The New Beginning
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A week ago, we began the new liturgical year, and today we already celebrate the second Sunday of Advent. The gospel reading for this celebration comes from the very beginning of the gospel of Mark. This beginning may seem quite simple, usual, and ordinary: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.” (Mark 1:1) And yet this one sentence, this short announcement is an ‘atomic bomb’, it is the beginning of a new era in the history of the world.
Nowadays, there is a common agreement among the biblical scholars that it was the gospel of Mark to be written first before all the other. The traditional arrangement of the books in the Bible puts it second after the gospel of Matthew, since for centuries it was the least regarded among the four gospels. However, if the gospel of Mark comes first, its first sentence marks a new beginning and the arrival of a new era of salvation. It is not by chance that we hear here an echo of the book of Genesis: “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1). Jesus Christ, the Son of God in whom all the prophecies are to be fulfilled comes to make all things new, he comes to recreate the fallen world.
The ancient world was familiar with this kind of announcements. We know some ancient texts announcing the birth of the new emperor, calling him a divine son, a savior who comes to establish an era of peace. These announcements were called euangelion – good news, gospels. Mark borrows the language of the earthly empires to announce the appearance of the one true Savior, the true Son of God who comes to establish lasting peace—Jesus Christ. This is the turning point in the history of the world, from now on nothing will be the same.
Today the same announcement comes to us in this second Sunday of Advent. The gospel reading continues by introducing to us the figure of John the Baptist who was calling his contemporaries to repentance. They responded by professing their sins and receiving baptism from the hands of John. This simple rite was meant to mark the beginning of a new life for them, it was meant to prepare them for the coming of the one who would baptize them with the Holy Spirit.
The same announcement reaches us today inviting us to welcome this new beginning in our lives. We have already been baptized with the water and the Holy Spirit, but the call to repentance, to change the way we think, and the way we act is urgent as ever. The true light of life has appeared among us and is calling us to come out of the darkness of our lives. May this Advent season help us to have courage to welcome the voice of the one calling out in the desert: “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight his paths.”(Mark 1:2)
