The opening prayer for today's feast of St Mark wisely speaks of him as "proclaiming your Gospel." St Mark was not an apostle. Although he did spend some time travelling around with St Paul, the details of that period of his life are obscure and it seems to have ended sadly with him leaving St Paul. His later mission in the Church seems to have been to accompany St Peter to Rome and act as his interpreter by translating St Peter's preaching for those who were drawn to listen to the Gospel. This would have provided him with a good overview of the essential doctrine about Jesus and so enabled him to compose his Gospel and so, through his written work proclaim in his own way the revelation of Christ.

In the past some people treated St Mark's Gospel as a summary of St Matthew's, that view cannot be sustained and does an injustice to St Mark. Though the four Gospels may be connected in different ways, each provides an integral and valid portrait of Jesus and initiates us into a grasp of a different aspect of His person and mission.