St. Mark’s house
Friends in the Lord, in the Gospel today, we find ourselves with Christ at the Last Supper. The scripture scholar, Alfred Edershein, says, that the house where Christ had the Last Supper, is none other than the home of the parents of St. Mark! How can he claim this?
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Well, Jesus sends Peter and John to prepare for the Passover. He says: Go into the city to a certain man carrying a water pitcher; follow him, and he will show you the place for the Passover. Now that man with the water pitcher, he was very pleased to permit the Passover in his house. This tells us that he must have been a follower of Christ.
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Now why did Jesus do it this way? – it was because he did not want to give away the location to Judas. He wanted to offer the First Mass – the Passover – in peace. So he probably told the rest of the Apostles the location of the Supper, just before it was to be, so that Judas would have no time to inform the authorities.
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During the Last Supper, Judas went out, and he went straight-away to the authorities to tell them where Christ was. But when he brought the soldiers to the house, they had already left for the Garden of Gethsemane. So they went to the Garden, Judas knew it was Jesus’ custom to go there.
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Ederschein then speculates that a young boy living in that house, whose father was a follower of Christ, must have heard all of this, and it being night time, he wrapped himself quickly with a cloth, and followed after to see what would happen.
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Now when Jesus was arrested, and the disciples fled, scripture says: ‘a certain young man was following him, having a linen cloth wrapped about his body, and they seized him, but leaving the linen cloth behind, he fled away from them naked. Most scholars believe that this boy was in fact St. Mark who eventually wrote the gospel.
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So the Last Supper must have been offered in St. Mark’s parent’s house.
The day Jesus sent them to prepare the Last Supper, he knew exactly what would happen. He knew Judas would betray him. He knew Peter would deny him, and he knew St. Mark would even give up his clothes, rather than himself have to suffer. Jesus knew all their failings and sins, and he knew ours. He could see them all. But he nevertheless continued, by his own choice, because he wanted to rescue us from our sins.
