{"id":3841,"date":"2021-04-07T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T04:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/?p=3841"},"modified":"2021-04-07T10:41:49","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T14:41:49","slug":"april-7-mark-evangelist-poet-repent-and-believe-the-good-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2021\/04\/07\/april-7-mark-evangelist-poet-repent-and-believe-the-good-news\/","title":{"rendered":"April 7 – Mark, evangelist & poet “Repent and believe the good news”"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 7, 2021 \u2013 \u201cbeing surprised\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs our main repenting, perhaps, made of believing good news,
\nthat there is news,
\nsomething new,
\nand it is good?\u201d<\/p>\n

When I pray from Mark or Matthew or Luke (i.e., the three \u201csynoptic gospels\u201d),\u00a0 it helps me to treat the evangelist as a poet, to allow the surprise buried in the text to stop me in my tracks.<\/p>\n

Long ago, when I took a job here in 1980, \u00a0I wrote this poem based on Mark 1:15. \u00a0I found the challenges facing the university daunting. \u00a0 This gospel text, \u201cRepent and believe the good news\u201d began to get my attention, \u00a0as strong poems can. \u00a0 \u00a0A teaching of St. Ignatius, (i.e., that I ask to grow in \u201cintimate knowledge of our Lord who has become human . . .\u201d) \u00a0began to challenge me. \u00a0\u201cTo become human\u201d implies being born in some particular place with its own historical circumstances; \u00a0Jesus was born in one of the world\u2019s meanest, poorest, and most violent places: the Roman Empire\u2019s grinding police state where crucifixion of people who opposed the state became horrors up and down that small country (e.g., as many as 2000 rebel fighters were crucified during one period in the early childhood of the boy Jesus).\u00a0 Sometimes it took a day or two for a strong man to suffocate to death;\u00a0 crucifixion was intended to terrify, \u00a0intimidate and subdue opposition.<\/p>\n

For me that became a deep surprise, taking the teaching of the young man Jesus, \u201cRepent and believe the good news\u201d seriously.\u00a0 What could the evangelist poet Mark mean?\u00a0\u00a0 And that led me, little by little, to notice that where I was born (Marinette, WI, 1939) was a much less frightening place than where Jesus was born in his historical time and place. \u00a0The place where Jesus was born \u00a0more resembled the circumstances of 21st-century immigrant children torn from their mothers and fathers at U.S. borders. It helps, when I read this saying from Mark 1:15, to allow the poet\u2019s word-choices to open my imagination into deep, shocking, surprise, like every strong poem would.\u00a0 Best to read the poem out loud, with pauses.<\/p>\n

Not everything about my Catholic faith makes me proud; but this teaching and men and women who have tried to live it, often \u00a0at the cost of their blood, stop me in my tracks,\u00a0 like any strong poem should.<\/p>\n

Have a blest day,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post\u00a0 \u201cRepent and believe the good news.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 {Mk 1:15}<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is our main repenting, perhaps, made of believing good news,
\nthat there is news,
\nsomething new,
\nand it is good?<\/p>\n

That what we already know is not all there is,
\nthat we must approach the presence of God
\nknowing we will be surprised,
\ncommitted to being surprised
\nand so to living in a surprise-able way?<\/p>\n

Poem by john st sj<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 7, 2021 \u2013 \u201cbeing surprised\u201d \u201cIs our main repenting, perhaps, made of believing good news, that there is news, something new, and it is good?\u201d When I pray from Mark or Matthew or Luke (i.e., the three \u201csynoptic gospels\u201d),\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3841"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3841"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3845,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3841\/revisions\/3845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}