Let me take you back to last weekend. It’s Palm Sunday. We are entering church. I have coached the kids on the three rules once we enter the church: Be still. Be quiet. Pray Deeply. I have prepped them that things will be a little out of routine…that we’d be standing in the gathering space outside of the sanctuary and the priest will bless the palms. I have to break up one minor sword fight with the palms, but the boys are redirected quickly. Another parishioner greets me who can always sense my motherly insecurity and compliments the boys.
The Gospel is long. I choose to ignore the boys who are being relatively good coloring. I’m afraid that if I engage with them, they will seek my attention. Yet, I need to make sure Stanley doesn’t fall off the pew or disappear. I am mentally managing this balance when a verse strikes me that I have never really paid attention to before. Judas has just betrayed Jesus. The soldiers have come. There is some chaos but Jesus reprimands them all..and then the priest reads this:
“And they all left him and fled.
Now a young man followed him
wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body.
They seized him,
but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked."
On our way home, I ask my husband if anything stood out to him about the Gospel and if he recalled that verse. He said he never remembered that part either but also heard it today and it stood out. I am befuddled for several reasons. First of all, I am a cradle Catholic. I have read the Passion, heard the Gospel, wept and prayed with my Lord and Mary through these events year after year. At first I was disturbed. What else am I missing? I humbly decide this is a great example of why the Word is Living and decide to talk with God about it.
I get home and start googling a couple of things. I discover that Mark’s account is the only one that includes this detail. I also discover that through out time saints and scholars have also asked the same questions that were driving my own curiosity.
Who is this mysterious man that attempts to follow Jesus when even his closest disciples flee? And, why was he barely clothed?
There are many theories out there and they are all of course speculation. The one that made most sense to me is that the young man was Mark himself. I learned a lot about the Gospel writer Mark in this process, but even more about his mother Mary who is mentioned in the Acts. I learned that many have speculated that the Passover of the Lord was in her home, as this was the same place the early church gathered to pray for Peter’s protection in the Acts. One idea is that Mark awoke and tried to find Jesus at the garden…maybe to warn him… or simply to be there too “with the guys,” like any any teenage boy would desire. The humanity and realism of it all strikes my heart.
I ask the Holy Spirit to help me understand why He wanted me to pay attention to this detail. I ask Him to lead me. I begin to think of a friend of mine who is an artist that I’ve known since my own teenage years. I think of how in many of his murals if you look closely at the activity of the scene, you can find him somewhere obscurely painted in, standing near a lamp post or peering through the window.
I think of myself as a writer, how I always place myself in the story to be empathic and to relate to those who might read my words. Time is precious. If they are reading my words, they must be meaningful. The humanity needs to be there or they are wasted.
I think back to Mark who is later writing the Gospel, likely piecing together much of what Peter has orally passed on to him and what he remembers himself. I feel him struggling to decide whether or not he should record his own placement in this famous scene. He battles with his intentions.
Is it humble to include himself? Has he ever even told his mother that he snuck out of the house that night? She would be horrified to know he was so close to such danger. He battles within finally deciding that if he does not directly name himself then there is less ego involved.
He prays about it. He asks for the Holy Spirit to guide his choice. He finally decides to include it.…a signature of sorts. Not just, I was there, but… This is real. And through these verses 51 and 52 in Chapter 14 of Mark’s gospel, the Holy Spirit continues to work as I draw closer to account of the passion over 2000 years later.
The choices we face and how we struggle through them is the process God uses to help us grow in virtue. It is through this process by which we are sculpted. I think of a guided reading framework we are implementing at my school. Teachers might be hesitant to adopt another “program” that will fade away. My literacy coach and I are trying our best to help them see that the framework is a practice, not a program. We are in a paradigm shift. For years teachers have been given programs and have been told to follow the "script" with fidelity and success will come. Yet, we believe nothing can replace a well-informed, intentional teacher. In the same way there is no script or “program” that can replace a well-informed, intentional disciple.
Mark was living out His calling by using his talents to record and pass on the Gospel. Yet, unlike John or Matthew, he was just a teenager when history unfolded. He was blessed to be the son of Mary who opened her home to Jesus and His followers, despite the risks she faced. She was living out her calling and her children were influenced deeply by her commitment and trust.
Over the next four days, we will participate in the greatest story ever written in history, authored by God. The story of His love for us…His persevering, triumphant love. We all have a role in it. Where are you in each moment and each scene?
Will you flee like Jesus closest companions? Don’t worry. He still loves you. You’re human. Though Christ has conquered sin, we are still bound by our weaknesses. Each temperament has them.
Will you hide and watch the violence from afar and muffle your weeping so you are not heard?
Will you stay home, trapped by fear or by your own stubbornness?
Will you be brave like Veronica and run to Jesus, driven by your compassion, and wipe the blood from his face?
Will you go to the tomb on Sunday morning? Will you find it empty?
Will you believe, truly believe it?
Wherever you are in the Gospel. God will meet you there. He will meet you where you are at and He will love you through it. After all, he was once both human and divine. He knows a thing or two about our weaknesses. He is counting on you coming home to him.
As we prepare Easter baskets and Easter eggs, shop, and cook…He is preparing a place for us too. He is counting you in.
