory of her Son.  This is true for all the saints, and it is true for each of us!

The most ancient of all of the Christmas feasts is the Solemnity of the Epiphany – The “Manifestation” of God’s salvation to all peoples in Jesus Christ. This year the solemnity will be celebrated on Sunday, January 8^th.  In ancient times, the feast commemorated three distinct events in the life of Jesus, each of which “manifested” his divine status or power. The revelation of the star to the pagan Magi showed that in Jesus salvation is open to all people of good will.  At his baptism, the Spirit descended on him in the form of a dove and the Father confirmed that Jesus was his beloved Son, “in whom I am well pleased.”  Finally, at the wedding of Cana, Jesus gave evidence of his divine power by changing water into wine “the first of his signs… thus did he reveal his glory” (Jn 2.11.)

Modern liturgical practice sets the Baptism of the Lord as a separate feast, marking the transition from the “hidden life” of Jesus to the start of his 3-year public ministry.  This feast, which this year is celebrated on Monday, January 9^th, concludes the Christmas season.  Each of these five great feasts, then, highlights an aspect of the wondrous Mystery of the Incarnation, calling us to deeper faith in Jesus Christ who is Emmanuel – God-with-us.

Besides the five feasts of the Christmas cycle, the Church honors several saints in the “sanctoral” cycle of the calendar: St. Stephen (the first martyr), St. John the Evangelist (the youngest of the apostles and by tradition the author of the fourth Gospel), the Holy Innocents, St. Basil the Great & St. Gregory Nazianzen (two of the four great Fathers of the Eastern Church), and two American saints: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. John Neuman, Bishop of Philadelphia.  All of these, in their own times and circumstances, bore faithful witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ – God-with-us.

THE PROCLAMATION OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST

The Roman Liturgy for
Christmas contains a formal announcement of the birth of Christ in the style of
a proclamation. This will be sung before the Midnight Mass on Christmas:

Today, the twenty-fifth day of December,

unknown ages from the time when God created the heavens
and the earth,

and then formed man and woman in his own image.

Several thousand years after the flood,

when God made the rainbow shine forth as a sign of the
covenant.

Twenty-one
centuries from the time of Abraham and Sarah;

thirteen
centuries after Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt.

Eleven
hundred years from the time of Ruth and the Judges;

one
thousand years from the anointing of David as king;

in
the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel.

In
the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;

the
seven hundred and fifty-second year from the foundation of the city of Rome.

The
forty-second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus;

the
whole world being at peace,

JESUS
CHRIST, ETERNAL GOD AND SON OF THE ETERNAL FATHER,

desiring
to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming,

being
conceived by the Holy Spirit,

and
nine months having passed since his conception,

was
born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary.

TODAY
IS THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE FLESH.