GREAT  TEACHERS

April  25,  2012

Quote for Today - Feast of St. Mark

"Canon Leon Vaganay, 
from Lyons, 
was a great specialist 
in textual criticism; 
he relished it 
with all the love 
of a keen amateur 
just as he practiced it 
with the skill of a master.  
When the war years came [1939-1945]
and there was no way 
to obtain Nestle's New  Testament, 
he heard his colleagues 
groaning about it 
and said to them smiling, 
'Oh, that does not bother me; 
at the beginning 
of the first class, 
I dictate to the students 
a half verse from Mark, 
and with that 
we have material 
for the whole year.'"

Henri de Lubac, At the Service of the Church: Henri de Lubac Reflects on the Circumstances That Occasioned His Writings  translated by Anne Elizabeth Englund, Communio Books, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1993, page 23.  The first time I read this quote and every time I read or remember or think about it, it grabs me. It puts a smile on my face - triggers the Pharisee in my mind unfortunately - when someone tells me or a group with the air of an Infallible Pronouncement or Statement what some Bible text means.

Picture on top: The opening page of the Gospel of Mark in the Book of Kells, Dublin, Ireland.

What's your favorite verse or half a verse or word  in the Gospel of Mark?

Who has taught you how to love the Bible?