Continued: Christian martyrs of Rome
Words for a Persecuted Church: The Gospel of Mark
Many scholars believe the Gospel of Mark was finally formulated in Rome during the turbulent years of Nero's persecution, before the fall of Jerusalem in 70. Most likely it was written for Rome's Christians, reeling from persecution and wondering what new troubles lay ahead.
Central to Mark's Gospel is his story of the Passion of Jesus, in which the Lord experiences a stark, brutal martyrdom that cannot be explained. How appropriate for a church wrestling with the mystery of absurd, unmerited suffering caused by a mad, capricious emperor. More than other Gospels do, Mark portrays Peter in weakness, a disciple who fails his Master and then awaits his mercy. Does he remind the Christians of Rome that their church is not made up of the strong, but the weak and the fallen as well?
For hard times, Mark's Gospel proclaims the hard, uncompromising message of Jesus Crucified, who calls his disciples to follow him to the Cross.
The First Letter of Peter
Other contemporary New Testament writings offer a similar message to the Roman community and Christians of the wider church. Like Mark's Gospel, the 1st Letter of Peter, written in Rome and perhaps sent to Jewish Christians in Asia Minor threatened with persecution, calls for standing firm in suffering, even unjust, absurd suffering.
"Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps. He committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth. When he suffered he did not threaten; instead he handed himself over to the one who judges justly." (1 Peter 2, 21-23)
In the letter there is no thought that those who follow Jesus abandon the place where they are when suffering comes. Whether slave, or wife or husband, they are not to flee -- always a temptation for those who have been hurt. Rather, they are to stay where they are and "maintain good conduct among the Gentiles," (1 Peter 2:12) "give honor to all, love the community, honor the king."(1 Peter 2:17)
In the years following the persecution, Jewish Christians fled from Jerusalem before advancing Roman legions, and Christians elsewhere, seeing Nero's reign as a sign of the last times, washed their hands of this world and waited for the end.
But the Christians of Rome stayed in their city and built their church. Where many of them suffered, they and their neighbors worked to rebuild the city's burnt-out structures. Here they toiled for the coming of the Kingdom of God.
We celebrate the memory of these, our ancestors in faith, on June 30th, following the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.
