Truth and Meaning in Mark Tony Densley

Is it true? What does it mean? These are two key questions often asked about Gospel stories. When we are little we enter into the wonder filled stories of Christmas without question or complication. Adults become more sophisticated and sometimes sentimentalize the Christmas stories and sometimes realize that some Gospel truths can only be conveyed in story and symbol. This appreciation of the Christmas story and all the parables, miracles, exorcisms and other wonderful Gospel stories raise questions for us who live in a world that is bombarded with information and with reporters who go to any length to uncover “the truth.” It sometimes comes as a surprise to people to realize that Mark’s Gospel does not tell us the Christmas story. Each Gospel tells us the truth about Jesus in different ways.

In the Gospel of John , Pilate responds to Jesus’ claim to “bear witness to the truth” by cynically responding “Truth?” “What is that?” Jn 18: 38. What truth is presented in the Gospel of Mark? What does it mean for us today?

The journey towards truth

In the world of theology and scholarship more generally, people today are much more tentative than earlier generations were about claiming to know the final and ultimate truth about anything. What is the “truth” of Mark’s Gospel? How does Mark speak to a world that finds truth a difficult and fleeting thing to grasp?

All of us have centres of value; people, attitudes, ways of life, a manner of living in the world, that matter to each one of us. These vary immensely among and between people. All of us have some sources of meaning, whether we take seriously the latest television docudrama, or are constantly engaged in serious scholarship. We believe certain things and don’t believe others, or in other people’s points of view.

We learn from a very early age to discriminate between the multitude of messages presented to us on the television and other forms of mass media. At times it is fascinating to enter the world of fantasy. Many of us have been delighted to walk with Frodo on his journey to Mount Doom . Hobbits, magic and great film-making take us to wonder-filled places. Even very solemn occasions, like weddings, have elements that evoke more wondrous worlds, limousines and carriages and magnificent floral decorations.

Various ways of knowing

We are people of ceremony, fantasy, history and the hard work of balancing budgets and paying mortgages. Suffering is a part of our world, both personally and by our knowing the grief of the world as it is presented in many forms on the nightly news. In our 21 st Century world there is very little limit on the manner and variety of ways we make sense, celebrate who we are and lament our limits and failures. The world of television opens windows to an almost limitless variety of images and explanations. There is a huge variety of information, many versions of truth put before us.

Different contexts

In some ways, the people of Jesus’ time lived in a much smaller world. At least to our 21 st century eyes the life of a first century Jew appears very limited. Nevertheless, the great human themes are common across the centuries. We all ask, directly or indirectly, am I loved? Does my life make a difference? Is it worth the struggle to search for God? Why struggle to do the “right thing?” Why is there so much evil in the world?

Mark wrote his Gospel because he believed Jesus’ life and work spoke to these universal human questions, longings and needs. Using the literary tools at hand he fashioned the classic story of Jesus the Christ that reverberates in us today across a time bridge of two thousand years.

But, you may ask, is it true? Maybe Pilate had a point? We are not as naïve today and does not our culture and civilization far surpass the world view of first century Jewish peasants? As people of faith we might then ask the next question. How do we tell the story of Jesus in a very different time and place?

It is important to reflect on both the limits of our capacity to understand, and the wonderful human capacity to learn, understand, create vast realms of knowledge, and develop incredible technological systems. At times we know how to live in peace and justice together.

Varieties of truth

There are different forms of knowing, many varieties of truth. An infant smiling back into her mother’s eyes knows a form of truth that is close to the infinite. In this moment I am loved and this love is forever. Einstein pondering the complexities of the universe and telling his best form of truth in the theory of relativity believed there is a pattern in the Universe; “God does not play dice” he is said to have remarked. Between the knowing bond in a mother and daughter’s reciprocal love and the knowledge of the atom that can lead to great power for good and to weapons of mass destruction capable of destroying this planet, there are levels of knowing and forms of truth that are important to all human beings. We vary greatly in our intelligence and grasp of the many forms of “truth.”

Reading Mark’s Gospel

In the Catholic tradition we have seen the message of Mark’s Gospel as a key to understanding the deeper meanings of life, of facing the challenge of being religious in a particular way. We believe Jesus truly proclaimed “the good news of God.” Mk 1:14. We cannot easily grasp the whole of it. It is necessary to recognize that it is a struggle to understand and interpret Mark’s Gospel; to arrive at a truly contemporary Christian appreciation of his work. At other times in Christian history simpler more fundamental understandings of the Gospels were taken for granted. But we no longer live in that simpler world.

As a Church, it has taken us time to think through what a Gospel is and how it reflects God’s truth. As we become more conscious of the flow of history we become aware that Mark’s and the other Gospels have been understood in different ways in different times. Several generations ago people began to question the historical accuracy of the Gospels. In 1964 the Pope Paul VI wrote a letter explaining the Gospels were not history in the modern critical scientific sense history is now presented. There are other ways of reading the Gospels.

Mark’s Gospel is a faith-filled record of the story of Jesus and reflects the way earlier Christians appreciated and retold the stories to celebrate and deepen their faith. It is profoundly true, religiously true. Its meaning is for living religious lives, for following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. Like the infant smiling at her mother, the Gospel is an ongoing invitation to look deeply into the face of God reflected in the life of Jesus and into the depths of God’s love. From this fundamental relationship and the manner it is reflected in Mark’s Gospel, we can craft the meaning and message for today. For truth in this sense is both about knowing and loving. That is the ultimate truth, “the good news” Mk 1:1 towards which we struggle in our own human tangled fashion.

References

Pope Paul VI Instruction Concerning the Historical Truth of the Gospels English Translation by Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. - Theological Studies 25 (1964) 402-408.