Mark 14:51-52
And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body; and they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.
Today's verse describes a man who chickened out in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was arrested. It also, in all likelihood describes the man who wrote it: St. Mark, who probably was the very man who ran off naked on that awful night. It would be a hard thing to hear that passage read year after year in liturgy after liturgy, but Mark had the moxie to speak the truth about his own cowardice and failure. That's why we call him St. Mark now: because speaking that truth, he was able to speak much more difficult truths too, such as "Jesus is risen!" Today pray that God give us the grace to speak hard truths so that we may also speak glorious ones.
By Mark Shea
Mark P. Shea is a Catholic author, blogger, and speaker.
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