By Fr. Andrew Kelly
SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT – DEC. 7, 2014
The title Mark gave his Gospel is the first line of Sunday’s Gospel (Mark 1:1-8): “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” For Mark the “good news” was the proclamation and preaching “of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
Some commentators speculate that Mark himself was a proclaiming preacher with a mission to excite and transform the world just as Mark was excited and transformed by God’s “good news” as manifest in Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection.
Mark wrote out the preaching and proclamation of God’s “good news” so all future generations of communities and believers could experience “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ” in their own lives and come to faith and transformation in and through Jesus Christ.
For Mark, the proclamation and preaching of the “good news” never ends but begins again and again until the end of time.
The Advent season always returns the believing community to its beginnings and roots. Mark’s Advent prayer and hope are that the community will again become exited, renewed and transformed as it listens again to “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
(Father Andrew Kelly is a retired priest of the Diocese of Davenport.)
